>Wheatstock was amazing! Is there really anything better than live music on a Saturday night?
Okay, it may not have been woodstock, but look out Oregon, I think Wheatstock has the potential to be one of Oregon’s signiture events in the coming years.
With a love for music, a love for a small town in northeast Oregon, and the kids that call Helix home, the volunteers of Wheatstock will continue to make this event better and better each year.
Now back to live music on a Saturday night, how could it get any better? Well, throw in a beer garden, the smell of fresh cut wheat, a grass lawn to dance into the night on, free camping, and headliner Stoney LaRue, and you have got yourself a Saturday night, northeast Oregon style.
Great local bands played into the night at the Helix arena, a precurser to Stoney LaRue, whose album, Velvet will be released August 30.
If you weren’t able to make it to this years Wheatstock, be sure to put it on your calendar for next year. You will not be disappointed in the amount of entertainment the fine people of Helix have in store for the 2012 event.
Wheatstock came about like so many great events, a couple friends got to talking, and while sitting in the Rainbow Tavern, in Pendleton, Oregon, those two men began to dream.
Those men were Duane Dunlap and Jef Farley.
Both with musical backgrounds, both from northeast Oregon, the two men chatted.
“Hey, let’s put on a music festival,” said Duane Dunlap. “I think we could make it work.”
The dream became a reality and they called it Wheatstock.
Dunlap, who was coaching the Helix basketball team at the time, knew there were a lot of great people in Helix. People that would help put on a great show for the people who came to watch.
Helix High School has roughly 60 kids enrolled. It is a 1A school which has a pep band as well as a full band program, thanks in part to the people who have put on Wheatstock for the past five years.
“Music is important to young people and we are going to do our best to keep it going,” said Dunlap.