FairWell Festival kicks off with hot music and temperatures

Published 1:47 pm Friday, July 19, 2024

Temperatures were hot, but the margaritas were cold Friday night as the three-day FairWell Festival kicked off in Redmond.

Blues, folk, country, indie rock music filtered through the air as soon as the doors opened at 2 p.m., bringing thousands of people in from their camping spots, hotels and hometowns.

Late afternoon performances featured The War and Treaty, Sierra Hull, Jason Isabel and the 400 Unit and Colter Wall. Crowds grew while the temperature and the sun went down.

Disko Cowboy played offstage at the Three Sisters Saloon from 6-8 p.m., which the band will do all weekend long The saloon is held in a barn with fans, relaxed seating, a bar and Seager merch booth selling exclusive gear. They also taught line dancing lessons Friday afternoon to anyone wishing to participate.

The crowd

“We mainly came for Billy Strings,” Mckenzie Stone said, who traveled to Remdond from Boise, Ida., with her partner, Steven Ruess and their two children.

Reuss and Stone are longtime friends of Nolan Taylor, an artist playing Sunday. The couple is originally from Cincinnati, where they met Taylor.

“It’s cool to see (Taylor) actually get out,” Stone said. “I mean, we saw him in a basement of 25 people and now he’s gonna be playing in front of this many people.”

Their children, named Lyric and Rhythm, were “excited for the music,” Stone said.

Another friend group took a road trip from New Mexico, leaving four days before the festival started in order to make it on time. They drove for about 18 hours, making pit stops along the way.

Aaron Madrid said he knew “the most people” in the lineup out of his friends. When he saw the Instagram post revealing this year’s lineup, he was surprised to know so many of the artists.

The group’s road trip consisted of seeing the desert landscapes of Moab and Idaho’s national forests.

“Oregon’s beautiful,” David Koshin said. “It’s a lot different than our desert cactus down there.”

Although beautiful, Koshin didn’t appreciate Oregon’s too-low speed limits. He wasn’t fond of the lack of cell service.

Madrid, Koshin, Rio Sessions, Jack Nation and Lauren Hall said they will attend every night of the the festival and will camp at the fairgrounds.

Another friend group traveled to the festival for their annual “girls trip.” Most of the friend group met in Redding, Calif., and have been friends for about 15 years.

They’re most excited to see Shakey Graves on Saturday.

Sherry Thompson wasn’t sure if the group wanted to make the FairWell Festival a part of their girls trip tradition at first, because of “the communication of the festival and camping was difficult.” But she said they were able to get it sorted and want to come back again in the future.

Dana Brooks really enjoyed the presence of the security guards and how friendly they were. Brooks was delighted to see the guards smile at her and tell her, “We really hope you have a good time.”

In addition to musical performances, the festival also had an array of food and market vendors selling burgers, mini donuts, gyros, espresso drinks, ice cream and more.

There were also lounges, hydration stations for people to refill water bottles, a boot branding station and more. Doors open at noon Saturday and Sunday to welcome back Redmond tourists for two more full days of music, laughter, sunshine and cocktails.