Organizers credit performers, fans for successful festival at Burl's Creek

Burl's Creek co-owner Stan Dunford takes a breather Sunday on the last day of Boots and Hearts. Nathan Taylor/OrilliaMatters

1 / 1 Burl's Creek co-owner Stan Dunford takes a breather Sunday on the last day of Boots and Hearts. Nathan Taylor/OrilliaMatters

Seeing tens of thousands of people flock to his sprawling rural property every year for a weekend of fun is gratifying for Stan Dunford.

But there was something even more magical for the Burl’s Creek Event Grounds co-owner about this weekend’s Boots and Hearts Music Festival.

“This year has been especially gratifying,” said Dunford, who runs the show with his wife, Eva. “This is the first year in seven years that we’ve had a legend perform at Boots and Hearts.”

That legend is multi-award-winning country star Alan Jackson.

Dunford had the chance to chat with Jackson prior to his headlining performance Saturday night. He explained to Jackson there were people in the audience, from their teens well into their 80s, who were waiting for the Chattahoochee singer to take the stage.

“You’re going to leave them with memories they’ll never forget,” Dunford told him.

According to Dunford, Jackson did just that.

“It was an epic night,” he recalled in an interview with OrilliaMatters. “The tears were everywhere, including myself. You could feel it. You could see it. An aura came over the entire festival grounds.”

This year’s country music festival, which began Thursday and wrapped up Sunday, attracted 40,000 people to the Oro-Medonte site.

It was a “banner year,” said Lisa Zechmeister, director of booking and development with Burl’s Creek, and “Alan Jackson is a big part of that.”

The overall festival vibe helped, too.

“The experience here is like no other,” she said. “It truly feels like Canada here. It’s definitely not a city festival.”

The ever-growing country music scene makes Zechmeister’s job interesting. The festival is catering to a crowd predominantly made up of people between the ages of 18 and 24. Many of them were there to see the likes of Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Dallas Smith and others who are popular with younger fans. When booking Jackson, who reached peak success in the 1990s, “there was the conversation that he’s not on the radio as much now,” Zechmeister said, “but he’s nothing less than country royalty.”

Organizers are always looking for diversity in the lineup, and the fans have an influence on the final roster.

“They tell us a lot of the time what they want to hear. They’re very engaged,” Zechmeister said.

Seven years isn’t necessarily a long time for a festival, and Dunford acknowledged there have been “a lot of growing pains.”

“We’re growing with the fans, trying to find ways to make the experience better,” he said.

This year, for instance, free Wi-Fi was made available across the festival grounds. A couple of rides — a Ferris wheel and a large swing — were also brought in. One feature Dunford is particularly proud of is the introduction of reserved camping. Those who attended this year were able to book their camping sites for next year’s festival, giving them ample time to ensure families and friends can camp together.

“We always try to keep it fresh,” said Zechmeister. “We’ll be looking at anything to make the experience more rich.”

Both Dunford and Zechmeister referred to this year’s festival as “the most seamless yet.” There was a heavy security presence all weekend, and few problems were reported. There were also plenty of medical professionals on site, which is helpful when a baby decides it’s time to be born.

This year, a woman’s water broke and she was taken to hospital in Barrie. No babies were born at the festival this year, but it has happened in the past.

“We call them our Boots babies,” Zechmeister said with a laugh.

Since purchasing Burl’s Creek, Dunford has been consistently revisiting his visions for the property. It has largely involved festivals like Boots and Hearts, as well as WayHome — which announced a “pause” after its third instalment in 2017 — but Dunford is also focusing on one-off shows, such as last month’s concert with Barenaked Ladies, Crash Test Dummies, and Kim Mitchell. Whether the individual concerts will become more frequent isn’t yet known.

“It’s way too early to comment,” Dunford said. “If it works, the idea is to create events on a regular basis. It can include single-day shows, festivals or other events.”

“I’m sure, in the future, we will hold events that don’t have anything to do with music at all,” he added.

He feels it’s in the community’s best interest to see Burl’s Creek thrive as a destination, saying the positive effects are “endless.”

“If this grows, it’s going to create business opportunities in every direction,” he said.

As an example, he said he had to bring in shower trailers from the United States — something he would rather pay a local business to provide if it were possible.

Next year’s Boots and Hearts will take place Aug. 8 to 11.