Tail Creek Raceway owner Jason Jahner’s dream of taking his racing events to a whole new level is off to a good start.
Lacombe County’s municipal planning commission conditionally approved Jahner’s bid to add music to his four summer four-by-four truck racing events.
The premier event will be the inaugural Tail Creek Mud and Music Festival set for June 27-29 that hopes to draw up to 8,000 each day at the site about five km southeast of Alix.
A smaller event is expected to draw up to 1,500, and two others around 500 people.
Jahner said Tail Creek Raceway has been in the family since the 1960s and his late father first had the idea of mixing music and motorsports.
“It was my dad’s actual dream to have big events of this calibre,” he said. “It’s been a dream of mine too for a long time. I’ve got a lot of sweat equity, personally, into it.”
The weekend around Canada Day has been the site for the past six years of the High Riders Competition, which features extreme four-by-four trucks and has drawn crowds up to 2,500.
“The off-roading itself and the competition has been getting bigger and bigger every year. We’re seeing more and more families coming to this event,” he said, adding the number of participants is also on the upswing.
Promoter William Gold expects the event will fill a need in Central Alberta and will stack up favourably against other festivals.
“What we’re offering is a lot more,” said Gold, who is confident they will reach daily draws of 7,000 to 8,000 people.
“We’re not doing one big band on one big night. We’re doing two big bands, every night for three nights in a row.
“(We’re) combining that with the largest four-by-four event in Canada, the richest and largest. We’re now cross-breeding two different avenues together to bolster those numbers.”
The music format will be folk, indie and alt rock aimed at Generations X, Y and millennials, he told the planning commission, which includes all county council members.
Gold said the event will feature big-name acts and regional performers.
The bottom half of the festival lineup is expected to be announced early next week, with headliners announced a week to 10 days later.
“We’ll be bringing in over six international acts that are of calibre that would be playing Rexall Place or Commonwealth Stadium,” he said.
“We are bringing in a full-fledged mainstay concert and festival to this area that needs it.”
He predicts the music festival will give smaller communities in the county, such as Alix and Delburne an economic boost.
The commission imposed 18 conditions on its approval such as the need for adequate parking, security, medical aid, traffic control and cleanup. The event must also not create a nuisance, such as noise, traffic or dust problems, for other property owners.
Those concerns were raised in the single letter of objection received by the county to the permit application.
The commission was told that decibel meters will be in place to ensure the concert does not become too disruptive. About 130 people will handle security and there will be a main stage and two smaller venues and beer gardens. Parking and camping spaces are available on site.
A three-day general admission pass costs $170 and camping pass costs $65. Single day tickets will also be available. For more information go to www.tailcreek.ca.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com