Country music fans prep for heat, rain at Rock the South

CULLMAN, Ala. ( WIAT ) — Thousands of people are gathered in Cullman listening to some of country music’s finest at Rock the South. Country music fans said they are ready to keep the party going rain or shine.

“I’m so glad it’s overcast,” said Sarah Sendelweck from Brandon, Mississippi. “If it was hot and sunny out here, I don’t think I could.”

Most everyone at Rock the South is coming prepared for both intense heat and heavy rain.

“Come to Cullman, have a good time but plan on getting hot,” said Cullman County Emergency Management Agency Director Tim Sartin. “Plan on getting wet because it’s going to be both.”

The EMA said the biggest concern with summer storms is lightning and strong winds. The Cullman County EMA said it’s working with Rock the South, the National Weather Service and around a dozen other agencies to keep an eye on the weather and make sure everyone enjoying the festival is safe.

“We do what’s called a 10-mile ring and a 5-mile ring, so basically if there’s any lightning within 10 miles of us, they tell us, we tell the promoters, and the promoters makes the decision whether to delay the show or not,” Sartin said. “When you have lightning and stuff like that, you’re going to have high winds. So we have a 40-50 mile an hour threshold here for the stage and everything else. So anytime anything like that is coming in, that’s some of the main things we’re looking for.”

Overcast skies and the threat of rain, however, isn’t enough to dampen the spirits of the country music fans at Rock the South.

“I think it’ll be fun if it rains,” Sendelweck said. “It’s just the rain. I mean, I’m going to go out and play in it. I don’t care.”

Many people camping out at Rock the South are hoping for rain over the next few days for more reasons than to cool off.

“I want to see all the mud sliding and everything like I’ve seen in the videos from past years,” said Brandon Jackson from Lee County, Georgia.

Rock the South organizers said it has a meteorologist and the Cullman County EMA on site to watch the radar and let them know if any storms roll through in about an eight-mile radius.

“Listen to our communication. Listen to our law enforcement, our firefighters, our security guards because we will come into the venue and we’ll communicate that with the people,” said Michael McBrayer with public safety and government relations at Rock the South. “We can ask them to go back to their cars and their RVs, and if it’s truly bad weather, we’ll communicate that with them too if there needs to be an evacuation or something.”

The Cullman County EMA said when it’s not raining, even with cloud cover it’ll be hot and humid outside, so people should have a plan to beat the heat as well as any storms.

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