Country fest coming
A new two-day festival is aiming to bring country music fans to Niagara Falls next winter.
Though no acts have been announced yet, the first Frost Stampede Music Festival will happen Feb. 22 and 23, 2019, at the Scotiabank Convention Centre. It’s touting itself as North America’s first indoor country music fest.
“Typically, country festivals are held in the spring and summer seasons,” says co-organizer Chris Dabrowski, co-founder of the Niagara Falls Comic Con. “Niagara Falls is a great backdrop for country music, I think. And it’s the first of its kind, so we thought, why not do it in February?”
Presented by Fallsview Events, the festival intends to offer major headliners and a handful of local acts in all three halls of the convention centre, totaling more than 87,000 square feet. Dabrowski says “thousands of pounds of hay” will be hauled in to give it an outdoorsy feel.
Having the event in February removes any competition with the massive Boots and Hearts country festival, which attracts about 45,000 country fans to Oro-Medonte, Ontario, every August and has quickly become the largest country music festival in Canada. Since it began in 2012, major country artists like Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood have played the four-day event.
“We thought, if there’s nothing going in other parts of the world in terms of country festivals, then let’s do something and see if we can draw a crowd,” says Dabrowski.
He expects the festival’s first year to attract between 10,000 to 15,000 people.
In recent months, Fallsview Events has organized functions with players from the 1992 World Series-winning Toronto Blue Jays, and celebrity chef Michael Smith. A two-day music festival will be the group’s largest endeavour.
“We’re going to try our hand at a music festival and thought country would be the one to go.”
Ticket prices and the first slate of artists are expected to be announced soon at www.froststampede.com