If you have been waiting to hear a line-up announcement for the 2012 Redneck Rumble in Wood Mountain, you can stop waiting. According to www.redneckrumble.ca, 2011 was the 5th and final year of the Redneck Rumble
According to Joanne Peterson, organizer of the event, once the books were all wrapped up in the fall, the committee decided that they would call it quits.”
“I thought the event was good, and I thought that it was good for the Wood Mountain Park, it helped out making money for the pool, which was our goal. But, to get to that next step up, we just needed a few more people to come.” Peterson told the Triangle News.
According to Peterson, the event needed approximately 200 more people to be a viable event. “We had just about run out of entertainment that was in our price range.” she said.
Peterson estimated their 2011 crowd to be around 600. “800-1000 we could have really carried on. Entertainment is very expensive. We just couldn’t quite get that crowd to step up to the next level.” said Peterson.
Organizers tried to “change things up a bit” for the 2011 event to try to cut costs. They shortened up the hours on the main stage, but it wasn’t enough.
Peterson feels one of the hardships that the Redneck Rumble endured was the lack of grant dollars. Although many other festivals are able to secure funding, the Redneck Rumble was not one of them. According to Peterson, at first, they didn’t apply, but once they applied, they weren’t granted funding. ‘I do believe we did very well, considering we never had one bit of grant money, not one! That was disappointing, but we really did do it, totally on our own.” said Peterson.
“The Redneck Rumble committee would like to thank all sponsors, volunteers, participants and entertainers for their support over the past 5 years.” says the website.
Over the years, country music stars Aaron Pritchett, Aaron Lines, Brad Johner, Gord Bamford, Donny Parenteau, Kal Hourd, Codie Prevost, Foxx Worthee, Faster Gun and more graced the stage. Rockers Prism, Harlequin, Prism and Men without Shame held up the rock end of things.
The stage also played host to many local acts, such as Tyler Lewis, Badland Country Band, Lasko Flatts, High Voltage and Parallel 49. The rumble also gave local talent a chance to sing a few tunes on the big stage.
“The Redneck Rumble was able to accomplish its goal of raising funds for the Wood Mountain Regional Park Pool Fund. The total amount raised for the Pool fund was just under $25,000.00.
“In addition to the $25,000 that was raised, the Wood Mountain Regional Park benefitted from 5 years of Redneck Rumble’s weekend camping fees.” wrapped up the website.
“It was fun! I would like to say that the people that were there had a lot of fun, just not quite enough people!” said Peterson.
Peterson but some of the blame on the small crowds on Mother Nature. Each year they had to battle rain clouds and the mud that was left behind.
“I really really enjoyed it, I liked getting to know some of the music business. I liked working with the enterainers. I am sad that it is done.” said Peterson.
Peterson especially enjoyed working with Irv Fines from Men Without Shame, Aaron Pritchet and Kal Hourd. “Kal Hourd is very nice, he helped us out lots. He was really good and I sure hope people support him. His song ‘When Pink is just a Colour again’ might be his song to get him some acclaim.”
Although the Rumble is a thing of the past, Peterson says they plan to host a Dine-and-Dance, an event that requires much less work and will give everyone a chance to visit the park, camp and have some fun.
“We haven’t made any final plans, but we hope to have a good band and give people a chance to enjoy our park, have some fun, and still make some money for our park.”
“I am really said, I always had so much fun, but now I think we will go to the park the same weekend and just play music and just sit around. Then I will actually get to visit my friends, I never got to do that!” concluded Peterson
For information on Wood Mountain Regional Park please visit www.woodmountainpark.ca
trianglenews@sasktel.net
