March 19, 2024

Despite rain, Colfax rocks the Quarry

More than 150 turn out for concert

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COLFAX — The good times kept rolling in Colfax despite wet, rainy weather Saturday night. More than 150 residents turned out to Rock the Quarry, a bi-annual fundraiser for Colfax’s Quarry Springs Park.

Colfax Mayor David Mast said organizers decided to move the event indoors after looking at the weather forecast Saturday morning while setting up for the event, which featured several bands, a food truck and a beer garden. After hosting the first event last September, Mast said city leaders knew they wanted to keep it going. Funds raised during Saturday night’s event will go right back into Quarry Springs Park, Mast said.

“We want to get some income so that we can continue to make improvements to the park,” Mast said.

Working around the rain organizers decided to set up for the concert in the indoor archery range, which had enough space to get concertgoers out of the showers. Featuring music from Slipstream, Harvest Band and Richard Arndt, the all ages event had space for residents to move, groove, rock and roll on Saturday night.

City leaders hope the profits from the concert will allow them to move forward with plans to construct a boat ramp and a dock on shores of the lake at the park. Mast said the city raised more than $3,000 from the concert in June, and with help from sponsors they were able to turn a profit of $4,000 last September during the inaugural event.

“The turnout wasn’t real great in June,” Mast said. “This isn’t too bad considering the weather.”

This isn’t the first time organizers have had to deal with rain during the concert. Last September’s concert was just as damp as Saturday night’s event. Mast said the rain always puts a damper on the event and limits the turnout for the concert.

“With good weather we might very well have had another 100 people here tonight,” Mast said.

Soggy skies might have kept some away, but it didn’t stop the bands from rocking out. Playing together with brothers Tom and Jim Robinson, Harvest Band, which hails from Davis County has been together for “33 years and 22 wives,” according to Bailey. Mark Bailey, of Harvest Band said he was glad organizers decided to move the concert inside.

“Oh yeah, I think we’d have got dumped on,” Bailey said, during a break in the action.

Just in case the music wasn’t enough of draw for fans on Saturday night, Bailey had plenty of advice to offer as well. Resplendent in white tuxedo jacket with tails and red bandanna Bailey said the no matter what the weather was like, the band would keep playing.

“Just keep breathing, and dress nice,” Bailey said.

A little wet weather wasn’t enough to keep Barbara Heaters away. Heaters, of Newton, came to see Slipstream perform. A big fan of Slipstream, she had a neighbor who used to sing with the band and tries to never miss a show. Heaters said she’d already been rained on earlier in the day, so a little more rain couldn’t hurt.

“The music is great, but then, they should be, they’ve been playing together for 23 years,” Heaters said.

Contact David Dolmage at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or ddolmage@newtondailynews.com