The area is cleared at the Gallagher Centre exhibition grounds, the fencing is in place, and the festival crew is building a massive stage for what organizers hope will become a new annual tradition in Yorkton. The inaugural Living Skies Music Festival is set to take place this Friday and Saturday at the Gallagher Centre Exhibition Grounds, bringing two nights of live music to the city. The festival will feature a country music lineup on Friday, followed by a rock-focused evening on Saturday. Friday’s country headliner is Dallas Smith, alongside Jess Moskaluke and Darryl Anderson. On Saturday, rock music will take centre stage with Big Sugar, Crash Test Dummies and Econoline Crush. The festival is organized by the team behind a similar event in Humboldt. Yorkton Mayor Aaron Kienle said the City reached out after hearing positive feedback from that community. “We contacted Living Skies Music Festival. They’d done a festival in Humboldt. We had really good reviews from the mayor and people in that community as to how it went,” he said. For city council, bringing a large-scale music festival to Yorkton has been a long-standing goal. “This has been a dream of members of council for over the last decade, to have a large-scale music festival come to Yorkton and something that we can build upon,” Kienle said. The City has signed a five-year agreement with the festival organizers, providing additional support in the first year as the event gets established. Kienle said the funding structure includes performance targets and is designed to become more self-sustaining over time. He expects the festival to provide an economic boost, with visitors booking hotels, dining at local restaurants and spending money at Yorkton businesses. “I think we’re seeing hotels are full, the restaurants will be busy, there’ll be a lot more activity in Yorkton shopping that’s going to take place,” Kienle said. Camping will also be available on-site, while some festivalgoers are expected to stay at nearby York Lake and travel in for the concerts. While the event received a temporary noise bylaw exemption to allow music later into the evening, Kienle said he hopes residents will embrace the opportunity to enjoy a major entertainment event in the city. “You go to other cities and they have music festivals or big productions that are loud, and it’s just those couple days of the year where there’s vibrancy and excitement brought to your community,” he said. Although the City didn’t disclose their aspirations regarding attendance, Kienle said VIP tickets have already sold out. General admission tickets remain available online and at the gate. The mayor plans to spend the entire weekend at the festival and hopes residents from Yorkton and across the region will come out to support its first year. “I’m really excited that it becomes an annual thing, happens for years and years to come,” Kienle said. Organizers are encouraging attendees to follow the festival’s social media channels for updates as final preparations continue ahead of opening night Friday.
