Craven, Sask. booms with excitement following 1st day of Country Thunder

One of the hottest days of the year so far did not stop people from kicking off the first day of Country Thunder music festival in Craven, Sask.

The festival site has refillable water stations, ice trucks, and new this year, an IV therapy vendor to help people beat the heat.

Attendee Jessica Hayward is keeping cool by keeping a spray bottle full of water and spraying herself and others around her.

“I also had a bag of ice on my head for like five minutes to cool down, it’s so hot,” said Hayward.

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Roughly 900 festival personnel will be working the campgrounds to assist anyone in need of help.

“It’s really easy to want to sit back and relax and sometimes you don’t hydrate properly your property because there’s so much going on,” said Belinda Mitchell, Country Thunder health and safety manager.

“We’re really encouraging our patrons to show up to make sure they keep themselves well hydrated with water.”

With alcohol being a popular consumption at the music festival, police are ensuring the safety of people on the roads.

“We’ve been running this traffic stop here in Chamberlain for at least the last seven or eight years, and it usually coincides with the first couple of days prior to Craven. So, it’s coincidental, but it’s been a long-time plan on doing this,” said Supt. Grant St. Germaine with Saskatchewan RCMP Traffic Services.

“We’re checking for impaired driving by either drugs or alcohol or suspended drivers or any vehicle defects on vehicles. When there’s trailers being pulled in … we’re checking those trailers for the proper safety thing, that the lights and so on are hooked up properly.”

On Wednesday, the Chamberlain check stop resulted in 24 vehicles impounded for alcohol and cannabis offences and 75 traffic tickets were issued.

— with files from Katherine Ludwig