Western music fans moseying down to fest at Sam’s Town

Chris Jones

Thursday, April 11, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

The Western Music Association hopes the return of its annual fall festival to Las Vegas will revitalize interest in the event -- and possibly create some new western music fans in the process.

For the past 13 years, members of the Tuscon, Ariz.-based association have gathered for several days each fall to hold concerts and workshops that celebrate their love of western music, a unique genre that focuses on stories of cowboys and the American West.

The style was popularized by so-called "Singing Cowboys" such as the late Roy Rogers and is carried on by modern acts like Riders in the Sky, a Grammy Award-winning quartet that is scheduled to perform at this's year's festival, which is scheduled for Nov. 13-17.

An estimated 10,000 people attended last year's festival, which was staged in Tuscon from 1989 to 2001. When attendance levels failed to significantly increase over recent years, the WMA decided to move this year's event to Sam's Town.

"The festival just hasn't grown in 13 years," said Sherry Bond, executive director for the association. "We want more people to know about western music so our primary reason for moving to Las Vegas is to improve attendance and reach a wider audience."

Terry Jenkins, entertainment director for Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns Sam's Town, said the festival should work well with the property's western theme.

"Sam's Town has always been known as a boot-scootin' western kind of place," Jenkins said. "The festival seemed like a perfect fit."

Bond said she has not contacted the city's promotional arm, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, to seek its assistance promoting the festival. Still, she said an advertising campaign is in the works through the association's media partners, American Cowboy Magazine and Cowboy Magazine.

"We've got members from Europe to Asia and we're going to work to make sure they know about this event," Bond said. "We're hopeful that Las Vegas will be another incentive for them to attend, and we hope locals will come too."

The first WMA festival took place in Las Vegas in August 1988 before it was moved to Tuscon to better accommodate many WMA members, Bond said. She added its second stay in Las Vegas could also be short-lived.

"Right now, we only have a one-year deal with Sam's Town," Bond said. "We're thinking we might want to move the festival around from year to year."