22nd Annual Gadsden Riverfest 2007 - Saturday Night Recap

The second night of Gadsden, Alabama's yearly rock and country music festival, Riverfest, broke records in attendance and in humidity. Despite the drought that has been ravaging the majority of the Southeast, more than 30,000 fans took to the streets of Rainbow Drive to enjoy a night of good fun and great music, among the fans was myself.

The number of fans varied slightly from that of Friday night in which American Idol star, Chris Daughtry and his band Daughtry performed but it was still jammed packed. As I recall a friend mentioned it was like taking a NASCAR™ audience and putting them inside a baseball stadium, but this didn't damper the enthusiasm and fervor of the event.

"Overall this is the best Riverfest we've had in 10 years or longer," stated the president of the Chamber of Gadsden and Etowah County, Tom Quinn. "The crowds have just been great and we're so excited." (as stated to the Gadsden Times, Sunday Edition)

Opening the stage at 6:00 pm, was local band and winner of Thursday night's 'Road to Riverfest' challenge, Southern Nites. A country cover band hailing from Gadsden, Southern Nites performed some of today's hottest country songs as well as a few older favorites.

Legendary Bobby Bare was up next. A significant favorite of the older attendees, Bobby Bare performed tearjerkers and old-fashioned Christian tunes, as well as a couple of silly songs that included the children of the audience on vocals. The highlight was by-far his performance of 'Marie Laveau', a song in tribute of the well-known Voodoo queen from New Orleans.

Country and Bluegrass rockers, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, stormed the stage around 8:30 pm. Along with their hits 'Mr. Bojangles' and 'Fishing in the Dark', they performed some original bluegrass instrumentals and other songs, which had the crowd on their feet.

The annual fire works spectacular was the biggest and most awe-inspiring event Riverfest has seen. Set to the music based from the Superman and Shrek movies, the audience enjoyed over 30 minutes of non-stop explosive action over the Coosa, which was reminiscent of NYC's Times Square with the amount of boats that lined the banks.

After the fireworks, around 10:00 pm, country music heartthrob Joe Nichols took to the stage and screams of excitement could be heard for miles. Nichols definitely knows how to please a crowd. Cracking jokes and singing his biggest hits, including 'Brokenheartsville', 'Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off' and his first number one hit, 'The Impossible.' After performing for well over an hour, Nichols left the stage and most of the audience cleared out. After about 10 minutes and a quick shirt change, Nichols took the stage again for an additional thirty minutes, singing old country favorites borrowed from Hank Williams, Jr and more to the remaining fans.