Southern Alberta Music Festival returns to raise money

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

Aspen Crossing is once again hosting the South Alberta Music Festival (SAMF), which is scheduled to take place Aug. 13-14.

2021 marks the eighth year of hosting for the festival, which now returns annually to raise money for STARS Air Ambulance, as well as to simply put on a good show with good music. 

Aspen Crossing owner, Jason Thornhill, said he’s happy to be able to continue hosting the festival on the grounds, as well as to support STARS.

“People enjoying people and coming together for a good cause and hearing some great music – I think that’s the highlight, and just people feeling good,” he said.

This year’s festival will see 14 performers taking to the stage on the grounds. These include the likes of Spur Crazy, Nite Life, Jake Mathews and Drew Gregory, among others.

The first festival was held in 2013, which had the unfortunate timing of being right around the time of the High River flooding. Thus, funds that were raised through the festival went to relief efforts in High River.

“The next year we said, ‘let’s do STARS air ambulance,’ and they were so nice to work with and were so thankful for what we had done, we [thought] … to just do STARS every year,” explained Thornhill. 

“We’d spoke to a few other charities, but there’s quite a bit of politics to work with a few of them so let’s just keep going with STARS.”

Since the festival’s inception and donating the proceeds to STARS, the least amount the event has generated on a given year was in the ballpark of $5,000, according to Thornhill. The highest amount, he added, reached roughly $18,000.

The SAMF raised the $18,000 in 2019 which was their best year to date, which they hope to top with the event this time around. Thornhill said he would like to see $20,000 raised this year.

“It just keeps increasing, and we’re planning to hopefully have more attendees this year, which should help the amount of income,” he said. “[STARS has] been great to work with, so we hope to just keep doing it for a long time and we get a lot of good feedback from not only the entertainers, but the guests, saying what a nice event that the whole thing is.”

Thornhill added there is space on the grounds to comfortably fit 1,200 people, but expects to see closer to 500 attendees on either of the given days. 

The music is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on Aug. 13, and the festival will reopen at 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 14, running until nearly midnight each day.