‘RCMP are damn beauties:’ Festival-goers welcome police

Earlier in the week, RCMP said they’ll be on patrol for Country Thunder Saskatchewan and festival-goers don’t seem to have a problem with it.

Officers can be seen both walking around the grounds and in vehicles.

Riley Yasieniuk was at the music festival for the third year with friends and said it’s one big happy family, police included.

“Everybody thinks Craven is a bad thing,” he said. “When I told my parents I was going, they were like, ‘you got to watch yourself,’ but when I come here it’s the best time, police included, RCMP are damn beauties.”

Yasieniuk said earlier he got told by the RCMP to dump out his beer since he was walking with it open from one campsite to another, which isn’t allowed.

“If (RCMP) like dump it out, then like you dump it out, you gotta be respectful about it,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s one of the 150 beers I brought to Craven, so you just dump it then you don’t get a ticket.”

At a different campsite, Mackenzie Argent from Cochrane, Alta. said she liked seeing police around the campsite because of theft.

“I actually think it’s super nice for them to be around,” she said. “It makes you feel more comfortable with your generators out at night cause’ people can steal stuff.”

She added that being a responsible festival-goer is important but it’s nice to have someone close to go to if a person does need help. She said this was her first year at Country Thunder Saskatchewan and found there was more of a police presence than at previous musical festivals she attended.