SUNDRE – There was a surge in the number of people who attended this year’s Adamstock.
Although it was only the second time the music festival that raises funds to support families of cancer patients was hosted in Sundre, it was the event’s 11th edition.
Last year’s inaugural run in town drew throughout the two-day event a crowd of approximately 250. This year’s event, held Aug. 16-17 at the Sundre Pro Rodeo grounds, saw an overall total of more than 450 people, including the volunteers, said organizer Daris Kieley, who is also the president of the Adam’s Army Charitable Foundation.
“You could definitely notice the increase this year,” Kieley told the Albertan.
This time around, organizers sought to deliver a bigger show that by extension resulted in some bigger bills.
“Our goal this year was to kind of up the level and so there was a lot more costs associated with that,” said Kieley.
While Kieley was as of the time when she spoke with the Albertan on Aug. 21 still working through settling all of the expenses, she nevertheless expected to end up comfortably in the black.
“We’ll be in the positives by a couple of grand,” she said.
Wanting to deliver a good show while keeping the expenses down to raise as much as possible for the cause is a tricky balancing act, she said.
“We definitely met our goal of upping the level of what we want to give Adamstockers,” she said, adding that based on the metric of the number of people who reported having a great time, organizers met their objective.
“The amount of positive feedback of all of the changes that we did make was phenomenal,” she said, adding many expressed enthusiasm about coming back next year, with the dates already set for Aug. 15-16.
“We were very successful in that sense. At the end of the day, even if the dollar value wasn’t the greatest, in our eyes next year will just be that much better.”
The festival’s setup featured two stages; a main covered stage installed temporarily on the rodeo’s main arena, with a secondary stage tucked a short walk away under one of the several out-buildings nearby. That way, when a band wrapped up their show on one stage, another would begin performing on the other so there was no downtime while the next group was getting set up.
“That’s always been what we’ve aimed to do, but it’s never been so successful,” she said.
Expressing appreciation to all of the volunteers, including a greater number of locals this year, Kieley also praised all of the sponsors including the municipality.
“The Town of Sundre definitely welcomed us with open arms,” she said.
“We were successful thanks to the businesses in the community…we had over $22,000 in sponsorship dollars this year, so it definitely helped bring the show that we brought,” she said, later going onto express gratitude to the Sundre Rodeo and Race Association for “being so accommodating” and the organization’s willingness to offer the use of the rodeo grounds.
“That was the only way to make it possible.”
And despite initial concerns that overcast conditions might create some challenges, those fears did not pan out. There was only one minor delay on the opening night of performances as a band took a few extra minutes to make sure it was ready to rock.
“The weather – actually, considering it was looking like it was going to be garbage all weekend – held up and it was great,” she said.
Overall, Kieley seemed pleased with how it all panned out.
“Our goal is always to have a fun, love-filled weekend and it definitely was that,” she said.
“We’re just here to share Adam’s journey (and) we’re here to make money to help other families just like his,” she said, referring to her late nephew Adam Cripps, a music fan who at the age of 16 died following a lifelong struggle against cancer that despite the odds never seemed to dampen his passion to make the most of life.
“This year, I can honestly say this is the first year that I’m actually excited for next year, because I really do think it’s going to be that much better.”
