With a new name comes some new improvements.
The Country Thunder Music Festival, previously known as the Craven Country Jamboree, has put $1.2 million into renovating their facilities.
“The concert-goers’ experience is going to be enhanced so much,” said Troy Vollhoffer, the CEO and Executive Producer of Country Thunder Music Festivals. “I think we just created one of the nicest venues in North America.”
The upgrades include fully renovated washrooms with approximately 90 new toilets, 45 new showers as well as new sinks, counters and painting.
“Number one thing we always hear from our fans is bathrooms, bathrooms, bathrooms,” said Vollhoffer. “So we’ve listened to our fans and we’ve added the flushing toilets, refurbished toilets and added toilets.”
In the field, concert-goers will now have 200,000 square metres of sod under their feet.
“That quaint experience of coming out here and camping in the mud and all that, that’s still going to be available, we still have campers that like to come out here and use the word ‘party’ as a verb,” said Gerry Krochak, the Director of Marketing and Media Relations for Country Thunder. “But the concert experience, the music experience, the main bowl, it’s going to be (great) for people who are huge music fans to be in that environment, and also the family environment as well.”
“It’s more than a party, we have some pretty serious music fans coming here and we want to take care of them as well,” he added.
The food court area on the festival grounds is also receiving upgrades.
Organizers consider the upgrades important to the festival’s rebranding.
“This year our brand has changed to Country Thunder, and now it’s time to really go full contact,” said Vollhoffer. “So I believe that’s why we did it and every year from this point on we will do a little bit more to continue on and the big base is already laid right now.”
Country Thunder is happening in Craven from July 13-16, and headliners include Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and Toby Keith.