Categories: Things To Do

Here’s what’s new at Calgary’s best country music festival

Photo via Country Thunder/Facebook

There’s less than a week to go before Calgary’s Country Thunder music festival returns to the Confluence, and the upgrades for this year’s fest are seriously off the charts.

Veterans of Country Thunder Alberta may be familiar with the dusty, cowboy-boot-trodden grassland around the city’s historic Confluence. To green up the festival venue, Country Thunder and The Confluence have recently teamed up to transform the grounds with freshly-laid sod and upgrades to the area’s green spaces.

It was all made possible by the festival’s ticket-buyers, with a portion of each ticket sold donated back to the venue. In the joint efforts, fans have raised more than $200,000 for park improvements over the past three years.

In addition to the grounds’ newly refreshed green spaces, Country Thunder will feature some of the top talent in the genre, alongside craveable food trucks and brand new themed days.

What to expect

Country Thunder is definitely a bucket list festival for every cowboy. Country musicians Cody Johnson, Bailey Zimmerman and Old Dominion will headline this year’s star-studded festival lineup.

Set on the historic and scenic Confluence grounds, County Thunder is at the epicentre of Calgary’s festival culture, with three days dedicated to the best and the brightest in contemporary country.

Great music deserves great eats, and Country Thunder will be bringing the heat to this year’s assortment of food trucks. There will be plenty of Midway staples, including corn dogs, churros, mini doughnuts and other deep-fried treats.

Also new to this year’s festival are suggested dress-up themes for each day. You can bust out the bolo ties and Smithbilt’s for day one’s theme, “classic cowboy,” then follow up with your best Canadian tuxedo for “bluejean night”. Sunday’s theme, “camo country,” is bound to draw plenty of Duck Dynasty fans.

If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to kick off the post-Stampede blues, this might be it.

So dust off those cowboy boots and grab a pal to go fishin’ in the dark. Country Thunder will be waiting.