Music lovers catching country fever in Pryor
This year’s festival highlights Red Dirt genre
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BY JENNIFER CHANCELLOR - Tulsa World Published: June 21, 2009
PRYOR — This weekend’s Country Fever camping and music festival brought together thousands of friends, families and music lovers of everything from old-school country to rock ’n’ roll.
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Ryan, 18, and Hayden, 15, strode to a tent to listen to musician Travis Linville and his band perform. Each also rode a mechanical bull as they took shelter from the near-triple digit heat Saturday afternoon.
"This was our first time to ever ride one,” said Ryan Metzger as he slung his arm around his brother’s shoulder. "This festival was the best way I could think of to spend what little time I have left with him before I leave.”
Ryan Metzger heads to Fort Jackson, S.C., in early July, he said.
Traffic into Pryor picked up over the weekend as thousands of Red Dirt music fans flocked to Country Fever camping and music festival on the Fever Fest grounds north of Pryor.
Red Dirt music is often confused with "Texas country,” but it is an Okie-born, eclectic mix of country, classic rock, folk and rock ’n’ roll that originated around Stillwater, event organizers said. It was a change — and a risk — for Country Fever, which has featured more "mainstream” headliners at past festivals.
The Kum & Go, the Indian Smoke Shop and other businesses on U.S. 69 through the Pryor got "crazy” with business, a clerk in the gas station said.
At one point, a minor scuffle broke out over parking spots as festivalgoers clotted the entrance to the gas station waiting to buy everything from sunblock to beer.
"The increase in business has been huge,” said the clerk , who didn’t want to be identified. "The cops were called, but it was settled quickly.”
Official attendance numbers haven’t been released for this year’s Country Fever festival, which ends tonight, but gauging from the sales of some vendors who do this every year, tickets sales were probably down overall.
Last year’s attendance over four days was estimated at 80,000 people.
"We usually get about 500 paying visitors each year while we’re here,” said Tobi Cahill, who works with Safari Joe’s wildlife sanctuary in Adair. She set up a booth. "So far this weekend, we’ve probably had about 100.”
Cahill credited the lack of rain, the economy and a change of format for this year’s slump.
Music fans, however, didn’t seem to mind the format change. In fact, most fans said they liked it — many said they came this year for the first time due to the inclusion of acts like Stoney LaRue, Billy Joe Shaver, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Robert Earl Keen, Jason Boland & the Stragglers, Jerry Jeff Walker and more.
Country Fever was also landmark for more than genre change.
Five years after a helicopter crash killed two people and seriously injured the three founding members of Red Dirt music legends the Red Dirt Rangers, its frontman finally faced his fears.
John Cooper, along with rowdy Red Dirt cohort Mike McClure and his drummer Eric Hansen, climbed aboard for a scenic helicopter ride. They cruised high over the Country Fever festival crowds just north of Pryor.
"Mike said, ‘I’m buyin’ and we’re flyin!’” Cooper said. "So I went. We got in, and at first I was really nervous. "But once we got up there it was calming,” he said. "I’ve only flown three times. Once I nearly died. The second time was on the way to the hospital after the crash. This time … I had a choice,” he said, then smiled broadly.
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