Wide Skies Music Festival returns this week
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on July 29, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com The Geomatic Attic’s Wide Skies Music Festival is back for its sixth season this week, taking over the City of Lethbridge Park N’ Ride rooftop for three nights.Director of the Geomatic Attic, Mike Spencer said Friday that organizers decided to expand the festival from the original one-night event to a three-night event because of the great turnout from previous years.
“This is the sixth event. We’ve had different locations and each evening of music we’ve usually had about 400 to 450 people. This year we are back at the Park N’ Ride rooftop and the capacity for each show next week is about 450 people,” said Spencer.
He said each evening the doors open at 6:30 p.m, music starts at 7:30 p.m and goes till about 10:30 p.m. Each night there will be a beer garden and food service provided by Two Guys and a Pizza Place and Italian Table.
“The venue is quite spectacular. Being on the rooftop you get a really good look at the city, plus you see the sun setting and after sunset a band plays in the dark, so it’s very spectacular with the surrounding lights,” said Spencer.
He said those in attendance can expect to hear different musical styles that will be represented at the Festival.
“We’ve got R&B, soul, hip hop, blues, rock’n’roll, and I think we’re covering a lot of bases in the three days,” said Spencer.
He said they are making the event as inclusive as possible by donating almost half of their tickets to organizations that help people who are struggling.
“We have donated a lot of tickets to Lethbridge Family Services and YWCA Harbour House, among others so people can come to the event and not have any charge to them,” said Spencer.
He said the idea behind the Wide Skies Music Festival is not only to highlight the beauty of where we live, but to make it possible for those who live here to be able to attend live music.
Spencer said those planning to attend are encouraged to take public transit, bike or walk to the event to help reduce their carbon footprint during the event.
“We’ve partnered with LA Transit and we are providing the option to receive a bus pass with a festival pass which is for all three nights. We give them a transit pass so they can, if they choose to, they could come to the event by bus as it’s a two-way ticket for each day,” said Spencer.
He said they are also encouraging people to leave their cars at home to prevent drinking and driving as there will be a beer garden at the event.
“As well we encourage people to bring their own travel mugs, or water bottles so they can just refill their water at the event instead of using throw away cups,” said Spencer.
 He said they are trying to make the event as environmentally friendly as possible, and they are encouraging people to think about ways they can help reduce waste during the event.
 “People are allowed to bring a small cooler and even bring some food themselves, but not alcoholic beverages. They would be asked to take everything away with them rather than creating waste,” said Spencer.
Those who are able to, are encouraged to bring a lawn chair or a foldable chair to the event as they have a limited amount of chairs available for the event. Spencer said that as long as the lawn chair does not take too much space, people can bring their own.
“We found in the past years that people have really kind of understood that if they bring a folding chair, it’s not hard to bring it, but there are extra chairs if people need them,” said Spencer.
He said that even though the event is taking place outdoors on the rooftop, smoking is not permitted.
The Festival’s schedule will be as follows:
Tuesday, Aug. 1
7:30 p.m.: Witch Prophet
9 p.m.: Tanika Charles Band
Wednesday, Aug. 2
7:30 p.m.: Peter & The Wolves
9 p.m.: Jesse Roper Band
Thursday, Aug. 3
7:30 p.m.: Shawnee Kish
9 p.m.: The Harpoonist featuring Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar & Jeff Hillhorst of Deep Dark Woods Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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