Storm drenches Jamboree campers

Families were diving into breakfast while young adults were dabbling in drinking games Thursday morning at the Big Valley Jamboree outside Camrose, but some campers were still cleaning up from the previous night’s storm.

“Everything was soaked. The storm tore down the canopies, snapped two whiteboards,” Darryl Grimstead, attending his sixth BVJ with his family, said Thursday morning.

The Grimstead family was moved to a dry lot Wednesday after their original site was deemed too wet to camp on. Thursday morning, they were moved once again after they woke up to their camper, barbecue and other belongings in close to 60 centimetres of water.

“I’ve been here 22 years and I’ve never ever seen this,” said Todd O’leary, one of the security workers who helped the Grimstead clan move.

O’leary is grateful the forecast for the rest of the long weekend event is sunshine, which is already helping the sites dry up.

With the shows rolling out Thursday night, festival producer Mike Anderson said keen campers began entering the grounds as soon as the gates opened Wednesday morning. The site is about 100 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

O’leary and his partner Rick Hoolaeff said they expect the grounds to be filled by Friday.

Once inside the grounds, concert-goers this year will be allowed to have a drink in their hand as they watch Kane Brown, Old Dominion and the rest as the concert bowl is fully licensed this year.

Environment Canada is predicting sunny skies and temperatures hovering around 20 C from Friday to Sunday.