Country Thunder has come and gone for another year, and as always festival-goers kept the RCMP on their toes. Between Thursday and Sunday, police dealt with 160 calls for service, charged 27 individuals (21 adults and six youth) and 46 people were held in custody.
Staff Sgt. Devin Pugh said the 46 people being held in custody is a little higher than normal, but consistent with numbers seen in recent years.
Police said a “vast majority” of the calls and charges were alcohol-related.
“One thing to note is we had a very low percentage of serious persons crimes this year, which is great news,” Pugh said.
Pugh added there weren’t “a whole of incidents of assault and no sexual assaults were reported to police.
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“However, of concern, we still have impaired driving offences that took place on-site and off-site as well. So that is a concern for us, but overall it was a very positive year,” he said.
Three people were charged with impaired driving on the festival grounds, and two were charged off-site.
The RCMP Combined Traffic Services unit logged 307 tickets, 432 warnings, 81 vehicle inspection tickets, located six people on outstanding warrants and issued four roadside suspensions. Officers set up checkstops on highways leading to Craven, Sask., throughout the weekend.
RCMP assisted in crowd control during the severe weather events that took place Saturday and Sunday nights. Pugh said he was pleased to see everyone cooperate and come together during the storms.
Country Thunder marketing director Gerry Krochak said he believes Sunday’s storm was the worse of the two but was glad it rolled in after headliner Chris Stapleton had finished his set on the main-stage. Tim McGraw’s headlining act on Saturday night had to be cancelled due to weather.
Krochak added that he was pleased with how the emergency protocol went into effect once the lightning started. The festival will be reviewing the policy for how effective it was.
The RCMP conclude their final Country Thunder dispatch by thanking festival-goers for a “relatively smooth and pleasant” experience.
WATCH (July 10, 2019): Consuming pot at Country Thunder? What you need to know
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