Midway through the BamaJam Music & Arts Festival weekend, Ronnie Gilley whips out his cell phone and starts reading.
“I’ve got 150 text messages,” he says

Hank Williams Jr. closed BamaJam 2008 Saturday night.

Miranda Lambert performs at BamaJama 2008 Saturday evening. 

Gov’t Mule closed the alternative stage Saturday evening at BamaJam 2008. The band played from about 6:45 to 8 p.m.

COFFEE COUNTY—Gasoline is $3.86 a gallon. Unemployment is rising. Business is slow. Unsold houses sit on the market. People have more debt than assets.
Times are not good. They are hard even, but a walk around at BamaJam Music & Arts Festival proves one thing. People will spend money on entertainment.

The band’s show began about 8 p.m. to record crowd at BamaJam 2008.

Here’s a look at the drive from Enterprise to BamaJam.

Tracy Lawrence performs on the county stage Friday afternoon during BamaJam.

The band performed on the Alternative Stage Friday night at BamaJam.

Despite a sluggish economy and the challenges involved in a first-year event, BamaJam has brought the crowds.

“More than 81,000 people have passed through the gates,” Ronnie Gilley said this morning.

Take a look at what’s happening at BamaJam.

ZZ Top perfoms live at BamaJam. Group took stage a little after 10 in last performance of day.

COFFEE COUNTY — Your money is no good over here at BamaJam.

No, things aren’t free, but food and beverage vendors do not accept cash. Festivalgoers must instead buy tickets which are redeemable for lemonade, corn dogs, boiled peanuts, cold beer and anything else consumable.

Enterprise Police Captain Mike Lolley said 12 BamaJam festival goers have been treated for dehydration due to high temperatures as of Friday afternoon. He also said two arrests have been made so far, both for underage consumption of alcohol.

Upwards of 5,000 music fans came out Thursday night to hear country music legend Randy Owen perform.

Owen is lead singer for the Fort Payne-based group Alabama which stopped touring after its Farewell Tour ended in 2004. Fans were hopeful that wouldn’t stop “the voice of the band” from singing classic Alabama songs and it didn’t.

Owen belted out about a dozen Alabama favorites as the headliner for the first-day entertainment at the BamaJam Music & Arts Festival in rural Coffee County.