Some exciting changes are being made to the format for Oldstoberfest.
Gillian Grant with C5 Rodeo was on hand to provide an update to Olds council during the Monday, May 6th Committee of the Whole Meeting at the Town Office.
She says they are extending to a three-day festival, which is up from two days in the past. According to Grant, it will be held September 12th, 13th, and 14th. They will be starting with a grandstand concert on the Thursday evening.
Grant points out that they will have a really great variety of great talent and fun coming as part of the music component for Oldstoberfest, so they are super excited about it. She calls it a fantastic line up and they will be making the concert announcements in mid-July. It will be a country night on Thursday, the classic rock night will be on Friday as they typically have had in the past, and Grant says a very talented Nashville recording artist will be joining them on Saturday for ‘Nashville Night’.
She says local merchants have appreciated the increase in drive of business during the Oldstoberfest weekend, so they hope to keep that coming. Grant says “It is very important for Oldstoberfest to show that we are a community partner and we want to be bringing as much as we can and driving as much business, and doing as much business as we can with the community. Over the past two, years we have done over $150,000 dollars of direct business out of our event budget with the community and that is a very good portion of our budget, so we are continuing to do as much as we can. I know we have gotten a lot of great comments from some of the local businesses.”
Grant adds, they are looking forward to having some good weather like they have had in the past few years. She highlights the fact that they had record crowds in 2023 with a total over 8,500 hundred spectators coming through the gates at the Olds Regional Exhibition grounds during the two days. Grant says “We have been very lucky with sold out crowds the past couple of years with Oldstoberfest. We wanted to ensure that we were growing the event and upgrading, changing to keep current and challenge ourselves. We are excited to be able to upgrade and increase our attendance with a third day, bringing a higher economic impact for the community, more fun and more celebrations.”
Stay up to date on all of the news as the 2024 edition of the event approaches by going online to Oldstoberfest.com.