Ricky Reyes and Victoria Smith find a clear spot to scoot their boots during the opening acts on Day One of Country Thunder in Florence.

 Kelly Presnell photos, Arizona Daily Star

FLORENCE — As singer-songwriter/actor Nolan Sotillo was getting ready to take the stage at Country Thunder Thursday afternoon, a few hundred fans were fiddling with their smartphones.

No doubt many of them were Googling Sotillo. He is not a brand name in country music, which is usually how the annual country music festival here starts. A lineup of lesser known, classic or emerging artists get the spotlight on what is historically the slowest night of the four-day festival. The rest of the weekend is packed with chart-topping superstars.

Organizers know that fans, expected to number more than 30,000 by the time headliner Blake Shelton hits the stage on Friday, April 8, will spend much of the first day exploring the sprawling festival grounds, checking out the vendors selling all manner of souvenirs from festival T-shirts to belt-buckle wallets, and the food court, where somewhat healthy Asian noodles competed with the alluring aroma of smoked turkey legs and grilled hot dogs from the nearby stand.

With the familiar sound of mics being checked — “one, two, three, testing” — and guitars being tuned from the stage, a group of a dozen or more fans walked past a vendor selling T-shirts and flags with disparaging messages about the current occupant of the White House. The small crowd whooped and hollered their approval as they passed by, but very few stopped early on to buy anything.

Lindsay Ell gets to rocking during her set on the opening evening of Country Thunder in Florence.

On the other side of the festival grounds, a small crowd gathered at the mechanical bull tent not far from where Marine recruiter Master Sgt. Sean Baldwin was encouraging passersby, men and women, to do pullups. Even those who couldn’t muster the strength to finish a single pullup were given a Marine Corps lanyard.

While the handful of people watched, the mechanized bull slowly whipped and yanked and jerked, tossing the petite, bathing-suit clad Kirstin Ridings here and there before gently depositing her onto the cushioned mat.

“That was fun!” the 27-year-old San Tan veterinary tech exclaimed as a woman who had been watching and cheering her on slipped her a $5 bill. Ridings tucked the money into her bikini bottoms and gave the woman a hug.

Not far from the stage, where the field was starting to fill in with fans taking their seats on lawn chairs and blankets, Tucson resident Cheyanne Creger was wincing through any pain she was feeling as Enchanted Dragon Tattoos artist Chango Cisar was creating a tattoo of Country Thunder’s signature steer horn logo on Creger’s back.

“COVID reminded me to kind of embrace the life you get, and here we are,” said the 23-year-old waitress, who moved to Tucson from Illinois in 2019. “I told myself I wasn’t going to live with regrets.”

By the time Cisar had finished, the line for the popular Tucson tattoo parlor, which has two makeshift studios at the festival, had swelled to 10 deep.

Utah residents Geoff Holt and Whitney Nelson were looking for a different kind of thrill ride to occupy their time before Sotillo and the Thursday lineup — Lindsay Ell, Randy Houser and headliner Riley Green — performed. The pair plunked down $15 apiece and strapped into Speed, an amusement ride that looks like a two-headed hammer where riders are strapped into a cage and flipped 120 feet head over heels for several minutes.

Holt and Nelson got a bonus to their adventure: For several moments, the couple was suspended at the top of the ride while the operator waited for another pair of riders to come on board.

“That was so much fun!” Holt said, and Nelson chimed in that the experience was worth the price of admission.

Speed was one of two amusement rides set up not far from partners Rachael Bullis and Sean Skaggs who created an inflatables amusement park.

The pair have operated their Jumpmaxx inflatables business in Tucson for 13 years, but Country Thunder is their biggest event, Skaggs said.

Ed Fulmer dances to the preshow playlist with his girlfriend Julie Quinlan during the early going at Country Thunder. Fulmer has built a collection of choreographed moves to an array of songs and the preshow was giving him the opportunity to break a few of them out.

It’s their second year at the festival; they were there last October when Country Thunder returned after it was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Business in October was OK, Bullis said, given that they had a week or so notice to set up their inflatables, some of which cost the company tens of thousands of dollars.

As Sotillo, whose music straddles pop, country and rock, was introducing himself just as the afternoon temperature was tipping past 90, Ed Fulmer was brushing up on his dance moves.

“He dances every day,” said his longtime girlfriend Julie Quinlan, as Fulmer showed off a little twist and shuffle.

“I make up my own moves. I steal hand jive from ‘Grease’ and this move from MC Hammer,” said the 73-year-old retired nurse from Utah, who demonstrated a little side-by-side, three-step shuffle.

Nolan Sotillo gets a fist bump from a fan while working the extended stage as he opens the evening at Country Thunder in Florence.

By the time Canadian Ell came on stage with her pink electric guitar, the audience started to fill in the blank spots on the lawn and the empty white seats in the reserved section.

“It feels so, so good to be back,” she told the crowd, and they cheered in agreement. “These past couple years have been crap for us, but I have to say, it feels damn good to be with you.”

Country Thunder runs through Sunday, April 10, with headliners Blake Shelton on Friday, Morgan Wallen on Saturday and Florida Georgia Line on Sunday. For tickets, visit countrythunder.com/az.

Become a #ThisIsTucson member! Your contribution helps our team bring you stories that keep you connected to the community. Become a member today.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch