Country Thunder fans ready to party: set up goes smoothly in Craven

The gates at County Thunder are open and ready to welcome campers for the biggest country music festival in the province.

Campers eagerly set up their sites without a problem.

Tina Newman’s camper has an eye-catching mural painted on the front of an emu, depicting her father, and two owls, who represent Newman and her friend.

“My dad used to have a fishing camper and I’m slowly taking it over,” she said. “Each year we paint it or add something new to turn it into a ‘girl Craven camper.’ I’ve even labelled  the front as a ‘Jalbert Shack’ in case my dad still wants to go ice fishing.”

She said the mural has changed a few times over the years.

“It used to be a whole family of emus,” she said with a laugh. “I used to put my mom, dad and all of their grandchildren. But through the years it’s kind of weathered off. So now we’ve just left my dad because it’s his camper and then me and my best friend took it over so we put us as wise owls beside him.”

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Newman has been coming to the country music festival for around 30 years. She loves every part of it.

“I love all the music,” she said. “I love country concerts. I love our friends. Every year we meet up with a whole bunch of other friends that come every single year that we party with, and new people. I love meeting all the neighbours and just having fun!”

She even goes all out with her outfits and accessories, sporting cow-print nails.

“They’re all planned and in the camper,” she said. “It’s a lot of tassels. This year it’s lace and tassels. Hopefully, the rain stays away so I can wear my lacy outfit.”
She said the setup went smoothly.

“Set up is amazing. There was no lineups to get in which is awesome on a Wednesday cause we can get it all set up and go before the big rush,” Newman said.

Chris Stettner (centre in blue) and his family have been meeting up at Country Thunder for years. It’s a bit like a family reunion every time they all get together. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Chris Stettner and his family’s setup is much larger, having rented out six blocks for all their campers.

“The first site they had us in we were sinking,” he said. “So staff moved us over to higher ground and it’s awesome.”

Apart from some sinking ground, everything is going well for Stettner’s group.

He and his wife have been coming down for the last two years, travelling from Alberta.

The rest of his family have been visiting the festival grounds for 15 years.

“We’re here for the party and to be with family,” he said.

Stettner and his wife are looking forward to Luke Combs. He said ‘Fast Car’ is his favourite song.

Karen and Kerry Goudy are part of the ‘Craven Block Parents.’ They’ve been coming to the festival since they started dating. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Karen Goudy is also part of a big group of friends.

The crew had no troubles with setup.

“It’s going great,” she said. “We got no problem coming through the gates there. We found our sites quite easy. Everything is marked out really good this year.”

She finds herself in the ‘Craven Block Parents’ group.

“We’ve been here for probably the last 18 years in the same spot,” she said. “Everybody knows the campers. We always have a sign.”

The group looks after people who are lost or drunk. The group provides people with water, Gatorade and food.

When they aren’t helping others, they have a circle jam session, encouraging everyone to join.

“It’s for the memories, the music, dancing and singing,” she said. “The guys get the guitars out. We have some shots. We have a good time.”

To beat the heat the group has a few plans in mind.

“We start with a beer,” Goudy said. “We’ve got freezies and some good jello shooters.”

They also have a kiddie pool.

Goudy is looking forward to a weekend with family, friends and of course Nickelback.