Planning for the event began in February. According to jamboree chairman, Edward Walsh, they begin their planning by contacting all past jamboree attendees in order to invite them to return. After this the club moves on to contacting their performers and building their line up.

Putting on this event is not a cheap endeavour, Walsh shared that just to . . .

cover their costs the event costs around $30,000 to get off the ground. However, when Walsh spoke to THE EQUITY on Friday afternoon he mentioned that they had already made back all of the money spent, he said, “we have enough to cover our bills, so everything else is gravy after that.”

The weekend’s festivities began on Thursday evening with open mic night. According to Walsh, the stage was packed with both professional singers and Pontiac locals, he continued, “anybody who was brave enough to get on stage.”

The rest of the weekend was packed with 18 other professional country singers. As they sang, many people in the crowd gathered on the cement dance floor in front of the stage to dance.

Walsh explained that in the past the event boasted much larger crowds, “in our heyday, we used to have 300 trailers and 2000 plus [people],” and that people travelled all the way from Montreal, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and London to attend the festival. This year, despite the pandemic and the high price of gas, the club was expecting 150 trailers and 1000 attendees total. Walsh argues that the real attraction of the festival is their commitment to an old country music style that is no longer as commonly performed in festivals, “This is one of the festivals that still sticks with the old country music. That’s the drawing traction.”

The event is the largest fundraiser for the club. Walsh said that it is important to the Shawville Lions that every dollar earned by the club is returned to the community in order to help the less fortunate.

Country music duo Tammy Wood and Stephen Drinkwater come all the way to Shawville from Saint-Blaise-sur-Richelieu to perform in the jamboree. They said that compared to the other 30 or so performances that they do all summer the venue and the people are what make the Shawville country jamboree special. “Well, for one it’s outside which is rare. We don’t usually get a lot of festivals that are actually completely outside which is kind of cool. The band is awesome. The people are super friendly. So it’s just a fun place to come to because you just kind of feel you’re at home right? It’s just easy,” explained Wood. She continued by saying, “it’s a beautiful area, its absolutely stunning.”

Drinkwater shared that both him and Wood loved the beauty of the area so much that they named their second album “County Road 17” after one of the roads they take to make it to the Shawville Jamboree.

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