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Rock fest kept the hits rolling

What a perfect weekend to rock. OK, there was some wildfire smoke, but it wasn't actually that bad (begging the pardon of the singers) and by the third day of Cariboo Rocks The North (CRTN) we even had some blue sky.
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Wayne Nelson lead singer and bass player for Little River Band poses for a photo on Saturday while performing during the second day of the Cariboo Rocks The North music festival.

What a perfect weekend to rock.

OK, there was some wildfire smoke, but it wasn't actually that bad (begging the pardon of the singers) and by the third day of Cariboo Rocks The North (CRTN) we even had some blue sky.

Weather is always part of the risk when you hold an outdoor event of any kind. When it's good, you get maximum reward, and it was very good.

It allowed the fans of classic rock to soak up the largest ticketed music festival to ever occur inside the Prince George city limits. Exhibition Park was alive with a generational soundtrack. Some massive hits, some favourite songs and some consummate musicians were on display.

First it was Prism, Headpins and Honeymoon Suite on Friday; then Nick Gilder & Sweeney Todd, Toronto, Little River Band and Kim Mitchell on Saturday; finishing with Harlequin, Platinum Blonde, 54-40 and Randy Bachman on Sunday.

For that outpouring of good-time rock, a whole community of people willingly locked themselves into a cozy little cluster inside the open-air borders of CN Centre, Kin 1 and the PG Gymnastics Club building. With washrooms aplenty, food vendors, merchandise tents and a big Pacific Western Brewery canopied bar, it was a festive first attempt at hosting CRTN.

For rock radio music fans, it was a slice of denim heaven. For me, personally, the major highlights were hearing Prism deliver their epic orchestral rocker Armageddon; watching Kitimat girl Kat Lawrence dominate as the new Headpins lead singer (Canada, there's a new stage boss in town); enjoying the surprise of a hefty performance by Annie "Holly" Woods and her band Toronto; of course all the things about 54-40, who could have doubled their set and still not gotten all the hit material; a consummate headliner set from Randy Bachman who re-proved he is the godfather of Canadian rock 'n' roll (special mention: how cool was that to have Tal Bachman on stage as well and everyone perform She's So High with him?); taking in the best concert I've ever seen Honeymoon Suite deliver (and I've seen them a fair few times); and the crescendo for me was a wildly impressive Kim Mitchell set.

Mitchell had already made me so happy when he performed Diamonds Diamonds (he doesn't always do that early-career tune) and sweetly re-vamped the single Easy To Tame, but then he and bassist/vocalist Peter Fredette did a soaring rendition of All We Are that just seared the night.

That climax achieved one of those rare collective consciousness experiences every fan and musician dream of sharing, where everyone is drawn into a shared artistic high.

It's a festival, so, OK, sometimes I was bored, I'm not gonna lie. You can't stand on the peaks of Mitchell/Fredette or Mount Bachman without also getting bogged down in some low-spots. They were few and fleeting.

What happened most often was surprise. Yes, these songs were largely the soundtrack of our lives. We often sang them as loud as the bands. What makes a great live concert is when you get jarred out of that familiarity by, say, a few licks of Paint It Black snuck into a Platinum Blonde tune (and their version of Careless Whisper - I did not see that coming). Or Harlequin using a version of Don't Let Me Down as a message to the federal government on that approaching pot legalization date. Or Randy Bachman's band cranking out American Woman only to seamlessly turn it into Whole Lotta Love then sleekly turning it back into American Woman.

We also got to see some sick rock attire, like the flamboyant tails-coat worn by Prism's Al Harlow, or the silver pants and gold sequined tank-top worn by Platinum Blonde's Mark Holmes (he and Kat Lawrence win the CRTN Athlete of the Year awards - both of them are just ripped).

After years of squeezing a lot of people into a small space for a couple of bands, this was Pacific Western Brewery's big leap forward in local events. If I could offer them one small bit of advice for next year - because there will be a 2019 - I would just add quadruple the garbage/recycling bins to reduce the litter (it was disappointing how fans treated the place).

If I could offer not so small piece of advice to the City of Prince George, a partner in all this rocktastic debauchery, it would be - and this is vitally important - to allow overnight camping. It is a courtesy afforded to an annual religious convention, but oddly not afforded when it's a matter of life and death.

People are consuming much beer and a fair bit of weed at CRTN. People need every possible encouragement keeping them from driving away if they are intoxicated.

Make the camping rules strict, if need be (zero fires, lights out by 11, pay some money, whatever) but please help steer us all away from tragedy as the north gets a good annual rocking.