REBA BOOST S FESTIVAL
People hold hands during a prayer circle at a ceremony to announce that Reba McEntire will headline the No Greater Love Christian music festival from Aug. 12 to 13 at the Chief Goodstoney Rodeo Lands on the Stoney Nakoda Nation.
She’s a celebrity known to millions by her first name alone, a country music superstar who’s sold more than 56 million records and can still fill stadiums 40 years after bursting onto the Nashville scene as a smiling young redhead from Oklahoma.
So I’m not the slightest surprised Wednesday afternoon that Karri Ward is literally jumping up and down as she tells me that Reba McEntire will headline the No Greater Love Music Festival taking place Aug. 12 to 13 at the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
“It’s going to be phenomenal,” says Ward, one of the brains and hearts behind the Christian music event in its second year (for info on tickets and other details, go to nogreaterlove.ca).
“She (McEntire) is just ecstatic to be able to come and share this ... it’s going to be an up-close-and-personal experience, in this incredible place with this incredible backdrop.”
The setting at the Goodstoney Rodeo Lands — an expansive meadow framed by the Bow River, foothills and mountains — is indeed nothing short of spectacular. Less than an hour’s drive west of Calgary, it’s nevertheless a landscape most know better from a slew of Hollywood films rather than seeing first-hand.
That is something that Calgarians Ward and Tammy Love, the executive producers of the festival, along with their friends and partners from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, hope to change.
“It is an ecumenical conference of song,” Wesley First Nation Chief Ernest Wesley says of the festival that last year brought out more than 5,000 attendees, many of whom camped on the lands for the weekend event. “We’re bringing religions together, through music, to love one another.”
On Wednesday, Wesley is one of many gathered at a long-table ceremony and celebration to help get the word out about the festival; representatives from local churches, elders, performers and other invited guests join in on the festivities, which begins first with a pipe ceremony and scores of people joining hands in a prayer circle.
As guests line up at a taco food truck for their lunch, people like Ward fill in the assembled media on just how Stoney Nakoda First Nation became the host venue for what is already Canada’s biggest faith-based music festival.
“I have to be honest — in 2002, I had a vision to do this,” says Ward, who adds that life got in the way of her initial timing plans. In 2014, she connected with Love, who worked several years for Paul Brandt, an artist who, like McEntire, is as well known for his humanitarian work as his musical career.
“We met at a gig on Tsuut’ina First Nation,” Love says of her connection to Ward. Working with Brandt inspired her to pursue work with a humanitarian element. “We just started the path of ‘OK, let’s see what this looks like.’ Here we are today, at this beautiful place.”
Chief Wesley, one of Stoney Nakoda’s three chiefs, remembers the first time he met with the two women. “I sat back, I looked at them; I wanted to know if they really meant it,” he says. “I looked into their eyes and, sure enough, I knew that they meant it.”
Along with McEntire, the 2017 festival boasts 18 acts, including such international Christian/ gospel stars as For King & Country, Tenth Avenue North and We Are Messengers. A movie night Aug. 11, complete with outdoor screen, will kick off the weekend in family-friendly style.
“Coming together with song and dance is the same as our powwows ... spirituality is a part of it,” Chiniki First Nation Chief Aaron Young says as he stands in an outdoor oasis that has been featured in such acclaimed films as Legends of the Fall, Unforgiven and The Revenant, to name a few. “This place is beautiful, it is one of refuge. It is an honour for us to share it with our visitors.”
Ward, who with her partners is aiming for attendance of 20,000 in just the second year, is well aware that the announcement of McEntire touching down for the festival means they could exceed even that.
“We’ve got room for up to 100,000 people,” she says, looking out onto a meadow as far as the eye can see.
“We’re ready for whoever wants to come ... it’s going to be a pretty phenomenal weekend.”