Review: Watershed Country Music Festival, Gorge Amphitheatre - Weekend 2

Watershed 2016 Weekend 2 - The time of our lives!

One of the best parts of summer 2016 has been our weekend at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, camping and enjoying live country music at Watershed.

I had heard about Watershed last year when my intern Courtney attended the festival. I am newer to country music. I started listening to it when Darling Husband and I moved to Waitsburg, Washington, in 2011 and I was excited by the idea of three full days of live performances. We had seen Craig Morgan and The Band Perry before, and the lineup of Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Keith Urban clinched the deal. We had to go in 2016.

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly of Watershed 2016 Weekend 2.

Buying tickets
Buying tickets was a hassle. Darling Husband had to call one morning while at work, multiple times to even get through, to register for general admission wristbands and camping tickets. Even though he called right when sales opened, he said Weekend 1 was already sold out. But, we got into Weekend 2 and secured a spot in Family Camping, which promised to be less rowdy than General Camping.

Listening to music on Sunday. Photo courtesy of our neighbor Susan and her boyfriend Coal.

Festival prep
Our camping ticket and wristbands arrived via USPS to our house about one month before the festival. I'll detail our full, three-day packing list in another post, but I can tell you we started really prepping about two weeks before.

It was about three weeks before the festival that Bunny bought her wristband too, so she could tag along with us. Between the three of us, we coordinated who was bringing what, what to wear and made a shopping list of what we needed to purchase. We loaded up the car Thursday before the festival and hit the road Friday morning at 9. Traffic was easy and we scored a decent camping spot.

Camp site
We chose to pay a little more for Family Camping after a sleepless night in General Camping at the Jason Mraz concert in 2012. General camping is for hard core partiers. Family Camping was much smaller, with a quiet hour of 10 p.m. Our camp spot was right on the road, but far from the General Camping barrier. With earplugs, I managed 6 or 7 hours of sleep each night.

Our humble abode, right on the road and perfect for people watching.

For the three of us, we took a large tent and two air mattresses. We LOVED being on the road during the day. We sat as if on our own front porch, watching the people walk by.

Best drinking game
Within about 30 minutes, Bunny and I invented a game. Every time we saw someone walk by on the road wearing an article of clothing bearing an American flag, we drank. This was so fun and we even got our neighbors in on the action. We saw hats, tattoos, shorts, boots, bikinis - you name it - with a flag on it.

What to do
The music doesn't start until 1 p.m. each day, so what do you do until then? Many people left the amphitheatre area to boat or float on the river. We stayed at our campsite and read, sunned, chatted with the neighbors and drank water. This is prime time to hydrate as temperatures reached 85 degrees or so each day.

Sitting on our front porch, reading and watching folks walk by.

Roughing it
Even though we paid more for Family Camping, facilities were still rough. There were ample clean porta potties and concrete sinks with running water. But, no showers. Premier Camping had showers and apparently very long lines. We put our hair up and wore hats, cleaned ourselves with baby wipes and went down the giant, inflatable waterslide. When you go down the slide, they spray you down head to toe, back and front. It was marvelous in the heat and I felt so clean after. Also, dry shampoo works wonders.

The walk and food costs
The walk from camping to the amphitheatre is not short. It took us about 20-30 minutes to walk over to the actual concert venue. Keep in mind you are in the beating sun. Wear good shoes, alternate pairs, and drink plenty of water. Do not wear cowboy boots you have never worn before. We saw plenty of gals limping around with painful blisters because they had made this mistake.

We walked back for dinner each night so we didn't have to spend $$$$ on food and beverages. A water in the venue costs $5. A 24 oz. Bud Light was $11.50. If you're on a budget, eat and drink at your campsite like we did,

Carnival rides
Carnival rides are FREE! We went on the Ferris Wheel, big swings and water slide. So. Much. Fun. The lines moved fairly quickly other than the water slide.

We were so happy wildfires didn't ruin our view this year like they did in 2012.

Amphitheatre - Where to sit
We mostly sat up in the grassy area, so we could sit in the heat, rather than stand in the heat, with other sweaty concert goers by the stage. We had a bleacher seat and short beach chair. Folks had Tommy Bahama chairs they could wear to carry and recline in. Bunny went down and stood in the stage area for Jason Aldean's performance. She ended up holding up a drunk girl for most of the time. Choose wisely.

Next From Nashville
The tented Next From Nashville stage was a great place to escape the sun, but could also warm up quickly with body heat. Lesser-known artists performed here, but it was a good break from the big crowds. We attended a sparse Rae Solomon performance and it made Bunny's whole trip when Rae grabbed Bunny's phone and took a selfie with it.

Performances
On the Main Stage, the performers really fed off the enthusiasm of the crowd -- 25,000 fans can be very loud and rambunctious. Eric Church's performance was the big hit of our weekend. He did his finale song and left the stage - and no one moved. We weren't leaving. He came back on stage and said as long as he was having fun he would keep playing. We loved every minute. The confetti drop after Keith Urban's performance was very fun, too.

Some gals just walked around in bikinis and flip flops. I opted for shorts so I could sit comfortably in the grass and on the carnival rides. Closed-toe shoes are ideal for the walk - rocks!

Schedule
Watershed has an app that we downloaded before the trip, but we learned quickly that the schedule on the app didn't update when the live schedule did. Some said the website lineup was the most up to date, so we followed that and the timeline on the screens on the Main Stage. It wasn't a huge issue.

For updates before and during the festival, we loved the videos and posts by the Watershed team here.

Verdict: I'm 110 percent in for next year. Camping was rough, and we'll make some adjustments there to be a bit more comfortable. Perhaps, we'll stay at a camp site away from the concert venue that we heard has a shuttle and hot showers. Darling Husband wants to take a boat and spend the daytime hours on the river instead of reading. That's OK. Bunny and I can read on a boat, too!