‘I’ve never felt so safe’
Fans who travelled from Ireland and Newfoundland weigh in on their experience at Cavendish Beach Music Festival
Sadhbh Ni Chaomhànaigh travelled all the way from Dublin, Ireland, to attend the Cavendish Beach Music Festival (CBMF) over the weekend.
Chaomhànaigh is a huge country music fan and was rocking a Brothers Osborne shirt as she made her way through the crowd at the festival Sunday.
“I saw (Brothers Osborne) in Nashville last year and I was hooked,” said Chaomhànaigh in an interview with The Guardian.
She enjoyed the performances of Little Big Town, Kip Moore and Billy Ray Cyrus, but admits that the Sunday lineup including Brothers Osborne and Zac Brown Band was the reason she came.
“They have nothing like this where I live,” said Chaomhànaigh.
She said the CBMF was everything she hoped it would be and more.
“I’ve never felt so safe at a festival in my life,” said Chaomhànaigh. “I’ve been to many festivals and this one is just so well organized.”
She is already planning to come back to celebrate CBMF in 2018, the 10th year for the festival.
Justin Parsons and Laura Wills from Paradise, Newfoundland, also came a distance to attend the CBMF.
“It’s been awesome and the weather has been amazing,” said Wills.
Parsons added, “We were already talking about coming back next year.”
The couple loves their country music, but admit they were there to see Zac Brown Band.
“Zac Brown Band is the one that made us buy the tickets and come all this way,” said Parsons. “Everything else was a bonus.”
Parsons and Wills also had great things to say about how well the festival was organized.
“Everything was a breeze,” said Parsons.
Jeff Squires, president of Whitecap Entertainment, which produces the festival, said it was a “tremendous weekend.”
Squires said they estimate between 17,000 and 23,000 people attended each night.
“Our service providers, right from the RCMP to the Department of Transportation to emergency services to the municipality … did a tremendous job of putting on an unbelievable tourism product.”
Sgt. Leanne Butler with Queens District RCMP said everything went quite smoothly.
Butler said operational and traffic plans have evolved to the point that the RCMP used the same traffic plan as last year because it worked so well.
“All the parking lots were empty by midnight and we are very happy to report we did not have very many impaired drivers.”
Squires said he chatted with countless concertgoers who praised their experience on P.E.I.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had more comments from people that have not been to P.E.I. that have come to this festival that are saying what an unbelievable experience they’ve had from the moment they came to this Island.”
Squires said the festival has become a big part of the annual tourism schedule.