CRAVEN — Country Thunder says with recent tariffs and a surge in Canadian pride it has put an emphasis on presenting Canadian talent to fans in Craven.
“We really wanted to prioritize Canadian talent. That was a key focus for us this year. It was really important to bring in those Saskatchewan artists,” said Country Thunder Music Festivals Digital Manager Megan Benoit.
Canada’s longest-running, multi-day country music festival saw performances by Shaunavon’s Hunter Brothers and Langenburg’s Jess Moskaluke. Hailey Benedict, Tim Hicks, James Barker Band, The Road Hammers and Owen Riegling were among the Canadian artists.
After drawing a large crowd to the Nickelback concert in 2024, organizers decided to book UK rock band Def Leppard to close out the 2025 show. And it proved successful as they saw an uptick in sales of Sunday's day-passes, says Benoit.
There’s a “lot of bang for your buck,” with single-day passes starting at $99 she says. The festival offers live music in the beer gardens and five acts on the main stage per day.
“To get to see Jason Aldean or Def Leppard for a hundred dollars is not really something you could do anywhere else. We want to cater to a large fan base. We want to show everyone a good time,” Benoit said.
Local volunteers are the backbone of the four-day country music extravaganza and camping event Benoit says. Country Thunder employs many local people and about 12 Saskatchewan-born people make up the management team who organize the festival. The owner of Country Thunder Music Festivals, president and CEO Troy Vollhoffer, hails from Regina. His company operates seven festivals in Alberta, Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin.
“There’s that hometown-show-feel that makes it really special to him. He has so much history at this festival site,” said Benoit.
Organizers are currently negotiating with artists and band managers to book acts for Craven 2026. Country Thunder is planning to wait until the contracts are signed and will reveal the headline acts in fall 2025.
“It’s over a year, as far as the talent buying process. As far as refining logistics, we take what we learned from this current season, do recaps with all our departments and start the planning for next year, and how we can be better,” Benoit said.
