Country Fan Fest!

Steph and I had both of our Bailey's graduate from college at the end of 2020. We decided as a gift, we would get them tickets to Country Fan Fest in Utah. We finally got to go in July, and it was four days of hilarious fun! We loved it!

Day 1:

Bailey drove to Idaho Falls from Boise early on a Thursday morning. We met at Steph's house, barely fit our stuff in her truck, and headed to Tooele, Utah. We stayed at the Fan Fest venue in the cutest little yurt city! After we got set up, we headed to our first batch of concerts at the campground stage. The first performer was Steven Bosco, who we all loved. He was really great! Chris Petersen was next, and he was the one I was most excited to hear. He only got through 3 songs before the rain and lightening started and canceled the rest of his show. Such a bummer! We did meet his wife though, and she chatted with us for about ten minutes. She was so cute and sweet! Once the weather cleared up, we went back to watch Kat and Alex. They were not our favorites. The last performer of the night was Tim Montana. He was a little too redneck for my taste. Crazy talented for sure, but he drew in a very drunk, rowdy, crowd, and it was a bit much for us. We stayed for most of his show, but ended up heading back to our yurt before it was over.

Girl's trip!

Our cute yurt.

Setting up our home for the next four days. It was perfect minus the spiders, and the fact that it blew away on the last night. 😳😂

Steven Bosco

We all really liked him!

I love his song, 'Nobody Runs in the Family.'

We met him after his show.

Chris Petersen

We loved Chris Petersen's keyboard guy. I could have watched him all night!

Kat & Alex

Tim Montana

Day 2:

Day two was probably my favorite! We got up and went for a run. It was so hot, so we got really sweaty. We didn't want to wait in line and use the portable showers, so we went to the pool instead. Much better! Bailey and I walked around the camp ground area and shot a giant bow before the concerts started. The first performer was Kaleb Austin. We really liked him! He probably had my favorite set list out of all the up and coming artists. Next was Carver Louis, and he put on a very fun, high energy show. High Valley was next, and Steph was super excited to see them. This is the concert she was there for. They didn't disappoint; very good! The last one of the night was the legendary Neal MeCoy. He was supper funny! Bailey said he kind of reminded her of seeing Sawyer Brown in concert.

Our yurt city!

Finished our morning run, while most of the other people were waking up with hangovers. 😂

This is how we showered!

Bailey shooting the giant bow. She barely weighed enough to pull it back.

Me shooting the bow! 👊

Look at me go! I had two really great (lucky) shots!

Day two of concerts!

Steph-Bailey-Bailey-Tricia
We got to the concerts early so we could be up front.

Kaleb Austin

Super fun set list!

Me met him after his show.
It was redneck day, hence the lovely outfit Bailey has on.

Carver Louis

So much energy!

Bailey ended up being more entertaining than the concerts! 😂

And then of course this song came up! 😂

High Valley was so good!

He was pointing right at Steph!

Right after this video, he walked to the edge of the crowd, and held Bailey's hand (Steph's Bailey)!

Neal McCoy!

So fun!

😂😂😂

Day 3:

Day three was exciting! It was when the concerts started on the main stage. The lineup went Jagertown, Lainey Wilson, Josh Gracin, Mitchell Tenpenny, Lee Brice, and Old Dominion. We thought Lainey Wilson was super cute. Josh Gracin came down into the crowd and took a selfie with our Baileys. Lee Brice was amazing and played hit after hit. It got interesting during Old Dominion. Bailey loves to be right up front in the mix of all the craziness at concerts, so that’s what we did! She was in her element! She told me I was her favorite adventure buddy, because I’ll get right in the mix of it with her. Little did we know, I was gonna have an ‘episode’ of sorts, and she was gonna have to single handedly get me through a crowd of thousands of people as I got super dizzy and passed out three times. At one point she had to smack me across the face to keep me conscious. It’s all funny to talk about now, but it was super scary for her, and she handled it like a champ. We had been up front in the mix of it all for Lee Brice and most of Old Dominon. All of a sudden I got an overwhelming feeling that I needed to get out of the crowd. I must have been claustrophobic. We were packed in like sardines, so Bailey grabbed my hand and started leading me through the crowd. As soon as we turned away from the stage, everything started spinning. I told Bailey I was really dizzy, so she stopped in a spot where we could at least breath a little, and then my eyes fluttered, and I started going down. She held me up and poked my face until I came back around. We started making our way back to our chairs and it happened two more times. The final time I wasn’t coming around, so she hauled off and slapped me. 😂 It worked because my eyes popped back open. When she got me back to the chairs, Steph knew something was wrong because she said my pupils were huge and I looked totally dazed. I don’t remember most of it except feeling really dizzy. Then I heard Steph’s Bailey say, “Oh my gosh Bailey, is your mom stoned?!?” We think it was a combination of lots of stuff-being packed in like sardines for hours, lots of second hand pot and vape smoke, strobe lights, extreme heat, not enough food, etc. Everything ended up fine, and we enjoyed the rest of the concert from our chairs. One of our favorite quotes from the weekend was when I said, “I’m probably the most innocent one here, and I’m the one that ended up high.”

So excited to be at the main stage!

Bailey and I got matching Country Fan Fest hats.

Lainey Wilson
She was super cute!

'I Know a Few Things a Man Ought to Know'

Selfie with Josh Gracin!
Bailey: "Mom, why didn't you get in the picture?"
Me: "I don't know, I panicked!" 😂

Hahahaha!

We got rained on every day!

Mitchell Tenpenny pretty much performed in the rain.

So excited for Lee Brice!

He was so good!

Old Dominion!

Such a fun day!

Day 4:

Our final day was very eventful! It started with a run in the morning, sunny skies, and a pool party! The concert lineup for the day was Meghan Patrick, Tyler Rich, Ian Munsick, Lindsay Ell, Randy Houser, and Kip Moore. We made it part way through Lindsay Ell when a crazy tornado like storm blew in. The wind got crazy! Lindsey Ell and her band had to get off the stage really fast, they evacuated the whole venue because 60 mph winds were coming. The stage lights and speakers were swaying like crazy. We got back to our yurt, and the neighbor’s yurt had blown into ours. Ours was a little ways away, and our stuff was scattered around the field. It was pure madness! I'm so thankful nobody was in the yurts when they went down. That would have been really bad! We gathered up our stuff as quick as we could with wind, rain, and crazy lightening all around us. So many awesome campers came out to help us! The main stage sustained lots of damage, so Randy Houser and Kip Moore didn’t get to perform. We were now homeless, so we decided to drive home that night. The first 30 minutes of the drive was so scary; torrential rain and so much lightening. We knew once we got out of the valley it would clear up. Steph handled the drive like the bad a** lady that she is, and we made it safely home at 2:00 in the morning!

Pool party!

Look at the pretty sky! It sure didn't stay like that!

Meghan Patrick
I wasn't impressed with her. She was a bit trashy for my taste.

Tyler Rich was good! He sang the best version of Billy Jean we've ever heard.

Cotton candy for the win!

😂😂😂

Ian Munsick was good!

There is a storm brewing behind us!

I thought Lindsay Ell was fantastic! She had a great voice, and was an awesome guitar player. When the storm rolled in, she handled everything like a champ. She seems like a class act! I'm now a fan.

This is all of our stuff, but that's not our yurt! The neighbors yurt was the first to blow over, and it blew into ours. Ours ended up about a hundred yards away with some of our stuff still in it. When people saw that they were blowing over, they rushed out and started taking the rest of them down super fast. 

We gathered up our stuff as fast as we could, but there was a traffic jam, and Steph's truck was a half mile away. They made all the people leave the field and go to one of the buildings. There was no way we were gonna sleep in a building with a bunch of drunk people, so we finally got the truck up to us, packed up our stuff and tried to head home. We had to wait out some of the storm in a parking lot, because it was pure nuts! We left when we thought it let up for a bit. It got crazy again! It was so scary for the first 30 minutes of the drive, and once we were out of the valley it got much better. We made it home at 2:00 in the morning.

The weekend didn't end quite like we wanted, but it just added to the adventure. We had a great four days. So much amazing music, so many laughs, more rednecks than I've ever seen in one place, and too many memories to even keep track of. I made a note on my phone with all the one liners that were said over the weekend. Every time I pull it up I crack up! I hope a girl's trip with our Baileys can become an annual thing. So fun!