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Police were kept busy with 156 callouts during the Country Thunder festival at Craven this past weekend, Saskatchewan RCMP said on Monday.
In a news release, RCMP said officers charged four people with impaired driving, issued 40 roadside driving suspensions, charged two people with assault and one person with mischief related to property damage that occurred inside the festival grounds.
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The release said that multiple Saskatchewan RCMP units and detachments were on patrol at the festival, with Saskatchewan Marshals Service providing traffic control and SGI funding some of the traffic check stops.
Campers dump the water out of their kiddie pool while packing up on Monday. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)
Campers happy to head home
Meanwhile, campers had a slow start to Monday morning, packing up their belongings and driving off from the Lumsden Valley after five days of country music fun.
Steven Stronski said it’s always worth his while to camp at the Country Thunder Music Festival.
“It was nice weather,” he said. “Partied a little bit too hard, so my voice is a little bit groggy, but I’m ready to get out of here.”
Once he’s packed and tidied his campsite, Stronski said he was looking forward to a long shower and a nap at home.
Across the campgrounds, cans littered the grounds with hundreds of seagulls swooping down to tear into trash bags, looking for any left over scrap of food.
“When all the seagulls are flocking around the campsite it’s usually the sign that it’s time to head out,” said Cory Willson as he packed up his vehicle.
Many members of the clean-up crew lifted garbage bags shredded by the seagulls into the back of trailers.
“I’ve been seeing them all morning,” Jaxson Fillion said about the birds. “Since 5 a.m. they’ve just been everywhere.”
While some campers were ready to drive off, Fillion did not want the party to end.
“What’s the point in going home when you’re in a beautiful place like Saskatchewan right here?” he said.
As a first time Country Thunder festival-goer, he said he would definitely return again.
Campers experienced extreme heat, rain, and wildfire smoke during their time at the event in 2025.
Some of the rainfall had turned the dirt roads into a slip-and-slide due to the mud.
“It’s just not very fun in the rain. It’s miserable,” Dalis Prawdzik said on Friday, adding the mud covering her rain boots made it feel like weights strapped around her feet.
The rain began to fall again Monday morning, giving campers a little extra enthusiasm to pack up after enjoying the three headliners of the festival: Jason Aldean, Bailey Zimmerman and Def Leppard.
— with files by CJME News
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