Wow what a weekend!!!! This was my first time up to Dauphin Countryfest and I am so glad I had an opportunity to go. I think anyone who is a fan of country music needs to experience this festival first hand. If I go back, there are a few things I would do differently, but it was still a great time and I loved every minute of it. I got to enjoy it with my brother and sister-in-law who had won the tickets and camping spot.
Our campsite was CRAZY!!!!! We arrived Friday night to find a beer pong table set up in the middle of our site, a bunch of rowdy drunk guys and pretty much every inch of ground covered with empty beer cans, bottles and cups. One of the guys came over and informed us that someone came around earlier taking pics and named our campsite the dirtiest campsite there. This was before we even arrived!!! They did at least help us "clean up" which consisted of kicking all the garbage under their camper to clear space for us to set up our tent. Our crazy neighbours also enjoyed Techno Music which they blasted all night long on their THREE very large speakers using their incredibly loud generator. Needless to say we did not get much sleep this weekend. This on top of the sun beating down on the tent, turning it into a sauna by about 8am made for very little sleep. Lying awake Saturday night listening to all this commotion I got to enjoy quite the drama occurring next door to us as one of our neighbours punched another guy who had gone into his trailer, doing who knows what, until one of the girls stepped in and tried to calm him down. There was definitely no shortage of things to listen to as I lay awake each night trying to fall asleep. I also got hit by a flying beer can that shot over their trailer at one point, splattering my clothes and all with lovely beer (this was not the first, nor the last time, I had alcohol spilled on me this weekend). Glad I brought several changes of clothes, as I was unable to stay clean for very long.
We did get the opportunity to walk around and check out some of the other campsites which were quite elaborately done up. It was obvious who has been doing Countryfest year after year as they know how to set up properly. There were a lot of inflatable pools which would have come in very handy this weekend, and tarps for shade between other camp sites. This was one of the coolest decorated sites we saw:
We did find ways to cool off though. This creek was absolutely crazy. We brought our chairs down to sit here on Saturday afternoon. We stayed closer upstream in the creek though as everybody just tossed their beer cans down stream when they finished with them so you would get hit by floating beer cans as you sat there in the water. There had to be 1000 people in this creek when we were there.
On Sunday we opted to head to Rainbow Beach, just outside of Dauphin for the day and sat in the clear, calm water there. It was a much more relaxing atmosphere. When we got back we took several walks to the water mister that was set up outside the main stage area to cool off. Steve decided to sit in the truck with the air on for awhile as he was feeling sick from the heat and so Olena and I headed to an afternoon concert at this time. When we got back, over an hour later, the truck was still running with Steve (and both sets of keys) inside. We tapped on the door to wake him but there was no response. After 10 minutes of pounding on the door and yelling his name with no response, Olena headed to get security and see if they could help us break into the vehicle. We were a little worried he might have had heat stroke and we couldn't believe that our loud pounding on the door by his head would not wake him up. I stayed back and continued to pound on the vehicle with little success, as our crazy neighbours watched me with amusement. Finally after almost 20 minutes of pounding, Steve woke up, and aside from being still a bit sick from the heat and very tired, he was fine.
The evenings were filled with some amazing concerts. Friday night we saw Ronny Dunn. Saturday we saw Aaron Lines, Justin Moore and Zac Brown Band. Sunday was Tara Oram, Chris Cagle and Reba McEntire. We also watched Codie Prevost on Sunday afternoon and I absolutely loved his song "I'm OK"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJtG6xy2lAc which I heard for the first time there. On Saturday night we also enjoyed Clayton Bellamy (my favourite member of The Road Hammers) after the Zac Brown Band Concert.
Tara Oram was hilarious. She's got a little bit of a mouth on her, but she was so down to earth and connected so well with the audience. She was telling all sorts of jokes between her songs and had me laughing quite hard.
Chris Cagle was amazing. He really connected with the audience as well and was picking out people all evening to comment on and talk to. With that size of an audience it was amazing how intimate he made his concert feel.
Zac Brown Band was by far my favourite. They were so amazing and put on the most incredible show. It just made you want to dance and sing along the entire time. Loved it!!!
Reba finished off the show on Sunday night and although I am not a huge Reba fan it was still amazing to see her perform. There is no doubt she is one talented lady. The crowd went wild when she came out to do her encore of Fancy in her stunning red dress.
The concerts were packed. It was amazing to see all those people there to watch the shows. I just loved the outdoor concert vibe and the weather was so wonderful. Even though we were outside the sound was amazing and it was all so well done.
We decided to take our time coming back today and drove through Riding Mountain and took a few stops along the way. Steve and Olena had never been so it was fun doing a little site seeing with them on our way home. We drove through the Bison enclousure at Lake Audy and did some shopping in Wasagaming and had some lunch there by the beach.
What a GREAT weekend!!!!!!!
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