Jamboree in the Hills, the country music concert that has been going on for 40 years, was the first country music festival; it started in 1977. There are two Jamboree in the Hills songs. One is by Mayf Nutter and the other by Joe Zelek. I urge you to look those songs up and also to look up some YouTube videos of the concert! They are rather interesting videos and will give someone a glimpse of what Jambo looks like, if you've never heard of it before of have heard of it and think that it is a tame concert.
First off, at Jambo you will find people dressed in multiple different costumes. This year the most memorable ones that I saw were Ted, Batman, Fred Flintstone and lots of other interesting sights. Jambo is not a place where most people do not dress modestly, and almost everyone dresses for comfort because of the heat. It is the third weekend in July, in the hills of South East Ohio in the middle of nowhere.
The concert lasts for four days, filled with drinking, country music and sunburns. Thursday and Friday start in the late afternoon and Saturday and Sunday start in the morning. The concerts go on all day long. This year the line-up was alright, the last artists seemed really good but they could have done better with the earlier artists in the day. The sun wasn't out much on Thursday or Friday because of the rain. There was some sun on Friday though. Saturday and Sunday were both very sunny days and barely any cloud cover, with the highs getting into the high 80s but cooling off significantly in the evening.
Get too hot during the day and don't know how to cool off? Just take a walk down a couple of the isles. People have squirt bottles and spray the bottles at others, most of the recipients of the cold water are females. Even if you don't take a walk down the isles keeping a squirt bottle in the cooler will help cool you off. I enjoyed walking along the isles and squirting the guys back that squirted me.
Want to bring a cooler? Well, if you do make sure you have something to tote said cooler or have one on wheels. This year my friends and I toted the cooler from our trucks to where we sat without any wheels or something to help carry it -- never again. Also, make sure you have enough water, today, my friends and I ran out of water in our cooler and had to leave, go to a gas station and get more.
The music is always good for the most part. Kid Rock was alright, but not the best performer I have seen over there. Today's line up was alright, but was quite slow until Neal McCoy took the stage. Neal McCoy is such an entertainer, and it is quite entertaining every year. Brad Paisley and Brantley Gilbert put on the best shows, but Brad's was the best, by far. I loved how he pulled the other people he was touring with in for a couple of songs and how he pulled the Gatlin Brothers on stage for a song. Brad went well past 11 p.m. (the time he was supposed to end) and the whole thing was televised on the local station. It is pretty cool that the whole thing was televised because there are some artists that do not want to be on the television for Jambo.
Overall, it was a great time and a lot of fun with friends. I even made some friends from out of town, and of course I got to connect with old friends. Since Jamboree is near my hometown, I know a lot of people that go. But even if you don't know anyone, by the end of the weekend you will have made some friends you had a blast with.
