Twice now I’ve volunteered at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival, at Canadian Tire Motor Sports Park, backstage doing artist transportation and hospitality. This was my second year and Boots and Hearts provides me with experience in  artist and public relations. It allows me to me new people,  make new friends and basically field a whole new adventure to share with some of you readers.

The main acts included Jason Aldean, Emerson Drive, Chad Brownlee, Rascal Flats, Miranda Lambert and Will and Jase Robertson from Duck Dynasty (the last of which audience members absolutely loved considering their 11am appearance time).  Boots and Hearts was widely received with over seventy-five hundred thousand guests throughout the four-day festival.

A young festival the weekend is only in its second annual season but during its 2013 festival announced Boots and Hearts will be back in 2014 with headliner Blake Shelton. This news, was announced by Miranda Lambert during her closing performance and was with much excitement and you can bet concert-goers will be back for the next season of mayhem.

When I say mayhem I really mean it because while the show goes off without a hitch and is a huge success every time, the antics of this particular concert going community are particularly interesting. Separated into different groups laid out across a Motorsports race track, the whole festival is a tribute to relaxing with a cold, hard-earned beer.

The wildest members of the pack at set out to general camping on both the figure at racetrack and in a field not to far over from that. Other concert-goers in RV section camping, family camping and quiet camping through out different areas of the park. Also included in the festival is Boomtown, with its own main stage, food and a fair which included, of course, a Ferris wheel. In the center of this all is the main stage and the back stage compound, beer tents and assorted VIP areas all around the field.

The festival kicked off Thursday August 1 with Emerson Drive on the Boomtown stage. At this time everyone is clean, happy and only sorta kinda tipsy. This I can promise you is not the case by Sunday afternoon. Thankfully the rain held off all week and things remained dry for a night of good music and good times.

Friday however really marked the beginning of the Boots and Hearts weekend. Jason Aldean headlined the show and it was a huge success. Sadly, news of multiple accidents both inside the site and on the outside back roads dominated much of the news Saturday morning. Much of the nearby community was also put off by the lengthy lines ups, some reported up to 8 miles long, on country backgrounds outside small farms and communities.

Saturday afternoon concert-goers were offered a special treat. Sometime Thursday concert organizers closed on members of Blue Rodeo. In a surprise set Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m. Blue Rodeo arrived and after being hauled out into the fairgrounds on a transport trailer sang a few songs. No one was let down as these seasoned pros sang classic and audience members sang along. All in all it was fun in the sun for everyone involved.