EDMONTON- With thousands of people heading out to one of the largest music festivals in western Canada this weekend, traffic north of our city was at a standstill Thursday afternoon.
Hundreds of motorhomes, trucks, trailers and cars lined Highway 28 for kilometres, as festival goers headed to Gibbons for the Boonstock Music & Arts Festival.
“The first year we came here we came in a cab. And we had to wait in the cab and the meter was running. It ended up costing a hundred and some bucks,” Che “Cheesy” Osterhout said.
“It’s definitely worth the wait,” said Mike Simpson, who was heading to the festival with Osterhout for the third straight year. “We come because it’s a riot every year.”
With over 40 bands and 40 DJ’s performing over the course of the four-day festival, organizers expect to see about 65,000 people at this year’s event. That’s a far cry from the 60 or so who showed up for the first Boonstock just nine years ago.
“It’s not all about the music for Boonstock. I think people are coming for the campsite and the experience,” said Colin Kobza.
And with that number of people, comes enforcement. RCMP, along with the help of community peace officers and traffic sheriffs, will be working around the clock to handle traffic and provide event security.
“It takes a lot of members to put something like this together,” said Sergeant Mark Mathias with the Morinville RCMP detachment. “We’re probably using 45 to 50 RCMP members, all at different times, on different shifts, to pull this whole thing together.”
Officers say their presence at the festival has tripled this year. This is also the first time paramedics and fire will be set up on site for the entire weekend.
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“We are creating, I would say, a small city,” said Kobza. “There’s a love for Boonstock and it’s amazing to have people involved in your dream. It’s a pretty incredible experience.”
Boonstock regulars agree and say they don’t have much to complain about.
“The only thing that’s worse (than the traffic) is the porta potties. That’s hell on earth,” Osterhout said with a laugh.
With files from Fletcher Kent, Global News.
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