The 2018 Westerner Days Fair and Exposition announced their entertainment lineup Thursday, with everyone’s favourite food, rides, and live music entertainment coming back for another year.

Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Westerner Park Ben Antifaiff says they decided to ramp up this year's main summer celebration in Central Alberta with a western edge, following a few major sporting announcements made for Red Deer this year.

“The agriculture and western heritage we have in Central Alberta is important, but as you can well imagine, by being successful in being awarded the CFR this year, it really changed our focus a lot on that western sense of community, so it was very fitting to tie that into our Westerner Days campaign this year.”

Among those music performers announced are countries stars Aaron Goodvin and Aaron Pritchett, as well as Helix, and Toronto based singer-songwriter Virginia to Vegas.  

There will be plenty to do for the entire family, like the Sunny 94 Family Fun Zone, featuring inflatables, a kids coral, and a family stage.

Antifaiff says even as the Alberta economy starts to make a comeback, local events like this are a fun and affordable alternatives to a long and costly summer road trip.

“I think the economy actually supports things like Westerner Days, because it actually makes it really easy to enjoy an activity for families, and stay at home and maybe not incur the expense of travel. And we’ve tried to be really cognisant with that by offering the deep discounts online.”

Westerner Days is from July 18th to the 22nd, and tickets are available now at TicketsAlberta.com.