Cornstock will be bigger and better: organizers

By Lethbridge Herald on May 13, 2025.

Cal Braid
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

 Spider Entertainment is setting the stage for Cornstock ‘25 at the Legion Youth Centre July 24-26, and promoter Ken Holst is in ‘go big or go home’ mode. Last year’s event drew about 2,600 fans, and this year he’s bringing in a bigger stage, bigger names and hopefully, an even bigger crowd.

 The music festival kicks off on Thursday with Streetheart and Toque. On Friday, Glass Tiger, Sweet, Doug & the Slugs, and Teaze will deliver at the speed of sound. Finally, on Saturday, national legends Tom Cochrane, Prism, Helix, and The Northern Pikes will light up the stage.

 “There’s a higher budget this year with some bigger names,” Holst said. “Tom Cochrane is a lot more expensive than anyone we’ve ever had before, and then we’re going with a much larger two stage system with bigger video screens and everything. So our overall budget is quite a bit higher. And so we need those extra tickets sold for sure. Hopefully that occurs.”

 While all the VIP and premier packages are already sold out, there are plenty of general admission weekend passes still available for $199. Tenting and overflow camping spots are also there for the taking.

 Holst is hiring a production company out of Calgary to build the stage on site. The structure will arrive in semi-trucks and be assembled over three long days.

“Last year, we had the main stage at one end and the stage at the other end where we had the after party. This year it’s going to be a larger stage and a smaller stage side by side, with a little bit of a V shape,” he explained about the setup.

 The 10 main headliners will command the main stage during their performances, and in the 20 or 30 minutes it takes to switch over to the next headliner, the smaller stages will have a local southern Alberta playing during the changeover.

 “We can kind of switch back and forth,” he said. “Basically four bands on one stage or four bands on the other stage over the course of the day. And there’s never a gap in music. It just goes, bang, bang, bang, bang.”

 “We’re excited,” Holst said. “We’ve got people coming from far and wide and definitely some big names this year. We continue to get bigger that way, with the quality of artists and the number of album sales that they’ve had.”

 Spider Entertainment is welcoming its first non-Canadian band this year: Sweet, famed for its Ballroom Blitz. But ultimately, “Canadian classic rock is our mainstay, for sure,” Holst said.

 A quick Google search will take fans to the Cornstock ‘25 web page, and the links to ticket packages are available there along with all the other relevant details for festival-goers.