Countryfest kicks off Canada Day weekend with Keith Urban

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This article was published 01/07/2017 (3403 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DAUPHIN – For baby boomers and Gen Xers who were raised in small towns across the Prairies, the post-grad bush party was a summer rite of passage.

Adventures and, sadly, misadventures brought society to the realization that organizing these end-of-the-school-year bashes was a smarter way to let folks let loose.

One of the results of such wise thinking is Dauphin’s Countryfest, which began Thursday night in the shadow of Riding Mountain National Park but kicked into overdrive on Friday. It has kept some of the spontaneous craziness and the rural settings of those long-ago bush parties but added the safety, organization, amenities and commerce of a country fair on steroids.

It also has way better music; forget those creaky old tapedecks of the 1980s when you have the likes of Australian superstar Keith Urban performing right in front of you.

And the mainstage headliner put on quite a show.

Urban took the stage to screams from his adoring female fans and also earned whoops and hollers from the guys. He was dressed in a denim jacket and jeans, and the only way he could have looked more Canadian is if he wore a Molson tuque.

While a glance at the massive crowd to see him Friday night proves why an artist of Urban’s stature can perform and make a return visit to a rural Manitoba community, it was still something to hear him say with all sincerity, “It’s great to be back in Dauphin; it’s been a few years,” and later, “Dauphin always delivers.”

It was a hit-laden show; the crowd sang along to Long Hot Summer, Break on Me and I Told You So early on. His 2016 smash Blue Ain’t Your Color followed a brief Beatles intro, showing how Urban’s music straddles the vague line between pop and country. Later on that line got blurrier when another song blended seamlessly into the famous chorus of the Police’s So Lonely.

A couple of nifty tricks were highlights late in the 95-minute show. First, during The Fighter, a duet with Carrie Underwood, Urban’s road crew spliced in video of Underwood singing her parts into the live feed shown on the giant Countryfest video screens to great effect.

An even more impressive road crew feat followed when Urban left the stage and scrambled through the jam-packed mosh pit to make his way to a microphone halfway up the hill, providing those in the cheap seats a good glimpse of his handsome Australian looks.

Prior to Urban, a pair of Ontarians, Meaghan Patrick and later, Tim Hicks, revved up the crowd. Patrick mixed energetic originals wth cool covers such as Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man and Dolly Parton’s Jolene.

By the time ball-cap toting Hicks hit the stage, the bleachers, which hold about 12,000 people were mostly packed and they grooved to his hits, including Don’t Make it a Love Song.

While Urban, Hicks, Patrick and the rest of the performers entertained at three stages Friday night, the other half of Countryfest going on in the campground.

Amid the hundreds of recreational vehicles, tent-trailers, campers and tents are youngsters of all ages blowing off steam this weekend.

That’s one of the great things about Countryfest; newbies who’ve just turned 18 share their first legal beers with folks who helped make Countryfest such a success 27 years ago and turn the campground into their annual family reunion. And oldtimers even join in the odd drinking game – or at least the preliminary rounds.

Among those Countryfest veterans are Lyle and Yvonne Smith of nearby Gilbert Plains, whose new RV is a pretty sweet spot to spend the ‘fest, although it is dwarfed by the 13.5-metre bus his brother, Glenn, from Winnipeg, travels around North America in.

Lyle and Yvonne celebrate their anniversary every June at Countryfest and this year they pointed out that they were marking their 37th anniversary the same week as Urban and his actress wife Nicole Kidman celebrated their 11th anniversary with posts on social media.

“We met at the Boulevard Hotel in Dauphin 40 years ago,” Yvonne says.

The Smiths keep coming back to Dauphin, and even though they paid Countryfest $250 more than two decades ago to guarantee their campground spot, they’re glad to fight the RV traffic every year to help get the party started.

“We rolled up the No. 10 highway at 2:22 in the afternoon (on Wednesday),” Lyle said.

After more than two decades coming to Countryfest, the Smiths are ready for pretty much any situation Countryfest can throw at them.

“You’ve got to be prepared,” says Smith, who has a carpentry business in Gilbert Plains. “You have to bring enough food to last from Wednesday until Monday.”

The Countryfest endurance test continues on Canada Day with Nashville superstar Luke Bryan headlining.

alan.Small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall