ESTEVAN — The victory in the Sirius/XM Music Towns competition presented Estevan with an epic concert by Dallas Smith, with Kelly Prescott as the opening act on Saturday night.
Hundreds of people lined up in front of Affinity Place more than an hour ahead of the doors opening. By 7 p.m. the line reached the Power Dodge Curling Centre but was moving fast once the doors opened. Excitement, laughs and joy were in the air among the crowd, which not only was treated to a concert by multiple Juno and Canadian Country Music Association award winner Smith and country star Prescott, but also had a unique opportunity to enjoy all of it free of charge, thanks to Sirius/XM and their initiative.
After receiving enthusiastic submissions from over 400 unique communities across the country this summer, Sirius/XM Canada narrowed down the entries to 16 finalist communities across four different regions – Eastern Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada – based on heartfelt stories describing what makes each community special.
In our region, Estevan was competing against Lloydminster, Nanaimo, B.C., and Sylvan Lake, Alta., to win a great concert experience from Smith. And with community-wide support, the Energy City won the competition.
As a result, thousands of people got to listen to their beloved singers, dance the night away and enjoy the incredible event.
Smith and his band rocked the audience, performing long-time favourites and some of the newer songs. He played hits like Some Things Never Change, If It Gets You Where You Wanna Go and Wastin' Gas, Wasting my Time from his days with the band Default, and One Too together with Prescott, and many more hits.
Multiple times Smith would reach out to the fans, take their phones and have a selfie with the crowd, which was greatly appreciated by the audience in the front rows that came in hours ahead of the show to save their spot.
For Prescott, it wasn't her first time performing in Estevan, as she was a part of the CP Holiday Train tour in 2019. Ahead of the concert, she spared time to talk to the Mercury.
Prescott arrived in Regina the day before the concert, and as she shared with the audience, they went to Leopold’s Tavern to have some fun while waiting for everyone else to arrive. She also got to see a bit of Estevan on the day of the concert.
"I woke up and you know really did the full cultural experience by walking to Tim Hortons. Why not, right? But they were sold out of hash browns, and it was really sad this morning. So I started my day off a little shaky on that but no, it was great," Prescott said with a laugh, and suggested the restaurant stock up on hash browns for their next visit.
"I walked around. It was actually a really nice day today. It's always fun, I love coming to places that we don't usually get to stop in and just walk around and meet the people. Everyone's really nice."
Prescott dropped her third EP Cloud 9 this summer. According to her website, its lead single Convertible — the honky-tonk corker and follow-up to the award-winning singles Trailer Trashed from late 2021 and Church from 2020 — was igniting country music charts from Nanaimo to Nashville, and showcasing Prescott's massively expressive voice.
This spring and summer Prescott spent six weeks performing alongside long-time pal Smith during the Some Things Never Change tour.
"We were on the road all across Canada for six weeks together, so we became one big, happy family. Dallas and I've been friends for years, but his whole crew, everyone involved, are just so wonderful to work with and treat me like family. So I really love that we're reunited again [for the Estevan concert]," Prescott said.
For her part of the Estevan concert, Prescott was on stage with just guitarist Chad Murphy, which was different from the Some Things Never Change tour.
"I'm used to playing with a full band. And we are just doing a duo set tonight. So, it's just my partner, my guitar player, Chad, who actually, conveniently enough, also plays in Dallas Smith's band, too. So the tour really worked out well for us. Getting to travel together for six weeks with the person you love is very fun. But yeah, tonight's a bit of a more laid-back thing," Prescott shared ahead of the concert.
"We're just doing a duo set, but we're going to try and keep it as fun and keep the party going and warm everyone up for Dallas to put on the best show. We are going to play a lot of my new stuff from my new EP that I just released on June 30, Cloud 9, and a couple of older ones that I still love."
And the duo setting worked out great. During the concert, Prescott shared her personal stories and tales of her songs, confessed her love to Estevan and got people in the mood for the headliner.
Former Estevan resident Trevor Gowen was the MC for the night, and the crowd greeted him with no less enthusiasm than the performers.
Councillor Kirsten Walliser welcomed the entertainers and thanked the organizers and the community on behalf of the city.
"We want to thank Sirius/XM for their commitment to bringing live music back through their Music Town challenge. We're so thankful that we were nominated as one of the four cities representing Western Canada in the top 16. And we want to thank everyone who voted and made this possibility come through," Walliser said.
"And we want to thank all of our city staff working long and hard to make sure this came to our community and all of the volunteers that came up tonight to help us. Again I want to thank Sirius/XM and Live Nation for bringing this night to Estevan."
