Country Thunder reminding festival-goers to stay safe in extreme heat

The Country Thunder stage is nearly set, ready for major country acts, over 20,000 fans and extreme heat.

The music festival is set to kick off Thursday, July 13 and run until Sunday, July 16 in Craven. This week, southern Saskatchewan has seen record high temperatures. A heat warning was issued briefly on Monday. While the warning has now ended, high temperatures are expected to persist into the weekend, with forecasted temperatures ranging between 29 and 30 degrees Celsius.

“We want everyone to have a safe time,” Gerry Krochak, Country Thunder’s Director of Marketing and Sales, said. “It’s great to have a sunny weekend but we want to make sure everyone is safe and enjoying themselves.”

The festival will have a medical staff on-site to help make sure festival-goers can beat the heat.

“We’ve got medical staff that will be going through the campgrounds providing water and Gatorade for people if they see that they’re in some sort of distress,” Country Thunder’s General Manager Kim Blevins said.

“We’ve got doctors on staff, we’ve got nurses on staff (and) we’ve got paramedics and an ambulance so if somebody does need to be transported right away that’s possible as well.”

While sunscreen, sunglasses and shade will be essential throughout the weekend, medical staff say it’s also important to know your limits.

“(Alcohol) runs through you rather quickly so your body is not able to hydrate itself properly,” Country Thunder’s Emergency Services Coordinator Belinda Mitchell said.

“So we’re recommending one to two glasses of water every now and again while you’re drinking alcohol. Ideally, we’d like to see: glass of water, have a drink, glass of water, have a drink; just so you’re going to keep yourself hydrated and feeling much better, and you can party longer too.”

Paramedics on-site will also be equipped with Narcan for emergency situations.

“Overdoses out here at the site is treated no different than any other medical emergency,” Mitchell said. “We’re ready to be able to handle it all, we have the medications on site if needed, but we’re hoping we’re not going to need them.”

Country fans will also be able to cool down in two air-conditioned medical centres on site.

Mitchell also says if you were thinking of dumping water on yourself to cool off, you can think again.

“We don’t want you staying out in the sun and dumping water on yourself to stay cool, because once your body starts to cool down it creates a higher humidex, so your body heats up that much faster and you can become sick quite quickly,” Mitchell said.

Watching for the warning signs is also important.

“You may start off with cramping, some nausea, feeling tired then you start to get dizzy and some people even just go unconscious,” Mitchell said.

“That’s your body’s way of trying to say ‘I need help’.”