Planning and executing a world class music festival is a lot like riding a bike - it doesn’t matter if you haven’t done it for awhile, muscle memory kicks in and everything comes flooding back.

At least that is the experience for Dauphin’s Countryfest organizers who brought Canada’s longest running country music festival back to Selo Ukraina after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There might have been some rust on day one, festival president Ann Ransom said, but by day two everyone was “back in the groove.”

“Of course, there is always going to be a few things where you think ‘right, I forgot about that’ or ‘how did we do that in the past?’,” Ransom said. “Everybody was pitching in and everybody was helping each other out. We have a really, really, really good team. Everybody rolls up their sleeves and everybody pitches in. When you need somebody you are never on your own. We work really well together, so it has made it a lot easier to shake off the cobwebs and get going again.”

In fact the return of the festival exceeded all expectations, Ransom said, adding she was cautiously optimistic heading into the weekend. Comments organizers received from patrons throughout the weekend were encouraging, Ransom said, adding the smaller crowd this year was a highlight for those attending and is something organizers will put on the table for discussion when it comes to the future of Countryfest.

“Because it was truly a unique experience that we hadn’t had before because we have always had the big, big crowds and that just doesn’t feel the same,” she said. “This a little bit more personable and it really just had a different vibe this year. And we would like to replicate that for future festivals.”

Of course, limiting crowds affects income and it is a fine balancing act to a combination that works, Countryfest general manager Rob Waloschuk added.

“We’ve made adjustments in some things like the entertainment, the production, all of that sort of stuff. We’ve tried to play both sides of it. We’re going to have less income we know that, so how do we how do we make it work on this other side? So we’ve been working hard at trying to do that,” he said.

One of the big changes this year was a return to a three-day festival with Thursday night set aside for an appreciation evening in honour of festival patrons who rolled over their tickets for Countryfest’s two-year hiatus in 2020 and 2021.

“We went back to what we originally started this festival as, a three-day festival. However, we made that Thursday available to everybody who kept their tickets,” Waloschuk said. “So many people came up to us and said ‘we just want to thank you for doing this for us.’ And I said to them that ‘we want to thank you for doing this for us. You saved us’.”

That nod to the past was a big theme of the 2022 festival, Ransom added.

“We had this whole ‘Return to the Hill’, but I think we also had a return to our roots. We have really found a core of people for our festival who will always come out and support us and we just really need to recognize that and thank them for it. Applaud them for helping us out and knowing how important it is to keep this festival going. “Those that really truly believe in the festival have shown up and lots of kudos to them. It has just been fantastic.”

Other changes made for this year around vendors and the use of tokens rather than cash for purchasing food and merchandise have, after some initial pushback, worked as predicted, Waloschuk added. It was always the plan to cut back somewhat on vendors to make things more viable for all vendors, he said.

“This year we knew would be a little slower than normal, so cut a few back and help those vendors that are here actually make more money. And that’s been successful,” he said, adding one vendor, a festival veteran, sold out of her weekend supplies by the end of Friday night, restocked for the weekend the next day and sold out again that night. “So that’s kind of been the story everywhere.”

Ransom added vendors are already signing up to return next year.

“From the festival patrons there has been lots of comments about the variety and the unique items that we have up there. Which is always kind of nice,” she said. “It’s great feedback for us because, of course, we changed something. We went a different way. We are just trying to stay at pace with other festivals and other events in what they are doing. And we are finding it works for us. It is good to see.”

Change is always hard, Ransom said, but the results speak for themselves.

“Obviously, we had to make money this year to keep the festival going. And we didn’t want to do that unsustainably, or by causing hardship for others, so we came up with a system that we thought would be fair and the feedback has been really good,” she said. “The vendors definitely bought into the process and are fully supportive of it. And it is great that they are already interested in next year.”

And that means big things for the community, Waloschuk said, reflecting on all of the development and support Countryfest has provided Dauphin over the last three decades.

“I just want to make sure everybody realizes how hard this organization has worked for this community and how much it means for this community. I think that gets lost sometimes and when it’s been gone for a couple years,” he said, adding the festival did have some difficulty securing volunteers this year. “All the local sponsors have stepped up, and beyond what they would normally do, absolutely stepped up in more ways than just their sponsorship, just to make sure this happens. We can thank them by doing certain things throughout the year and having a reception and stuff here. But I just want to thank them publicly like this.”

That support and confidence adds up to a bright future for Countryfest and the community.

“We are back, baby, and we are excited to be back,” Ransom said, “We are definitely alive and well and healthy and that bodes well for the city of Dauphin.”

Organizers, she said, are ready to go and feel like they have turned the corner.

“We will see some changes. The board of directors will be busy meeting after the festival, once we have all caught up on our sleep, just to debrief and say this worked well, we need to fix this. We are always looking at other festivals to see what they are doing and listening to our patrons. We are constantly trying to be innovative and change things, but also keeping our core values in place,” she said.

“We weathered the storm and we are starting to pick up steam and we are going to be in a good place.”