Over 350 Taken into Custody at 2009 Country Music Festival

By Raymond Loesch • August 18, 2009

On a hot and steamy Saturday in Foxboro, Massachusetts Country Music reigned supreme in what is usually not known as a Country Music area. Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Home of the New England Patriots and Revolution hosted this years hottest country concert. Headlined by Kenny Chesney with Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, and Sugarland.

This years show is getting a lot of press due to the arrest of more than 100 people and about 250 people in to protective custody in a crackdown on underage drinking at the country music festival. two young women who had attended the festival last year died in a car crash on Route 1. Last year, 176 people were taken into custody at the event.
This years crowd of over 56,000 was well informed of the rules of tailgating and underage drinking, area cops and the local country music radio stations made several announcements regarding the rules for attending this years performance. This year people were not allowed into the parking areas unless they had a ticket for the show.

You can read a review of the show here, I have only one comment in regards to the review done by Jim Sullivan of the Boston Herald. He states “Like Garth Brooks before him, Chesney is only vaguely country. He’s really like a peppier, more hard-rocking Jimmy Buffett, down to the scads of pre-show tailgaters and his island-accented duo, “Guitars and Tiki Bars.” Not to mention his signature song: “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.” I agree with him that Kenny Chesney’s connection to country music is tenuous, but for him to lump Garth Brooks in with him is totally absurd. Garth Brooks is most definitely Country, He has a marketing degree and used that knowledge to propel country music in to the top-40 radio stations and get more airplay and listeners to country music. His 1991 album “Ropin’ the wind” was the first country album to debut at the top of the pop music charts.