Kickoff Concert Fun!

Saturday night the Caribou County Fair got off to an early start with an incredible concert that featured a wide variety of artists and musical styles.  A total of seven different acts took the stage to perform some of their favorite songs.  Each act gave the concert goers something a little different and unique to their personal taste in music.

The concert started with four different local acts that included a pair of original songs to go along with two covers of popular modern music.  Carrie Yost, who has begun to make a name for herself in Caribou County as a songwriter, kicked off the concert with a Christian ballad that she wrote.  Carrie stated that she prefers to write the songs over performing so she brought along one of her daughters Emma to help perform the song as a duo.  Next the crowd was treated to another original song from a local artist.  Holland Williams is just thirteen years old and already writing and performing her own music. Holland performed her song solo while playing her acoustic guitar.  Following Holland another young performer took the stage with her guitar.  Aleah Medina, a recent graduate of Grace High School performed a cover of a very popular song from the Red Clay Strays and although she had a bit of nerves with the crowd’s encouragement she sang beautifully.  Claudia Johnson from neighboring Bear Lake finished up the round of local artists performances with a pop cover of a Rihanna song.

Once the local acts finished their performances it was the professionals turn on stage.  Each of the three professional acts performed a mixture of original music and popular cover songs.  Mark Mackay was the first of these acts to perform.  Mark is based out of Nashville but commented on the beauty of Caribou County particularly the sunset that cut across the skyline during his set.  Mark’s music had a country feel that many in the crowd could relate to.  During his set Mark invited any of the local artists that wanted to join him on stage for a jam session.  Young Holland Williams took him up on his offer and got a chance of a lifetime to perform with Mackay on stage.  Mark finished his set by having Ryan Shupe join him on stage where the two artists showcased their incredible talent with their instruments with Mark on the guitar and Ryan on the fiddle.  Shupe then went on to perform his set showing off a piece of technology that allowed him to record and repeat several different sounds on a machine giving the audience the appearance that they were hearing a full band.  Shupe’s set included a little something for every age as he performed songs about corndogs and just regular dogs getting the crowd involved while also including some of his personal hits such as Dream Big. The last act to take the stage was Alex Sharpe who hails from Ireland.  Alex performed some classic covers from groups like Fleetwood Mac then wowed the crowd with some traditional Irish songs.  

The concert was an incredible event and the fair board would like to thank all of the sponsors who helped make it happen and would especially like to thank Daphney Medina for all of her hard work and dedication to make this event a success.