A cloudy sky that protected the Oregon Jamboree like a blanket Friday and Saturday lifted Sunday, layering the 5,000 or so festival goers in 80-degree-plus sun burn weather.
The sunshine capped what some festival goers believed was the best Jamboree to date. The ninth annual event’s musical lineup included Asleep At The Wheel, Marty Stuart, Lila McCann, Tracy Byrd, Kenny Rogers, John Berry, Susie Bogguss, Billie Dean and Lee Womack.
Event manager Peter LaPonte said Sunday that he knew the event was a hit by early Saturday.
“We’re estimating Saturday’s crowd at about 7,000 plus,” LaPonte said. “The weather has been wonderful. The volunteer organization really clicked. They’ve done a great job. Everyone’s spirits are up including the crowd.”
LaPonte said the community field looked “beautiful.”
“Sweet Home really presented itself well,” LaPonte said. “We had guests from Century Tel and Safeway among other large companies and they came away with a very positive impression about this community and what it can do.”
Although any crowd of 7,000 will have a problem or two, the concensus was that this year’s event went extremely smoothly.
Mike and Joanna Zivchkovski of Portland have been coming to the Jamboree for five years and said this year’s festival was excellent.
“We started coming down because my sister had been here and it sounded like fun,” Mrs. Zivchkovski said. “It was fun, even when we had to dress in garbage bags because of the rain.”
Her husband said the couple enjoys the camping, the good food and the people. They were especially impressed with Kenny Rogers.
“The camping sites are very well organized and run,” Mrs. Zivchkovski said.
Wayne Ring and Brenda Pimmentel of Albany played cribbage between country acts.
Wayne spent the night sleeping on the cot in front of the main gate to get a choice spot for Saturday’s event.
Bob Teter said the Boys and Girls Club did a brisk business all weekend at its food booth. The club’s chair rental’s were hot and its shower program at the club building was double that of a year ago.
“I believe our food booth ran out of food,” Teter said.
A new twist added to this year’s event was a survey of patrons to determine the event’s economic impact on the community.
Nikki Rasmussen was in charge of the survey which was filled out by some 400 patrons.
“What we’re finding is that lots of money is spent in town by out of town people,” Rasmussen said. “Most of the people are very pleasant and pleased to be here. We will send off the surveys to the International Festivals and Events company and they will tabulate them.”
Merchandise chairman Gail Gregory sales were brisk all weekend.
“We sold out of the event shirts and now we’re selling shirts from 1998 and 1999,” Gregory said. “All of the merchandise from the artists has sold very well.”
On Sunday, with temperatures climbing, spray bottles sold well, especially those with a built in fan.
Musical coodinator Ken Collins said the Jamboree was a “fabulous event” due to the dedication of its volunteers.
“This year’s Jamboree is truly about family,” Collins said. “It’s very impressive.”
Police Chief Bob Burford said his officers had to corral a couple drunks Saturday evening but that happens in any gathering of 7,000 or 8,000.
“This is a great, polite crowd,” Burford said. “I don’t think we could ask for more when you’re talking about getting this many people in one place.”
Local food booth volunteers said sales were steady all weekend.
At the always-popular Rotary Club trailer, burgers and curly fries sold well especially Saturday evening.
“We were swamped from 5-7 p.m. Saturday,” said Jackie Nicklous. “The first part of the day was a little slow but then we made up for it after 3 p.m.”
Pecan praline was the ice cream of choice at the Lick-A-Scoop booth.
Down to two tubs of pecan praline by Saturday, it was sold out by early Sunday.
The Kiwanis Dog House served up mouth-watering dogs and found a blooming dipped onion and husk baked corn on the cob hot sellers.
“We’re doing very well,” said Kiwanian Ben Dahlenburg.
Sunday, ice-cold bottled water sold quickly.
Alice Grovom was helping staff the VIP hospitality area and said patrons seemed very statisfied with the entire program.
Both beer gardens did a steady business, said coordinator Corren Melcher.
“Our help is good and the crowd is good to work with,” Melcher said. “Sales have been strong. Our support teams have been great. We’ve gotten nothing but positive comments from people.”
Melcher has headed up the beer garden team for six years.
David and ____ _______ have been steady Jamboree volunteers for years.
David said that as a member of the site team, little things need fixing each day on the field.
His mom said her job is to help set up the 2080 VIP seats and then put them back in place each morning before the gates open.
“We use old arm bands to mark the VIP seats,” she said. “We use them three days, then rip them off on Sunday because the chairs have to go back where they belong.”
She said this year’s Jamboree went “very, very well.”
The area outside of the main grounds was patroled by a mounted horse patrol.
“We take the horses through the park and the camp sites,” said Michelle Carpenter. “Yesterday, we had to keep kids from sneaking through the park.”
Helping with their horses on Sunday were Carpenter, Dorothy Moore, Debra Parkerson, Lea Henthorne, Penny Jensen and Jennifer Kicer.
First-time volunteer Mary Ripley was helping veteran volunteer Cathy Beaver at the vendor check in gates.
Riple said the event was fun as she helped place a wrist band on Tim Kuta of Tigard who was working the Just for the Halibut fish booth.
“That’s the best halibut I’ve ever tasted,” Beaver said of the booth.
Site coordiators Patty Gourley and Tom Albert were busy all weekend but found the event to run extremely smoothly.
“The volunteers work like a machine in terms of doing things right and making it look easy,” Gourley said.
Perhaps the busiest spot on the entire Jamboree field is the front and check in area headed up by Mary Koch and Linda Holley.
“People have been awesome,” Koch said. “It’s been incredible how nice everyone has been. We haven’t had any complaints. People weren’t even upset that Lorrie Morgan wasn’t coming. It was a very good weekend. We actually got a lot of compliments of the talent lineup.”
Sunday’s temperatures took their toll on a few persons by late afternoon, said EMT coordinator Doug Emmert.
“We had to help a few people who got overheated,” Emmert said. “Most just needed cooled down but we had to give one woman an IV.”
The most notable accident of the weekend also occured on Sunday when a camper severed a finger when rolling up a camper awning.
“We had to help extricate her finger and get her to the hospital,” Emmert said.