GRD Winner Jami’s Rocklahoma Adventure
A short while back, Jami Cramblet won the trip to Rocklahoma from GRD. She and her husband won airfare, hotel, $500, and tickets to the entire weekend of the festival. She's back from her weekend, and it sounds amazing, and I want to share her experience.
The VIP/Rockstar package that I won through 97.9 WGRD, in Grand Rapids MI, was beyond anything I could have imagined! I just do not know how to thank everyone involved enough.
Our stay at the River Spirit Casino Resort was wonderful. The room was large, bright, very clean and had a great view of the swimming pool and river. What a location; my husband and I would absolutely recommend this casino resort to anyone visiting the area. The shuttle taking us back and forth to the festival was a huge plus, too. The drivers were very engaging with conversation, and even knew our names right from the start.
VIP/Rockstar. Short of being a musician, there is no comparison to this package.
The meet and greets were incredible! Here is who we got to speak with:
- Brett Scallions from Fuel...we not only got to meet him, but my husband Ethan was able to do an impromptu interview with him. Fuel is one of his all-time favorite bands. Ethan couldn't stop talking about it...so cool.
- Dale from Seether
- Jesse James Dupree from Jackyl
- Two members from Red Sun Rising
- Black Stone Cherry
- Tom Chambers (former NBA player). Not a meet and greet but he happened to sit down at our table in the VIP food tent.
All of the people above were amazing and down to earth. The greeted us by name, asked about us (how did we win, where were we from, etc.), and then even addressed us by name as they were leaving. At the most, we really only thought we would get a handshake and a hello. What a pleasant surprise.
Finally, Ray Michaels, the gentleman from Townsquare Media who was our main contact during this whirlwind weekend. What a wonderful person. If there is anyone that can make you feel at home and welcome, it is Ray. Ethan was having a great time exchanging texts with Ray before we even left MI. Needless to say, we clicked with Ray right off, and just enjoyed sharing his company.
Not only is Ray one of the nicest and most sincere people we have ever met, he went far above and beyond anything we could have hoped for. There happened to have been a scheduling conflict of some sort with Seether, so instead of meeting with the whole band, Dale was the only one that was able to stop by. This was absolutely fine with us, as Dale was a great and friendly person to talk with, and we are fans of Seether.
Ray kept sending out texts to try to get this full-band meeting set up for us at some point later in the day, but we kept saying not to worry about it. For us, we were completely fine with everything else that we were able to experience. We were Rockstars with access to everything except the stage and media area! How often does something like that happen to anyone?? The meet and greets were just that extra bonus...our weekend would have been a total success even if meeting the artists was something that had not even been offered to begin with.
Well, in general conversation shortly after all of this, we mentioned that we are going to see Seether, Godsmack and Korn at the Chicago Open Air on July 15. Minutes later, Ray shows us a text on his phone. He had been in contact with one of his friends to see if he could get us into the VIP meet and greet for this music festival! We were at a loss for words seeing that Ray took this more than an extra step for us.
Overall, we just can't say enough good things about this VIP/Rockstar package. Free airfare, hotel, shuttle, VIP tents with food, a/c, beverages and furniture to relax on, the concerts themselves and the volunteers and staff who were all also so friendly, polite, helpful and courteous...we literally could go on for pages and pages about how wonderful this whole experience was.
The appreciation and success of this package is definitely something that needs to be shared with those involved. Also, we found out that this was the first time that this package had been offered as a contest prize, so how much cooler is that now?
Thanks for listening Jami, and for becoming a Freeloader! If you're not a Freeloader, get signed up, and you could win cool stuff like this!