Moose Jaw brings out cowboy boots for One Horse Town concert

After weeks of voting and months of waiting, the time has finally come for the Coors Banquet One Horse Town concert in Moose Jaw Friday night.

In June, the votes started pouring in and over the summer it was announced that the Friendly City beat out five other places across Canada to host the show.

Ted Schaeffer, director of parks and recreation with the City of Moose Jaw, said once they were shortlisted, he knew they’d win.

“Part of it is the quality of acts, and then there’s the community’s love of this type of music,” explained Schaeffer, adding that residents were very dedicated during the voting period.

Jessica Teixeira, brand and public relations manager with Coors Banquet, echoed those sentiments.

“Local business owners had posters up, the mayor was lobbying … that all resulted in 44,000 votes, which is amazing,” said Teixeira, adding that the city only has a population of just more than 33,000 people.

Once it was announced that Moose Jaw won the right to host the concert, Teixeira said around 3,000 free tickets were snatched up in a record-breaking 17 minutes and calls it a “testament to the enthusiasm” around the show.

“Lots of times, residents have to drive hours and hours away to get to their favourite artists,” explained Teixeira. “Bringing it local, where you can literally be on the streets that you walk everyday and see these huge headlining artists, it’s almost surreal. We’re so happy to bring it to everybody.”

Langenburg’s Jess Moskaluke is among the country artists gracing the stage Friday night, and Schaeffer said the community is pumped.

“It’s always such a great thing that you can have something like this and one of the showcased acts is homegrown talent — you can’t get any better than that,” he said.

The other acts include James Barker Band, Jon Pardi and headliner Darius Rucker.

For those who didn’t get a chance to snag a pass into the show, a free overflow area is located east of the main stage on Fairford Street, in front of the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa.

City transit will be free to fans Friday night; the buses will run their regular routes and will be lined up along Langdon Crescent starting around 10:30 p.m.

The Coors Banquet One Horse Town concert kicks off at the intersection of Main Street and Fairford Street at 6:30 p.m.