It’s good to have connections. Just ask Stan Dunford.
Dunford, with his wife, Eva, runs Republic Live, which presented the inaugural Big Sky Music Festival this weekend at Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte.
He learned late last week that Alabama, the band set to headline the event, had to back out due to frontman Randy Owen experiencing health problems. He was able to bring in Big and Rich to close out the festival.
Then, on Saturday morning, Dunford was informed Diamond Rio was cancelling because of transportation issues.
“The first thing that I thought was, ‘Not again,’” Dunford said.
He picked up the phone and called Tim Hicks, who was at a cottage in Huntsville, and asked if he could make it to Burl’s Creek to fill Diamond Rio’s slot. Hicks didn’t hesitate.
“It’s a miracle that we were able to get another band in. For those two things to happen, most festivals would probably have to cancel,” Dunford said. “Because of the artists’ experience with us and having such a great time (at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival), there’s a real community in the genre that takes care of their own.”
The original intent of the festival was to cater to country music fans of all ages, but especially those who enjoyed it in the late 1980s and the ’90s.
With Alabama and Diamond Rio backing out, the only remaining artists to hit the charts in that era were Jason McCoy and Travis Tritt.
Lori Maluga and her family were looking forward to seeing Alabama, but they still had a good time.
“It was a little upsetting but understandable,” said Maluga, who came from Phelpston for the festival. “We’re just enjoying the day with the kids.”
Even 10-year-old Jordan Maluga, who admits he’s not much of a country music fan, conceded the music was “not bad.”
“I like the events, like the toilet-seat thing,” he said of a game of horseshoes that instead used toilet seats, “and the food.”
Others were, begrudgingly, making the most of the experience.
“It sucks,” Jordan McLean, of Cavan Monaghan, said of the artist cancellations. “Me and my buddies wanted to see Alabama and Diamond Rio.”
However, the fan of '90s country was excited to see Tritt and was “glad they found replacements because it would have sucked to not see a full lineup.”
“I’ll be back if they’re here next year,” he said of Alabama and Diamond Rio.
The goal is to make Big Sky an annual event, Dunford said.
While he didn’t have specific numbers when it came to ticket sales, he said they sold “reasonably well for a first-year festival.”
