How Country Roads Festival came about:

Our youngster daughter Sian got into Country and western music and line dancing on a visit to Malvern motor home and caravan show in 2001. (We have been going to Malvern as a family since Sian was 3 years old)

For her 16th birthday on the 25th of August 2009, I secretively organised a surprise party with Sian's favourite duo (Magill), a buffet, 3 surprise guests Katie Rhodes, Tim Mckay and Ricky Tomlinson (who Sian also admired) at the local sports club in Farndon. I sent out lots of invitations to people who we had meet at various country music venues and festivals. Sian had a fantastic time.

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On August the 25th 2011 we organised a charity event for Sian's 18th we had we raised £500 for Ricky Tomlinson's Charity for baby milk bank.

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After 2011 because we had made more friends, we decided it would be great to hold our parties in our garden. So in 2014 for Sian's 21st we had 1 marquee and 50 people camping; then for my 50th in 2015 we had 100 people camping and 3 Marquees.

Every year we had more and more people coming to join in the fun.

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In 2016 we ran out of special birthdays to celebrate; so, we decided to open it up for everyone at £20 per person keeping the same weekend in August for the bank holiday. We provided camping, entertainment and a Saturday night BBQ and had 3 marquees. We were very surprised at the response. I thought it would be great if people could experience different styles of country music; with this in mind I organised and booked a variety of artists; 6 in total. In 2017  we had 60 caravans, campers and tent; we brought another 2 marquees to cater for everyone. 

 

In 2018 we decided to change the charity we support and raise funds for to; Cherish (CHERISH WRECSAM - Home (weebly.com); The venue was  changed to Farndon sports and social it was inside the club and a sell out; but feedback from people attending said to cramped,

So in 2019 we changed venues to a large field at Marchwiel in Wrexham; this was another successful sell out with 350 people attending; but on reading feedback people thought it was too big and lost it personality, closeness I took all this onboard and acted on it.

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So, after much decision making about the feedbacks over the previous years; I decided we are going back to our garden we found people preferred the outdoors with marquee, a relaxing environment and were not concerned Jakey the horse being around them.

 

In 2020, We thought we would have to cancel due to Covid striking but we prepared and submitted all paperwork and documents needed to 7 different authorities; we put all safety restrictions in place and Chester council gave us the go ahead. On the day of opening the gates the health and safety officer, safety advisory team and the events manager from Chester council all turned up they praised us for a great organised and safe environment.

In 2021 we had 190 attendees; in 2022 and 2023 we had 250 attendees which included some families with children who had never been to a country and western festival before.

We continue to read all our feedbacks, listen to comments and suggestions and take it all on board. So far we have raised over £3000.00 the charity we are supporting each year.