Sean C. Morgan
Lady Antebellum set a new bar for Oregon Jamboree attendance Saturday night, beating the previous record set by Tim McGraw; and artists Neal McCoy and Rascal Flatts Friday announced their own membership in the 2012 lineup celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Jamboree.
The Oregon Jamboree wasn’t able to provide an attendance number for Saturday as of Monday afternoon, but Event Director Erin Regrutto said the event drew an average of 12,000 patrons per day during the three-day camping and country music festival held Friday through Sunday. Last year, the festival had 10,500 to 11,000 per day.
“It was great,” Regrutto said. “That was definitely the biggest day for attendance. It was definitely higher on Saturday, and sales would show it was higher. Attendance-wise, this is definitely the biggest crowd that we have on record.”
Feedback to the Oregon Jamboree has all been positive, Regrutto said, and every performer has generated feedback.
“They all put on amazing shows,” Regrutto said. “They all did a fantastic job. We had a lot of really talented musicians this weekend.”
Headlining the festival were Ronnie Dunn, of the duo Brooks and Dunn, on his first solo tour on Friday night, Lady Antebellum on Saturday night and Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish Sunday evening.
Prior to Dunn’s performance on Friday, Neal McCoy’s smiling face popped up on the giant video screens, prompting cheers across the concert grounds.
The perennial favorite of the Jamboree told the fans he couldn’t be here with them this year, but next year, he would be back not only to perform but to spend all three days with them, serving as announcer and helping celebrate the Jamboree’s 20th year. McCoy also introduced a second video, which featured an appearance by Rascal Flatts members, who told Jamboree patrons they would headline the 2012 festival.
Rascal Flatts recorded the video at a festival in Wisconsin and sent it to the Jamboree, Regrutto said. The Jamboree didn’t get final confirmation on the act until Thursday, although it had the video announcement a week earlier.
“We really wanted to be able to make a big announcement for the 20th anniversary,” Regrutto said. “We wanted to bring someone who had never been here before.”
Finding the artist was difficult because so many top shows have been at the Jamboree over the years, she said. That left few choices. Rascal Flatts rose to the top of the list.
“They’re a huge act,” Regrutto said. “They put on an incredible show. They are going to be incredible. To have Neal McCoy hosting the entire show, that’s going to be a pretty incredible treat for the audience. People are going to be as equally excited about Neal McCoy as Rascal Flatts.”
McCoy is a local celebrity in his own right, she said. “Everyone in Sweet Home knows him. Everyone in Sweet Home loves him.”
McCoy has been to the Jamboree five times beginning in 2004. He also performed in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He immediately captured the hearts of Jamboree fans with his on-stage and in-crowd antics. Last year he arrived in Sweet Home a day early and parked his bus next to Ames Creek on Long Street, sat in a lawn chair and chatted with passers-by before moving onto the Jamboree grounds the next day.
“The combination of these two, the one-two punch, created a phenomenal emotion in all the patrons at the show,” Regrutto said.
The Jamboree hit a snag Saturday morning at about 1 a.m. when Troy Olsen’s manager called the Jamboree’s production manager to let him know the brakes had gone out on Olsen’s transportation and that Olsen wouldn’t be able to make the show, the first one on Monday.
Jamboree officials started scrambling to fill the spot, Regrutto said, and they decided to try to get Margaret Durante, who was booked to perform later in the day on the Spirit Mountain stage. Unfortunately, no one had a phone number to contact her. Fortunately, Teresa Stas, sales and marketing manager, had a friend at Durante’s label. Stas was able to get a direct line to Durante to see if she would play a show on both stages.
“She saved the day,” Regrutto said. “She was great to work with, extremely flexible.”
Durante finished her gig on the main stage and moved over to the Spirit Mountain Casino stage in Sankey Park, opening for Collin Raye with a completely different set, and she did it on about two hours notice.
“She was a huge hit,” Regrutto said. “There were comments all over Facebook about how great she was. Not only did we enjoy her show but we owe her big time.”
Durante ended up being Regrutto’s favorite show over the weekend, she said, and she hopes to have her back.
“The Lady Anebellum show was phenomenal if I had to pick a second favorite,” Regrutto said.
Former Broadway and “Jumanji” film star Laura Bell Bundy was a hit with fans, who lined up to get her autograph after her opening performance on Sunday in what one security official said was the longest autograph line he’d seen.
Michael and Nancy Pierson of Florence, who were attending their first Jamboree, said the experience was “amazing” and that they were particularly impressed with Bundy.
“She not only signed CD’s, but took the time to take pictures with people. That just showed me that she really cared about her fans,” Nancy Pierson said.
The Piersons stayed in a motel this year but “now that we know the lay of the land we want to camp here next year. We want my brother to come up from California and bring his motor home,” Nancy Pierson said.
Sawyer Brown was a big hit too with a number of fans, judging by their responses to a reporter.
“I thought Lady Antebellum was my favorite, but Ronnie Dunn was pretty good, and that Sawyer Brown – what energy,” said one, who gave her name as Kathy from Omak, Wash.
Raye was a big hit on the Spirit Mountain stage, Regrutto said. He did his country act on the main stage, and then he went to Sankey Park and performed a rock ’n’ roll show that delighted a crowd filling the stage area.
VIP ticket holders Glynn and Laurie Anderson of Albany said Raye was their favorite.
“Collin Raye, he knows how to put on a show,” Glynn Anderson said.
Regrutto heard reports that as soon as the main stage show, Sawyer Brown, finished, there was a mass exodus to Sankey Park.
“From the beginning of Friday on, Sankey Park was just packed,” Regrutto said.
Overall, the weekend was great, Regrutto said. “I feel really good about it. I think we made some really great changes that people enjoyed.”
Among the changes, the Jamboree opened Sankey Park to patrons for the second year in a row and added extra entertainment on the bandstand. Crowds were able to enjoy the shade and more music between main stage shows.
Another major change was the new Sweet Spot.
Despite skepticism, Regrutto said, the Sweet Spot, an area in front of the stage where fans could gather right in front of their favorite artists, was a big hit that solved a couple of problems.
It sold out on Saturday and Sunday, Regrutto said. She thinks people didn’t know about it at first and then saw it on Friday night and then purchased tickets to the area the next two days.
In recent years, most often at the beckoning of the artists, fans have rushed through the reserved seating section in front, jostling and irritating those who prefer to remain seated, to reach the stage.
This year, the reserved seating was moved backward approximately 3 feet and a new fenced section, with limited space, added right in front of the stage.
People were extremely happy to be able to stay in their seats during the show if they wanted to, Regrutto said. “It was about solving the problem of an uncontrollable crowd at the front of the stage.”
Linda Clem of Coos Bay, a 1961 graduate of Sweet Home Union High School and a regular at the Jamboree, said the new arrangement appealed to her.
“I love the Sweet Spot,” said Clem, who won a Meet and Greet pass to Lady Antebellum from a radio station. “It’s what really hooked me this year.”
Many past artists, such as Keith Urban and McCoy, have enjoyed jumping down from the stage and wandering the field. Regrutto isn’t entirely sure how the fence will affect them, but it didn’t stop Rucker Sunday evening as he jumped off the 6 1/2-foot stage and wandered toward the beer gardens.
With a McCoy show scheduled next year, “we’ll see what he wants to do,” Regrutto said. “It’s always hard to say what Neal’s going to do.”
Given his prominence in next year’s program, the Jamboree will need to work more closely with him than usual, she said.
The third big change this year was the addition of a kickoff party on Thursday. There, Jamboree patrons and members of the community were able to listen to Jackson Michelson, a Jamboree Spirit Mountain stage performer; DJ, an artist from Corvallis; and Sweet Home’s Tristan Nichol and Trevor Tagle, who finished second in the Texaco Country Showdown at Linn County Fair.
Scott Schuler of KRKT emceed the event, broadcasting live, including the Safeway donation of $5,000 to the Sweet Home Swim Club.
People lined up to spin a wheel to win free soda, Rancher’s Reserve steaks, tickets and meet-and-greet passes.
They also could pick up a “passport.” From there, they could take the passport to participating businesses for a stamp. When they had eight stamps, they could turn the passport in for a chance to meet Rucker.
More than 300 passports were given out, and Kiersten Gaskin won a meet-and-greet pass with Rucker after a drawing Sunday afternoon.
“We did do a lot of new stuff, and there’s a huge risk involved when you do a lot of changes in one year,” Regrutto said. “Our staff, management team and volunteers were able to pull together and work really hard on a lot of these things and make sure they worked out – and they did (work out).”
The new features added to the festival experience, Regrutto said. Organizers want it to be more than just watching a few concerts. They want the entire festival to be the experience.
Police and Fire
The police were busier than usual this year, said Police Chief Bob Burford. He didn’t have numbers for comparison Monday, but said his gut feeling is that it was busier.
The booking room was full, with officers processing people and getting them out as soon as possible, Burford said.
“The majority, if not all, of the arrests were alcohol-related,”Burford said.
Friday was “not bad,” Burford said. Saturday was “extremely busy” on and off the Jamboree grounds, while Sunday was a “piece of cake.”
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District was about as busy as usual.
Friday, the fire department answered eight calls, with only one related to the Jamboree, said Lt. Josh Bondesen. Saturday, it had a dozen calls, and half were related to the Jamboree. Sunday, the department answered 10 calls with four related to the Jamboree.
Multiple people dropped in at the fire department’s tent on the Jamboree grounds, Bondesen said, and medics did the usual checks, provided water, bandages, aspirin and Tylenol.
The heat and traffic through the tent was probably around average, Bondesen said.
– Megan Sanderson contributed to this report.