“It still hasn’t fully sunk in.”
Darby Klassen of Central Butte was shocked to learn when she went to Country Thunder in Craven last weekend that she was the one millionth fan to walk through the gate.
“It’s so awesome. I’m completely speechless and it doesn’t seem real, but I’m so excited,” Klassen said.
And it didn’t seem real at first.
It started with a phone call, but Klassen thought it was a scam call and didn’t pick up.
“I got a phone call from an Alberta phone number that I didn’t know and I was like, delete not answering that. Then it was a voicemail that was like ‘I’m so-and-so from Country Thunder. I want to chat with you.’ I’m like scammer,” she explained.
After that, she received a text message from the organizers of Country Thunder Saskatchewan saying they needed to talk to her. She texted back thinking maybe she was in trouble. The organizers answered back saying no, but they needed to ask her some questions.
From there, she thought maybe it was a survey and she didn’t want to do it. At this point, her friends and family told her to call because a contest was going on. She called and was told they couldn’t tell her much over the phone but that they wanted to meet up with her.
On Sunday, the organizers said they could meet her at her campsite. She gave them her campsite information and that’s when everything changed.
There was a knock on the camper door and she heard “There’s a news crew looking for Darby.” As the attention grew, she started to think something big was about to happen.
“At that point, I was like OK obviously I won something, but could I have actually won it? I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, think that I had and then be disappointed. So, I was kind of skeptical,” Klassen said.
That’s when she learned she was the one-millionth fan to come through the gates of Country Thunder Saskatchewan. She described herself as “speechless” when she got the news.
This was the fourth time that Klassen had been to Country Thunder since turning 18.
“I always begged when I was in high school to go. My parents said nope, we’ve been to Craven for years and years, we know what goes on. You’re not going until you’re 18,” Klassen said.
She said her ultimate headliner, if she could choose, would be Alan Jackson.
For being named the one-millionth fan, Klassen wins a pair of Platinum tickets to Country Thunder for life, access to the backstage hospitality lounge for life, a guitar autographed by the 2024 lineup and much more. The prize package is estimated at over $20,000.