Jamboree originator reflects on decades of country in Craven

Tens of thousands of people are packing into the valley north of Regina this weekend to take in sun, beer and some country music.

It has been 36 years since Craven’s first country festival, which actually started as a charity fundraiser — a fundraiser which Ria Kaal helped start.

She said she and Father Lucien Larre started things up with the first show in 1983. The first headliner was Roy Orbison.

Kaal said she was the general manager and produced the show. She stayed with the production for about nine years until leaving in 1992 to work with Cirque du Soleil.

She has been back at the festival for a few years now, and said things have changed a lot.

“The first years when we started compared to now is like trying to compare apples and oranges, it doesn’t compare at all,” said Kaal.

In the first years, Kaal said organizers tried to make it a family event. The booths were all run by non-profits and those charities got 20 per cent of the profits.

“It has become commercial,” said Kaal. “(That’s) good, because now they can afford to put in the facilities that we could never afford to put in — you know, like having showers in the campground.”

Kaal said the first few years when it rained, organizers had to pull people out of the muck with tow trucks. She pointed toward the road and said now Main Street is paved.

The show is a little more polished now, and it’s also a lot bigger.

According to Kaal, only 3,500 people showed up in the first year. Now tens of thousands regularly show up to take in the event.

“Some of the acts that are coming here, the amount of money that they demand to come and put on a show here is out of this world! Like, we could never have done that,” said Kaal.

After years away, Kaal is back within the festival. She’s not running it anymore, but she is one of the organizers of the Bosco Bistro on Main Street. It’s one of the food vendors, and the profits go to the same charity which kicked off the whole event, Bosco Homes.

For the past six years the shack has been there, raising money to help orphans in the Philippines. This year, Bosco is also the first to have a food truck in the campground as well.

Kaal is proud of the little bistro’s signature dish: Perogy poutine.

“We all know how the poutine all over Canada is very popular; in fact, it has become one of Canada’s main dishes,” Kaal said. “And we thought we’d put a new spin to it.”

It’s perogies and mozzarella piled high with gravy over top. Kaal said people love it — the shack sold close to 3,000 of the dishes last year.

Kaal plans to be around for more years to come, “as long as my old legs will last,” she said with a laugh.