Julie Druker | Aug 05, 2015


Organizers of this year's Flinton Community Jamboree spread their net wider than usual in an effort to attract even larger crowds to the annual Flinton event, which has been gathering momentum since its inception years ago.

Kaladar resident Andy Anderson took the reins this year as the festival's lead organizer and when I spoke to him on the last day, Sunday August 2, he was thrilled to report that between 260 and 300 trailers had attended the three-day festival, which housed upwards of 500-600 guests. “Overall this year's jamboree has been a howling success,” he said.

Typically the Jamboree has predominantly been a bluegrass/country venue but Anderson said organizers this year added some '50s and '60s music, which “proved to be a very good move.” Eddy and the Stingrays headlined Saturday night's line up and played a close to three-hour set that generated numerous encores and kept the crowds entertained until 11pm.

Also new this year was a 24 x 32 foot plywood dance floor that was installed to the left of the main stage area. Anderson said it was filled to capacity all afternoon and evening on Friday and Saturday. “In years past people have been dancing in the gravel and we felt we needed something new for them this year, so we raised money in the community from our sponsors to build the dance floor, which has been a huge improvement and I was thrilled to see that it was used as much as it was.”

The event was put on by the Flinton Community Jamboree Committee and headed up by 18 key volunteers, who were assisted by a number of additional community volunteers that included students, who received community hours for their efforts. The committee also served up an early morning Sunday breakfast to over 400 hungry early risers and the Flinton Rec Committee fed hundreds of hungry festival goers throughout the event from their on site canteen.

The well-known six-member band, Pickled Chicken of Denbigh, entertained jamboree goers on the Sunday afternoon when I visited. The band features Dave Guest, Joe Grant, Peter Chess, Susan Fraser, Mike Gibson and Mark Rowe, who delighted guests with their repertoire that included musical favorites by John Prine, The Marshall Tucker Band and more, as well as some of the band members' own original tunes like Joe Grant's “Hold Your Fiddle Low, Joe”, a song inspired by advice he received as a youngster from his fiddle-playing grand father. Long-time fan and spoon player, Bernie Parsons, who has played numerous times with the band, kept the beat on a pair of wooden spoons from his lawn chair throughout their performance and also played on stage at a few of the open mic opportunities offered up to guests.

The Flinton Community Jamboree continues to attract music lovers from near and far and over the years it has become one of the best bluegrass/country, and now oldie rock venues that the north country has to offer.

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