To the strains of “Happy Trails to You,” Oregon Jamboree fans left the festival grounds one final time Sunday evening, Aug. 3, having celebrated a bittersweet end with some crowd-pleasing performances from Joe Nichols and Jordan Davis.
A weekend of – by Jamboree standards – mild temperatures, ending with a downright comfortable Sunday in the 70s, helped create an atmosphere that Festival Director Robert Shamek described as including “lots of tears and lots of laughs.”
Performers acknowledged the end of the Jamboree’s 34-year run, some such as Friday headliner Clay Walker, announcing they were planning to return no matter what.
“It’s good to be back!” Sawyer Brown lead singer Mark Miller told the crowd as his band opened for Walker. “We have done this five times and I’m sad it’s going away, but we will still come out here and play for y’all.”
Crowd sizes were noticeably smaller than they were in the Jamboree’s heyday years, with noticeable open spaces on the Sweet Home High School athletic field venue that, in bygone years, would have been packed with fans.
Shamek said that, based on gate scans, the festival had between 7,700 and 8,000 patrons on Friday, Aug. 1, followed by “over 9,000” on Saturday and Sunday.
Sunday’s crowd, visually, appeared to be the largest for the performances by Nichols and Davis.
All in all, Shamek said, “the weather was fantastic.”
“Even though we had lower ticket sales, the people still came out and spent some money. We had great food sales, great beverage sales.”
He said he got “a lot of hugs and a lot of handshakes and a lot of high-fives” over the weekend.
The Sweet Home Economic Development Group’s announcement was a big theme of conversation on the grounds.
“It really sucks that this is the last one,” said Jennifer Boulanger, attending her third festival, with her friend Lucia Case – a 20-year attendee – and their husbands, all from Washington.
“We love country music and we have to come and dance because we love to dance,” Boulanger added.
Kim Harris, whose husband Tommy works for Buck’s Sanitary Service, one of the partners in producing the festival, said it was her second year and she was sorry it was her last.
“I love it,” she said. “It really sucks that it’s going to be done with.”
Shamek said that artists and businesses providing services to the Oregon Jamboree were generous this year in helping to make the production financially feasible.
“I’ve built a lot of good relationships within the industry,” he said. “So we ended up with some really amazing discounts after they found out that it was our last year.”
Jacquie Roar, a finalist on Season 24 of “The Voice,” was one of the performers at Thursday’s Kick-Off Party, which was free to the community and was held at Sankey Park for the first time.
“Jackie actually reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, I want to play a spot at the Jamboree this year, your last year.’ So I said, ‘Absolutely, I’ll find a spot for you.’”
The Kick-Off performance also included Jeff Miller & the Congregation from Bend and headliner Kurt Van Meter, who is well-known to local Jamboree fans.
“Those people that played, they played for free because they knew it was the last year,” Shamek said. “That was really nice.”
He said he is pretty confident that the festival will finish in the black this year.
“It takes a while to get all the invoices in, but I think we’re looking OK, which is good. We’ve
The crowds appeared to be enjoying themselves.
Fire Chief Nick Tyler said the lower temperatures were “a blessing.”
“The Jamboree hired Adventure Medics to deal with the medical inside the Jamboree venue and that worked great for us,” he said. “We were able to handle the calls in the community without relying on help from other agencies.”
Police Chief/City Manager Jason Ogden said law enforcement – his officers and Oregon State Police troopers who staffed the event – had “relatively few incidents.”
“Inside the venue things were running well and people seemed to be having a good time,” he said. “Outside the gates was solid too. There was good energy and no major issues.
“All around, it felt like a successful event.”
The Jamboree ended well for Tony Cazares and Kylie Schultz of the Albany area, who left as an engaged couple after Cazares popped the question on stage during Davis’ performance.
“I never thought he would propose to me like this,” Schultz posted later on Facebook.
Other than a no-show by The Frontmen of Country on Saturday “due to circumstances beyond their control,” as the Jamboree announced earlier that day, citing “challenges that arise in the touring world,” audiences seemed to appreciate the performances, which featured the usual variety of styles, ranging from high energy (Sawyer Brown, Jordan Davis) to contemplative (Shane Smith and the Saints) and just about everything in between on the Main and Park stages.
“I love all the different kinds of country music and I like to people-watch,” said Rhonda Whitten, who started attending after winning a free ticket eight years ago and has spent the last five as a volunteer. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Although the end was bittersweet, Shamek acknowledged that SHEDG directors “made the right decision” in ending the festival’s run.
“I think the biggest thing is they decided to go out on top and being able to pay all of our bills, versus trying to prolong another year and maybe not making it,” he said.
Festival patrons provided plenty of input, he said.
“I got asked a million questions this weekend and I just kept reiterating that my focus is on making sure our last Jamboree is a successful Jamboree.
“A lot of people had 10,000 different things that they put in my ear, which is fantastic,” he added. “Once I put this to bed, there could be some discussion but the focus right now is just getting this thing to a successful finish.”
He said one of the most enjoyable parts of his job has been to deliver the “$30,000 to $40,000 checks to the school district that it disperses to the soccer team for cleats, to the swim team for computers.”
“We’ve been doing it for years and years and years.”
The Oregon Jamboree has outlived a lot of the competition, he noted.
“For a nonprofit festival to last 34 years in a small community that has one motel, I should say, ‘one inn,’ and a few restaurants, and we’re still able to draw thousands and thousands of people, that’s incredible,” he said. “It just doesn’t happen.”
– Correspondent Satina Tolman contributed to this story.
See galleries below for more 2025 Oregon Jamboree photos.
