Organizers of this summer’s Moose Jaw Kinsmen Sidewalk Days Festival are thrilled with the musical acts who will be performing and believe this is the best crop of talent they’ve ever booked.
The annual festival kicks off on Thursday, July 4 and runs until Saturday, July 6. Each day starts at 10 a.m., while Thursday and Friday end around 8 p.m. and Saturday concludes around 5 p.m.
Jacki L’Heureux-Mason, executive director of Tourism Moose Jaw, explained that the bands the organizing committee turned away this year — because of how many were already performing — were better than the best groups that performed during the first few years of the festival.
“So it was kind of one of those milestones things where we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve really built the entertainment part of this to be so much better than (we) had ever dreamed it would be,’” she said.
“So … hold onto your hats … it’s going to be the best I’ve ever seen.”
Bands performing include Trick Ryder, which rocked out during last year’s festival and will be present during Homestand ’24 in September; East Coast party band Tilted Kilts; Detour, which played at the festival years ago; Lights Out; and cabaret band UnCools.
L’Heureux-Mason said she was “really, really excited” about Lights Out playing because this is the group’s first time here and its singer has “an amazing set of pipes.”
Meanwhile, the children’s village will be expanding with several more bouncy castles and inflatables, courtesy of funding from the Kinsmen and Moose Jaw Ford.
“It’s kind of hard to put much more in there (because) it’s so packed, but we were able to rearrange a few things to make it have a few additional parts there,” said L’Heureux-Mason.
Last year, Déjà Vu erected an adult-focused inflatable bouncer on High Street, and since committee organizers thought it looked weird sitting by itself, they added a second inflatable adult bouncer and called the area the Déjà Vu Duel Zone. One will be a bungie racing course and another will be jousting, which should be “a ton of fun.”
There will be more new vendors this year, which is “a sad reflection” of the fact not every business that normally attends survived the pandemic, L’Heureux-Mason said. This opened space for others, including crafters who produce handmade items.
Meanwhile, the number of food vendor spots filled up faster than organizers expected, which means there will be a variety of trucks selling interesting and tasty cuisine.
Also, the Water Vision Pools and Spas-sponsored Battle of the Bands returns, with the winning musical act receiving $1,500 and walking away with the title of Moose Jaw’s best band. Organizers want one more act to participate so there is a full complement.
L’Heureux-Mason noted that this is the first time she has had the same organizing team return for back-to-back years, which she thought was wonderful because they know what to do and what to fill.
“I can’t even tell you what a joy it is to work with people who have the same dedication to just making the festival as good as we can,” she said.
The committee still needs more volunteers and will provide training, free meals during shifts — which are usually short — and a wrap-up party at the Sweet Spot. The wrap-up is an example of how organizers “try really hard to treat people like gold” since they wouldn’t be able to pull off the event without that support.
Anyone interested in joining as a volunteer or vendor can contact 306-693-8097.
