Juno and CCMA award winner to lead celebration of Southern Alberta on Aug. 22
Lethbridge, Alta. – One of Canada’s most successful singer-songwriters will be in a different type of spotlight on Aug. 22, as Corb Lund has been named 2023 Whoop-Up Days Parade Marshal. Through his award-winning music, Lund has promoted an authentic view of western culture, born from his time spent on ranches throughout Southern Alberta during his life.
The theme of the 2023 Whoop-Up Days Parade is Celebrating Southern Alberta: Canada’s Agriculture Destination, which aligns with the agriculture, rodeo, and western culture present throughout Lund’s music.
“As a born and raised Southern Albertan, Corb Lund has played a leading role in showcasing the heart of our region to a world-wide audience,” says Mike Warkentin, Lethbridge & District Exhibition CEO. “What Corb is able to do through his music is what Lethbridge & District Exhibition attempts to do through Whoop-Up Days – bring people together, share an authentic experience, and shine a light on this amazing part of the world. We are thrilled Corb is able to join us and lead our parade this summer.”
Lund has received multiple JUNO, Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA), and international award nominations and wins, including being named CCMA Roots Artist or Group of the Year eight times, two recent wins for his last two albums, and a JUNO win for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year in 2006 for Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer.
Coming from a long family lineage of ranchers and rodeo people, Lund embraces both his Western heritage and his indie rock past through his music, and has been known to filter a range of cowboy themes past and present through his unique lens – from rough-and-tumble tales of lawless frontier saloons to the somber realities of running a modern family ranch.
Of the event, Lund says: "It's an honour to lead the Whoop-Up Days Parade in Lethbridge, especially given the theme of this year's event; celebrating Southern Alberta. Both sides of my family have been here a long time. Though I'm lucky enough to travel all over the world singing about this place, it always feels great to come back to the foothills and the prairie that are home to me."
Lund will lead the Whoop-Up Days Parade, which begins at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Park Place Mall is once again the starting hub for the parade, which will then move along 3rd Street S., east on 3rd Ave. S., North on 13th Street N., then east on 9th Ave N. before dispersing at Galbraith Elementary School.
The Whoop-Up Days Parade is free to enter and applications are open from now until Aug. 1. Anyone interested can apply through whoopupdays.ca.
About Whoop-Up Days
Whoop-Up Days runs from Aug. 22 to 26 at Lethbridge & District Exhibition. Whoop-Up Days is where our community comes together to celebrate, experience, eat, laugh, and ride. Where the midway lights brighten up the southern sky, where the authentic west still runs wild, where cultures come together and memories are made. This year features free admission for the community, fuelled by Gas King. Learn more at whoopupdays.ca.