Terrific turnout for Tweed Stampede
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TWEED – This year’s Tweed Stampede and Jamboree started off with a bang Friday night, literally.
“The resort got hit by lightning,” said Casey Trudeau, the event organizer and creator. “It took out the internet and ATM and all that stuff. People coming to concerts couldn’t pay when they got here unless they had cash.”
“Out of nowhere that storm came up and signs, tents and everything was blowing everywhere. That kind of messed things up for three or four hours on Friday,” he added.
After an emergency house call from Elite Electronics, the local internet company, the annual event was back on track for the weekend.
“They came in and they hooked us back up and got us rockin and rollin again. After that everything was fine; the sun came back out and concert went on.”
Despite the unexpected kick in the teeth from Mother Nature, the remainder of the weekend couldn’t have gone better said Trudeau.
“Grandstands were at capacity yesterday. The Road Hammers were great, it was at capacity too. Everything’s been really really good attendance wise.”
Sunday saw the Trudeau Park grounds once again filled with spectators as they watched cowboys and cowgirls ride and rope steers, horses and even sheep – the latter reserved for littler wranglers in training.
A fly-over by a Canadian Forces Hercules kicked off the day’s events.
Not counting Friday’s rough patch the entire weekend has gone off without a hitch, a fact that almost has Trudeau waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“(It’s been) too smooth,” he joked. “Normally things don’t go off this smoothly.”
“This year we have a great group of volunteers and staff and we have about 70 people here making this thing happen. Everybody’s great and they’re on the ball. We’ve been doing this for six years now and I think we’re getting into a groove.”
tim.miller@sunmedia.ca