Many thousands of music fans filled Redmond this weekend for the first ever FairWell Festival.

Julie Harper flew from her home in Houston, Texas to Portland, then drove down to Redmond to see just one artist at the festival, held at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds July 21-23.

Harper has been trying to get Zach Bryan tickets for her “super fan” of a husband for as long as she can remember.

With tickets being hard to find, she was ecstatic to see Bryan playing in Redmond on Saturday night.

“I don’t know what to expect in regards to the crowds,” she said Friday, as people trickled in. “I’ve heard horror stories of music festivals where they’ve oversold events and it’s not enjoyable or, you know when we leave because the headliner is Bryan and he’s gonna play right to the very end. So my concern is, how are we gonna get out of that venue in a timely fashion after being there for 12 hours?”

Harper’s concerns about leaving the venue in a timely fashion came to fruition with many attendees noting terrible traffic leaving after the concerts.

Mikki Krause of Lafayette bought three-day passes but decided after the big crowds on Friday and Saturday, “the parking situation just made it so it just wasn’t worth it for us to pop in (on Sunday).” She estimates waiting 90 minutes just to get out of lot on Friday night.

“It was just kind of a free for all in the parking lots here,” Krause said. “I think that’s what led to a lot of the issues. I didn’t experience this firsthand, but I heard that people were blocking exits last night with their cars when they parked so nobody could leave.

“It just seemed like there needed to be a lot more like parking, enforcement and oversight over the whole parking situation because traffic is going to happen but there definitely were ways to mitigate this kind of situation.”

Gates opened at 4 p.m. on Friday and the festival was open to all ages.

Guests could purchase either three-day or one-day passes ranging from general admission and general admission plus to VIP and platinum. Various food and craft vendors were also on site.

Jenny Henderson made the commute from Sacramento, Calif., and really enjoyed all the options saying she “probably spent more money than [she] should have.”

“I don’t drink, so having many nonalcoholic drink options I thought it was a really good thing,” Henderson said.

With a high of 95 degrees this weekend, attendees took advantage of the swimming holes nearby, several hydration stations at the fair and some ended up buying hats and scarves from the craft vendors to cool off.

Krause said she was at a music festival the weekend prior and was actually impressed with how accommodating FairWell had been at keeping people safe from the heat.

“They had much more hydration stations and access to shade and water,” Krause said. “I think that overall, with the temperature outside they did a really good job with monitoring the heat and giving spaces for people to cool down.”

Festival attendance neared the 35,000-person capacity Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With crowds coming in from out of the area, many hotels in Deschutes County were booked for months in advance.

Henderson struggled to find a place to stay for four nights in a row and found herself shuttling between the Motel 6 in Redmond, the Hilton in Bend and just camping in her car the night before driving back to Sacramento.

Comfort Suites Redmond Airport was booked up two months in advance and Best Western Plus in North Bend — a hotel partner with the fair — was booked out since February.

Director of Redmond Economic, Inc. Steve Curley anticipates the festival to have a “significant economic impact” on Redmond’s hospitality industry.

Brad Lutzenburger Philips of Shasta County in California is a big music fan and is a veteran of music festivals nationwide.

He bought VIP tickets for the weekend. He recalls the first Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee being a bit of a mess, but it has since matured and become “an important part of their economy and a point of pride for the county.” He anticipates the FairWell festival to run in a similar fashion.

“I’m sure that there will be headaches in the first year for this one, but I hope it all gets ironed out and the festival ends up being a good thing for Redmond and Bend in the long run,” he said.

Whitney Rivet, from Prineville, bought three-day passes and commuted everyday to the fairgrounds. While she’s not too far of a drive, she was disappointed not having affordable camping at the festival.

“I was actually really bummed out that they weren’t allowing tent camping,” Rivet said. “It’s really fun and it’s nice getting to know the other people who camp too.”

The only camping permitted at the festival was RV camping at the Expo Center RV park. The $800 passes sold out quickly. Because tent-camping wasn’t allowed, attendees commuted from all over Deschutes County to get to the fairgrounds. Both Oregon State Police and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s office said they planned to enhance patrol efforts in the area that weekend.