SUNDRE – Bad weather took a bit of a bite out of this year’s attendance for the return of the Shady Grove Bluegrass Music Festival to Sundre but did not seem to dampen the spirit of enthusiastic music fans.
“Everyone who attended said it was great,” said Eric Holt, president of the Foothills Bluegrass Music Society.
Holt said the weather throughout the past weekend over the three-day outdoor concert proved to be rather “interesting.”
“Our attendance was down a little bit because of the weather,” he told the Albertan on July 21 during a follow-up interview while taking a brief break from packing everything up at the Sundre rodeo grounds where the event has been held since 2020.
“But we had some really great musical groups, and we were really quite happy,” he said.
The show on Friday night ended up getting rained on, but the party people that Albertans tend to be stuck through it, he said.
“There’s a good bunch of hearty folks that made it right till 10 o’clock, even in the rain,” he said.
Fortunes took a change for the better on Saturday, when the crowd stayed dry.
“We managed to get through the whole day – even though it was raining around us – without getting rained on,” he said, adding it was a bit windy but otherwise fine.
And with the forecast calling for more rain on Sunday, there was a last-minute change in plans. Since most of the concert goers are generally already heading out that day after seeing a majority of the acts the two days prior, organizers anticipated a lower attendance, he said.
“So, we set up in the (Wild Horse) Saloon at the rodeo grounds, which would accommodate about 160 people.”
Following the gospel open mic in the morning, there were four acts that took to the stage that afternoon. Holt said relocating from an outdoor setting that’s more spread out to a tighter interior space turned out to be a “cool” experience.
“Inside the saloon is very, sort of up close and personal,” he said, adding there is also “a real intimate feeling for the folks who are there. I think everybody thought it was a special time.”
So despite the challenges presented by the weather, he said, “It all worked out great.”
In the end approximately 450 tickets were sold, down from last year’s ballpark estimate of 800. But the weather at the time was much better. However, there were a few more campers this year, he said.
“We had what I think would be about a record number of campers. We had 175 last year, and we had 181 this year,” he said.
“So in spite of the smaller crowd, more people were camping for whatever reason.”
For the time being, organizers intend to catch their breath but before long will already be starting to consider plans for next year with every intention of coming back to Sundre.
“We have some members on the board that are younger that we hope to get involved in planning for next year.”
