Yes, you read that right. There is an unofficial road race happening through the campgrounds at Hinterland.
For the second year in a row, Chris Dandurand and his camp are organizing a fun run on Saturday and are inviting other campers to go with them.
“It’s very informal,” Dandurand says. “In 2017, we went for a run and noticed a bunch of other people doing the same thing. We wanted to see if we could organize the runners and create some camaraderie.”
His friend and campmate Jennifer Artman planned some routes of different distances using an app called Strava for the 2018 festival, and they created a Facebook event to try and recruit others to join. Around 25 people showed up, and they are hoping for more this time around.
Dandurand has been going to Hinterland since the first year. He says it would be cool to see a run that’s more official but hopes that if nothing else, the group of runners continue to get together to kill the time in the morning before the music starts.
“It’s a good way to get your blood flowing,” he says. “We’ve got a distance for everyone, and it’s a fun run. We’ll all take it at our own pace. Come give it a shot."
Sam Summers, Hinterland's organizer, hopes this is just the first of several events that will pop up organically to add more ways for attendees to participate in the festival.
"I want to make sure people have a good experience every year," Summers says. "Anyone can book a good lineup, and as long as you have a budget, that's easy. What separates festivals is the experience people have there, so to encourage people to participate, we decided to offer free shower passes."
The meet spot for this year’s Hinterhalf fun run is at 8:30 a.m. near the shuttle drop off. Find the RSVP on Facebook.
