Blame My Roots Festival Returns | News, Sports, Jobs

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FESTIVAL WEEK While things are calm now, Valley View Campgrounds along US Highway 40 near Belmont will soon be filled with country music fans as the Blame My Roots Festival returns to the site Thursday through Saturday. . –Robert DeFrank

BELMONT – The hills of Belmont County will resonate with country music once again, as the Blame My Roots Festival launches its second concert series at Valley View Campgrounds on US Highway 40.

Chris Dutton and his family led the new country music festival to fill the gap left during the Jamboree in the Hills break in 2018. The venue site was recently sold. Following the inaugural BMR event in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 event to be canceled, but Dutton said enthusiasm remained high for 2021.

The lineup includes some big names in country music. Wednesday will feature local bands and the stage will be open to the public. Thursday is reserved for regional artists. Friday and Saturday will be the main events.

“We’re still aiming for the 6,000-8,000 range on Saturday,” he said of expected attendance. “The response has been tremendous, especially with the additions we have added with our VIPs. We showed some renderings of what these seats are, what these lodges will look like.

“I think there are a lot of people eager to see something different and to see something new and to have a more intimate experience with this setting than they are used to,” he said. declared.

The location is part of the draw, Dutton said. It is located across from the old Jamboree site in the hills and once served as a major campground for this annual concert.

“It’s a very nice farm. They are staff who know what they are doing. It’s a great production, it’s not something that just came up at the last minute. All of these pieces fit together very well. We have heard over and over again that it sounded like the old Jamboree in the days of the hills. I think it’s kind of a feather in our cap, ”he said.

“We bring a lot of new parts. We learned a lot from 2019. The most important thing is that the stage is bigger, the production is bigger, ”he said. “We put things in place for COVID, masks and distancing are gone and we didn’t need to change as much as we thought. … We can kind of go back to the original plans we imagined for 2020, our layout.

Dutton said they are still learning some elements of the concert setup and some aspects of the pandemic continue to take its toll.

“The hardest thing with a festival like this is you have a date to hit it. You have a date on the calendar all year round, ”he said.

“There are a lot of difficulties. One of the hardest things that has happened with COVID is staffing. Staffing was the most difficult and we have seen it with all our suppliers, our subcontractors, all the people who provide us with any type of service. Everyone has staff issues. … They have to drop off things early and we are not ready for that. We got together and we were there for three days to get up early, ”he said.

“Even our beer inventory – one of the beers we tried to get is not available as we wanted, so we’re just adjusting there,” he said.

“It’s a supply chain business,” he said. “It can’t be at the last minute because we don’t have the staff. It’s all those kinds of things that we come across with our normal contractors, our normal departments, our normal suppliers.

The festival will feature Miranda Lambert, Neal McCoy, Lee Brice, Jo Dee Messina, Tenille Townes, Adam Doleac, Niko Moon, Walker Montgomery, Allie Colleen and Luke Burkhardt.

“It’s a lot of work,” Dutton said. “The reward is seeing the whole come together when those doors open.”

Tents have already been set up at the campgrounds as preparations continue. Dutton said they start early rather than trying to do all the preparations at once.

“A lot of things are new. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people again. I think what you saw in 2019 we got a great response. I think people are going to be really shocked when they see it in 2021. ”

He congratulated everyone involved, especially given the small size of the team and how little they were in the same room together.

“We have done a lot on Zoom,” he said. “I think it’s just amazing to be successful. It’s July and the masks are on in June, but this thing takes the whole year to plan, and we’ve been doing a lot of that planning without being in the same room, and I think it’s amazing what we have. could shoot disabled. “

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