MERRITT, B.C. – The Merritt Mountain Music Festival has returned after a one-year absence, with headliners such as Grammy-winning crooners Vince Gill and Crystal Gale gracing the stage at Canada’s biggest country gig.
The four-day festival will also feature Crystal Shawanda, who hails from an Ontario reserve and now bases herself in Nashville.
The event attracted crowds of nearly 150,000 campers in past years but financial woes forced organizers to cancel it last year.
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RCMP say members from detachments outside the Nicola Valley, 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, are being brought in to handle expected crowds.
But RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore says it’s doubtful this year’s turnout will be as large.
The Thursday night launch of the festival comes one day after the official opening of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in Merritt.
In January, country superstar Reba McEntire had to cancel her July 7 performance at the festival due to a scheduling conflict.
The 2010 festival was cancelled due to disappointing attendance the year before.
But last fall, Claude Lelievre, president of Active Mountain Entertainment, which puts on the show, announced it would make a comeback this year.
Admission and camping prices have been reduced to lure back the crowds to what was the largest entertainment event in the Interior for 15 years. (CKMQ, CHNL)
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