Fire ban in effect at Guelph Lake for Hillside Festival

Concert-goers camping at this weekend's Hillside Festival will have to be content with gathering around the light of their headlamps a fire ban is in place for Guelph Lake for the entire weekend.

The ban, imposed by the Grand River Conservation Authority,will comeinto effect on Thursday at 8 a.m. and will remain until Monday at midnight.

TheGRCAmade the announcement on Tuesday in a news release. There is a banon all open flames, including fires in fire pits, fire bowls and chimineas.Cooking with a barbecue, however, is still permitted.

Brad Dixon, superintendent of Guelph Lake Park, said some of the campsites are in extremely dry areas.

"We felt it best to have a total ban on any open-flame fire in the whole park," he said.

Little rain in the forecast

Although GuelphLake received a lot of rain last weekend, it wasn't enough of a soaking to improve thedry conditions. The hotweather expected through the rest of the week is also not helping matters.

Environment Canada issued a heat warning on Wednesday morning for Guelph, the Region of Waterloo and surrounding areas.

From Thursday through to Sunday, the forecast for Guelph is calling forhighs in the 30s with only a small chance of rain on Friday.