Festival portraying real west

A Turner Valley distillery and nearby polo club are getting in on the action in an annual festival that celebrates western culture.

Way Out West Fest is expanding its reach to the Calgary Polo Club with a Head West Curated Market June 1 featuring west-centric dishes, live music, western artisans, a photo booth, workshops, demonstrations and a polo match.

“I’m quite familiar with the polo club and I know there’s a deep history in those grounds and club that ranges back to the ranching roots of this province,” said festival founder Ingrid Schulz. “It seemed like a really great place to have a venue.”

The festival runs May 31 to June 2 with 12 events, many in Calgary, including a House of the West tour, art and artifact auction, student artwork and fashion show, music from the First Nations Music Project, From Farm to Glass event at the Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley and workshops in photography, drawing, leather work and feather crafting.

“The festival is meant to offer an authentic portal to the real west,” said Schulz. “For instance, if you take part in the photography workshop you will see the most historic ranches in Canada and you won’t see it with a big crowd. Everything is scattered around.

“To have a festival of the west you have to go to different points in the west.”

Schulz said she wanted an event where everyone could converge, and came up with the idea of a market at the Calgary Polo Club, which runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“There’s a lot of really great western-inspired artisans out there whether it’s a silversmith or wild rag maker or First Nations-based artist,” she said. “We thought it would be really fun to bring them together.”

Other vendors include crafters, rawhide braiders, painters and leather crafters.

The day will also feature alt-country music from Amy Nelson, Lyndsay Butler and Markus Sommer, a full service bar, roping demonstrations, steer skull painting with artist Sam Mitchell, western-inspired colouring for children and a friendly polo match between English riders and cowboys.

Calgary Polo Club president Rob Foster said he’s eager to be a part of Way Out West Fest to showcase the property’s unique history.

“There’s that rich history and relations with the whole ranching community and western lifestyle and we certainly want to embrace that,” he said. “We always want to make sure we show the different equine disciplines and show it’s one big community as well. We open our doors to make sure that people know it’s accessible to everyone.”

Tickets to the Head West Curated Market cost $12 in advance, and includes a SWAG bag, or $10 at the gate.

Schulz said she expects upwards of 1,000 people.

Drawing a much smaller crowd on Saturday will be From Farm to Glass at Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Calgary attendees will be bused from Inglewood to the distillery.

The tour begins with an explanation of the farming operation where the distillery produces grain, using 100-year-old horse farming methods, that’s distilled into craft gins, vodkas and ryes.

The approximately 50 attendees will then learn how the beverages are made using German-made copper distilling towers and aging barrels led by expert mixologists.

Chelsea Barclay, Eau Claire Distillery marketing and communications specialist, said the company is excited to be involved a second year to showcase Alberta’s western heritage.

“It’s a great way for people to connect with their local marker and get excited about and connected with the heritage of Alberta and just tying in the old horse farming with the new mixology and making it fun and interesting at the same time,” she said.

Last year’s festival took spectators to the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site where some of the distillery’s barley is farmed.

With barley now growing on land behind the distillery, Barclay said the tour will be contained to the distillery.

“This year we wanted to keep it all on site and show them the exciting new development behind the distillery and show them what we do,” she said. “We will have horses on site and discuss how the seeding process works.”

Alt-country musician Amy Nelson will entertain from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Tickets to attend From Farm to Glass cost $45. Participants must be 18 years or older.

For more details about the Way Out West Fest or to purchase tickets to any of the events go to wayoutwestfest.ca