Heavy rainfall no match for Craven Country Jamboree

The gates for the annual Craven Country Jamboree are set to open in less than a week and a lot of work has gone into keeping the fields dry.

Heavy rainfall throughout Saskatchewan did not spare the home of the international country music festival.

The site has seen a lot of water over the last three weeks and workers have been actively pumping it out of the area.

There are dugouts that surround the site. It is designed so that water accumulates in those holding tanks and is then pumped back out into the creek.

Kim Blevins, spokesperson for Craven Country Jamboree, said the festival wouldn't go on without the help of its workers.

"Hats off to the site people out here.It's been a phenomenal job and we're going to be ready come Tuesday at 9 a.m."

In 2011, flooding put a major damper on the festival. After that, organizers installed a dike system, which Blevins credits to keeping the festival running.

"With the run-off after the snow and then all of this rain, the river is really high and without those dikes we would have had some real issues. But the dikes have held and we didn't get any extra water on the site."

However, this year Blevins said the site is closed to the public until Tuesday. Festival-goers typically like to arrive early in the week for the festival, but that is not possible this year.

Blevins said that if people are coming in to town ahead of Tuesday and have nowhere to stay, they can wait at Evraz Place in Regina.

As for the festival weekend itself, the forecast appears to be sunny and dry. But even if there is rain, Blevins is optimistic.

"If we get rain it is going to be wet out here but now what we can do is move that water off quickly so that it can dry up faster. And as soon as you get sun and wind out here, this ground dries incredibly quickly."

The festival runs from July 10 to 13. Headlining performers include Keith Urban and Dierks Bentley.