Countryfest planning for the future with new steel structure over outdoor stage

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Bachman & Turner headline tonight

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The Countryfest stage before the new, permanent roof was erected.

Performers and fans at the 23rd annual Dauphin's Countryfest this weekend can expect sunny skies, plus another reassuring sight overhead: a new permanent roof on the outdoor stage.

Canada's longest-running country music festival has invested $650,000 in the steel roof, as well as a new stage floor. Part of the cost was covered by government grants to the non-profit festival.

It means Countryfest, held at the Selo Ukraina site 10 kilometres south of Dauphin, no longer has to spend $40,000 to rent and transport a portable stage from Winnipeg for its 12,000-seat amphitheatre.

Without that rental cost, large concerts may be feasible to produce at other times of the year, says festival president Eric Irwin, who is the mayor of Dauphin.

Installing the towering steel structure that will support sound and lighting equipment is also a proactive safety measure, he says. The music industry is demanding safer outdoor venues in the wake of several high-profile stage collapses.

Less than two weeks ago, a drum technician for the band Radiohead was killed when the roof of a temporary stage collapsed prior to a concert in Toronto. Last year, an outdoor stage collapsed at a Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair, killing seven people, and another caved in at Ottawa Bluesfest, causing injuries.

"ZZ Top cancelled out of a casino gig (this month in Alabama)," Irwin says. "They had an outdoor portable stage and (the band) didn't like it, so they just left.... We wanted to get ahead of the whole thing and put up a permanent roof."

While the four-day Dauphin's Countryfest has thousands of loyal fans, it's not the instant sellout it once was. Weekend passes, day passes and some of the 4,000 campsites are still available (see www.countryfest.ca).

Last year's attendance was about 12,000, down from 13,500 the previous year. The audience, Irwin says, is about equally split between folks in their teens and 20s who are typically tent campers and the over-35 crowd who tend to bring RVs. "They get along really well together," he says about the two demographic groups.

About 50 acts will perform on three stages. The headliners are Canadian rockers Bachman & Turner tonight, Ronnie Dunn (formerly of Brooks & Dunn) on Friday, Georgia's Zac Brown Band in its first-ever Canadian appearance on Saturday, and Reba, the flame-haired Oklahoma icon who has joined Madonna and Cher in needing no last name, making her Countryfest debut on Sunday.

As always, there are more genres than traditional twang in the lineup. Rocker Kim Mitchell, bluesman Big Dave McLean and East Coast country/folk singer Jimmy Rankin are among the diverse acts.

Irwin says the bowl-shaped amphitheatre creates excitement like that at arena concerts. "When the bands come on, the sound from the crowd is just deafening. Most music festivals are on flat ground, so the noise dissipates."

There's plenty of non-musical fun at the site, including beach volleyball, a poker tournament and a sports bar for viewing CFL games.

The festival is also bringing in a "timbersports" show called Axe Women Loggers of Maine. The team of rugged "lumberjills," who hold several world titles between them, will give three demonstrations per day of their prowess in chopping, hot sawing, cross cut sawing, axe throwing and log rolling.

"You see these women making tables out of logs and stuff with their chainsaws -- it's pretty neat," says Irwin.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Mainstage schedule

TONIGHT

7 p.m. -- Melanie Morgan Band

8:30 p.m. -- Jimmy Rankin

10 p.m. -- Bachman & Turner

FRIDAY

1:30 p.m. -- Talent Contest Finals

3:30 p.m. -- Marlee Scott

5 p.m. -- Dallas Smith

6 p.m. -- supper break

7 p.m. -- Aaron Pritchett

8:30 p.m. -- Jerrod Niemann

10 p.m. -- Ronnie Dunn

SATURDAY

1:30 p.m. -- Mike Lynch

3 p.m. -- Ryan Laird

4:30 p.m. -- Songwriters' Circle

6 p.m. -- supper break

7 p.m. -- Aaron Lines

8:30 p.m. -- Justin Moore

10 p.m. -- Zac Brown Band

SUNDAY

12:30 p.m. -- The Good Brothers

2 p.m. -- Pear

3:30 p.m. -- Keith & Renée

5 p.m. -- Codie Prevost

6 p.m. -- supper break

7 p.m. -- Tara Oram

8:30 p.m. -- Chris Cagle

10 p.m. -- Reba

Artists and times are subject to change without notice.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2012 D1