On the hooves of the Cowboys Music Festival noise debacle, the Country Thunder Music Festival has announced that it is cancelling this weekend, but Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas believes organizers are making bogus claims on why.

The group behind the Country Thunder Alberta 2026 has cited city-created safety and operational barriers as the reasons behind the cancellation.

They said in a media release on Wednesday that traffic reduction on 9 Avenue SE, plus ongoing construction in the area, along with the loss of key site infrastructure, a last-minute water bypass line install, and the controversial decibel limit is preventing them from holding the event.

The location of the Country Thunder festival is at the Confluence Parkland and Historic Site (Formerly Fort Calgary). Organizers also said that each of these separate barriers alone represents a challenge, but the cumulative impact made it impossible to stage the event.

“We do not take this decision lightly,” said Kim Blevins, Executive Director, Country Thunder, in the media release.

“Our fans travel from across the country to be part of this experience and we owe them an event they can enjoy fully. The city-driven conditions in Calgary this year make that impossible. Proceeding would have meant compromising on not only safety but also the fan experience and that is not something we are willing to do.

“We want our fans to feel the music, lose themselves in it and leave having had the experience they paid for. The new sound limitations placed on this event would not have allowed us to deliver that experience.”

It’s also worth noting that this weekend’s forecast calls for steady rain right through early next week.

This decision follows a dust-up between the City of Calgary and Penny Lane Entertainment (PLE), the operators of the Cowboys Music Festival. PLE expressed frustration over changes made to the noise exemption permits that reduced decibel limits and pushed back the playing time on weeknights.

The playing time restrictions weren’t extended to the weekends.

All ticket holders will receive a full refund, according to organizers. Anyone with questions can contact organizers at info@countrythunder.com

Discussions with the Confluence, City infrastructure were ongoing

Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark said that it’s frustrating that Country Thunder won’t be able to move ahead with their music festival this weekend. Clark said that he’d been working with the Confluence on potential workarounds to allow for the concert, but those attempts weren’t successful.

“It’s quite fair to say that in many instances here, the timelines of city administration infrastructure their timelines around their construction and the timelines of those who are impacted often seemingly do not align,” he said.

“I’ve worked rather hard to make that connection to sort of make sure that that was made clear, and unfortunately we’ve not landed at an outcome that anybody wants to see.”

Construction relaxations have been made in the past, particularly around the Event Centre construction, and Clark said that those requests were also made in this situation.

“I mean, this is just incredibly disappointing,” he said.

“This kind of construction has major impacts on on neighbouring small businesses, of course. We’ve got Ninth Ave just right there. I mean, the economic outcomes of this are are certainly not positive, and not what we’re looking to see for our summer season.”

The Confluence declined to comment on the story today.

Meanwhile, Mayor Farkas said that the same organizers, just two days ago, made comments to CityNews Calgary that they would be going ahead with the festival as planned, working within the City of Calgary’s event guidelines.

“To be clear, Country Thunder was not part of the noise by-law discussions about the Stampede off-site festivals. Its curfew did not change, and the city actually increased this year the allowable music volume for Country Thunder,” he said.

“Country Thunder now says a reduced decibel permit prevented standard production levels. Two days ago, it told the public that the rules would not affect its operations. Both statements cannot be true.”

Farkas also said that they’d been working collaboratively with Country Thunder on the infrastructure issues around the Confluence site.

“Construction around this event site for critical water utility infrastructure did not begin this week, and the water bypass work did not appear overnight,” he said.

“Country Thunder says the city created unsafe conditions for emergency access, production, access, and attendee movement, and that is a serious claim, and it is false. It requires facts.”

Later Wednesday afternoon, the City of Calgary said that they’d heard through the media that the festival wasn’t going ahead, and it was the first indication that the event would be cancelled. They said as recently as this morning, they met with Country Thunder officials, along with the Calgary Fire Department.

They also said that they’d had contact with Country Thunder since January 2026 to discuss construction and ongoing traffic control plans. They confirmed that the allowable decibel limit had been raised for this year’s event, in keeping with the changes to other noise exemption permits.

“While we are disappointed that organizers have chosen not to proceed, The City remains committed to supporting festivals and events that contribute to Calgary’s vibrancy while balancing the needs of residents, businesses, public safety and ongoing city-building projects,” read a statement from the City of Calgary.

Country Thunder organizers hoped for leniency

Megan Benoit, digital manager with Country Thunder, confirmed organizers had a meeting with the City of Calgary this morning.

“We had our final conversation with (the City), really hoping that we could get some leniency, some negotiations there with some of those issues that we’ve been facing,” she told reporters.

Benoit said that it was a combination of all of the factors they’d outlined coming together, forcing the cancellation. They did note the decibel limit, which, as the City of Calgary had explained, was increased for this year.

“It’s pretty much impossible to operate an event of this magnitude with these restrictions in place; 75 decibels, it’s… the volume of a vacuum cleaner, or a loud conversation, and we bring really big artists onto a really big stage, and we just can’t operate with those noise levels,” she said.

Mayor Farkas said that their initial statement was riddled with holes, and that they wanted to work in collaboration with the festivals.

“I’m not going to speculate about their business decision. I’m not going to speculate about the nearly record rainfall that’s expected this weekend. I’m not going to speculate about reports on social media about failing ticket sales,” he said.

“I’m not here to speculate, but I am here to back up the city when it comes to the facts. The noise regulations did not apply to them, and to claim that this was a factor in their decision is pure unadulterated BS.”

Benoit was clear that it had nothing to do with ticket sales. She said if that were the case, they would have cancelled long ago, and they wouldn’t have the stage crew setting up, along with all of the vendors on the site.

“The Confluence has been such a great partner to us, and they had reached out to the mayor’s office back in February talking about how this construction can affect events that they have all summer and never heard back, so there’s definitely disappointment,” Benoit said.

“We never want to cancel an event. We love Calgary, we love the city, we love operating here. So, of course, there’s a general sense of disappointment from everyone here.”

That disappointment extends to artists set to perform there, like Calgary’s own Jaiden Riley.

Riley said she was completely surprised and devastated to learn of the festival’s cancellation, an appearance that she and her band mates had been working hard for.

“We had the opportunity because we won Ranchman’s Rising Star competition, and that was the big prize of the whole competition,” Riley said.

“That’s what we were competing for every night, was for a main stage performance at Country Thunder Alberta, and, of course, yeah, as a local artist, it’s a pretty big stage, it’s pretty big opportunity for someone like me, and for my band.”

While it was a solid break that could have led to more shows at bigger venues, Riley took the news in stride.

“Obviously, my whole career doesn’t hang on one show, but certainly would have been the biggest to date, and naturally could foresee other big opportunities coming from it. So it’s a tough loss,” she said.

Riley is still playing two shows this weekend, and during the Calgary Stampede, she’ll have between two and four shows a day for all 10 days.

Ultimately, she’s just hoping for the chance to come back to Country Thunder and get their chance fulfill the Ranchman’s prize and perform on the big stage. That could happen in 2027.

Though it’s been suggested this was the last year for Country Thunder in Calgary, LWC has learned that a contract is in place through 2027.