Athabasca could be getting a country music show of a lifetime this April, but it needs the community support in order for that to happen.
Athabasca District Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Rotary Club of Athabasca to participate in Big Valley Jamboree’s Small Town Saturday Night contest, in an attempt to bring in some big country music artists to the small town.
The contest, held by Big Valley Jamboree (BVJ), is giving Alberta towns with a population of less than 20,000 a chance to host they’re very own mini-BVJ concert this April. The contest winners will decided through an online voting process held on BVJ’s website.
“This is great for the community because they get a taste what Big Valley Jamboree’s for,” Chamber president Todd Dutchak said. “It’s great for tourism because it’s bringing people for all over to see this one time show. So we need everyone to vote.”
The concert is going to be headlined by Canadian country music artist Gord Bamford along with a songwriter circle performance. Danny Hooper is scheduled to MC the event.
If Athabasca wins the contest, the concert will then be used as a fundraiser for the Rotary Club, which they will use to help fund their various projects within the community.
“The Rotary Club will distribute the funds from there,” Dutchak said, The contest winners will be decided through a two-stage online voting process through BVJ’s website. The first stage officially opened on Feb. 1 and will close on Feb. 15. Dutchcak is asking that everyone sign up and become a “BVJ Bandit” and vote to get Athabasca in the top 10 finalists.
“You sign up and you can vote once a day,” Dutchak said. “Anybody who has an email address can vote, so if everybody in your family has an email everyone can vote.”
“I’m going to email all my friends and family to vote for Athabasca, even though some of them are in the States I’ll get them to vote as well,” he added. “So everybody vote, vote, vote ,vote.”
Those who wish to vote for BVJ can go to www.bigvalleyjamboree.com/stsn.
