Spaghetti fest firmly on the menu
To say the Spaghetti Western Festival has been quietly working its way into the city’s cultural fabric for the past half-decade would be somewhat misleading: there’s nothing quiet about the rip-roaring good time.
But still, the free festival on Olympic Plaza which features some of this area’s finest country and western artists alongside national and international names, has grown incrementally over the previous four years. This year, it celebrates its fifth anniversary with its biggest event — and first two-day outing — surprising even its organizer, Matt Masters.
“It’s amazing how five years flies by,” Masters says, looking back on what the festival has become since he was approached in 2008 by the then Olympic Plaza Cultural Development District to organize a free country music event for downtown. “To be perfectly honest, I never thought it would last five years. Now, we’re a legit festival.”
That’s apparent when you see the list of more than a dozen acts performing over the course of the two days including: Austin acoustic act The Atomic Roosters; a supergroup of Canadian side musicians called The Heartbroken featuring Damhnait Doyle on vocals; Toronto singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge; First Nations act The Siouxpranos of Morley; and local faves such as No River, Cowpuncher, Joe Nolan and The Hackamores.
Masters says he’s proud that as the event has grown, it has done so while adhering to the artistic vision of the Spaghetti Western tag line, which is: New Directions in Country and Western Music:
“We didn’t want to just offer the mainstream, we wanted to explore stuff on the fringes,” he says. “The interesting thing about that is that with country music that allows you to go to the alternative side, but also to the traditional side. The traditional side of country music really is on the fringe at this point.”
Again, that’s why he says it’s so satisfying that not only have Calgarians embraced it, but other organizations with the number of sponsors jumping from four last year to 15 for this event, including everyone from the City of Calgary and Calgary 2012 to neighbours such as the Glenbow Museum and the Epcor Centre.
“It makes me feel we’re doing something good if the community is responding to it,” Masters says.
For more information, go to the Spaghetti Western Festival page on Facebook.