Best of the West Weekend (formerly Cowboy Poetry) closes its doors

Best of the West Weekend committee press release

The Best of the West Weekend – formerly Pincher Creek's Cowboy Poetry Gathering – has been forced to close its doors because there are too few volunteers to keep the event going. Several ways have been tried to increase the volunteer base for this popular event, but none of them yielded anywhere near the number of volunteers needed to mount an event of this sort.


The decision was reached very reluctantly after a great deal of heart searching, but the organising committee felt that they had no choice. Last year's successful Best of the West Weekend event was put on by a tiny crew of volunteers, who went above and beyond the call of duty to live up to their commitment to put on the event, and who ended up close to exhaustion at the event's close after Cowboy Church on the Sunday morning. And there was still the take down of the stage, lights, scenery, audience seating and all the rest of it to do. Unsurprisingly, this tiny corps of volunteers felt unable to take on quite so much again. Many of them had been there at the very start almost 30 years ago, and have found it very hard to let go: hopes were high that after the success of BOTWW 2014 more volunteers would come forward, but it was not to be.

The Pincher Creek Cowboy Poetry Gathering was the first of its kind in Canada, in the early 1980s. It became incredibly successful, and was much imitated. Pincher Creek helped to give a start to entertainers such as Corb Lund and other currently well-known names. In recent years there had been a downturn in attendance, and BOTWW 2014 was the first in what was hoped would be a series of increasingly successful events with a new look, following on from the previous success. The plan was to reach a new and younger audience to ensure the future of a Western entertainment event for Pincher Creek.

BOTWW 2014 was a success, showing a financial profit and a pleasing number of new and younger attendees, including children for whom had been laid on pony rides, face painting and wagon rides. As well as some old favourites, some new-to-Pincher Creek performers were showcased; some young, some in their prime, who were very well received by the audience. Change can be scary for some people, but overall, the comments that were received by word of mouth from both audience and performers, in the press (including the Toronto Star) and on the web were extremely favourable: all of which was very encouraging to the organisers. It is very sad to see this historic and successful event being shut down because there is not enough local support to keep it going.