CHEYENNE — Everyone knows about the night shows at Cheyenne Frontier Days, but be sure not to miss the free entertainment stages at The Garden and the Buckin’ A Saloon.
The Buckin’ A Saloon is a massive tent with a full-service bar inside, as well as a dance floor and stage, located near the Hynds entrance on Hynds Boulevard in the Carnival Midway. It’s free with gate admission, but patrons must be 21 or older to enter.
At the Buckin’ A Saloon, there’s live music and dancing every night from 6 to 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight. Performances this year will feature three bands: Martin & Kelly, who performed up until Monday night; Jared Rogerson & the Rodeo Wreck; and Jesse Cornett & the Revolvers.
Husband-and-wife duo Martin & Kelly have performed at the Buckin’ A Saloon together before, but Jared Rogerson & the Rodeo Wreck, as well as Jesse Cornett & the Revolvers, are brand new.
Musicians at Buckin’ A Saloon perform over multiple nights, so Rogerson and his band will perform through Thursday, and Jesse Cornett and the Revolvers, who are from Colorado, will perform Friday and Saturday.
The Garden, on the other hand, is an outdoor seating area located right off Eighth Avenue by the main entrance. There’s lots of seating, including about a dozen tables with umbrellas, as well as benches on the side of the stage.
“It’s (a different experience) because you can have up to five people on the stage at once comfortably,” said Jenny Lakin, the CFD Concessions Committee chair. “The Buckin’ A, too, it’s a bigger stage, so you can have a variety of bigger bands on that stage. … The Garden (is also) just a nice area for people to go and relax or have a meeting point. There’s lots of shade there, and it’s just kind of a quieter atmosphere.”
Performers at The Garden include Aubrey Dale, Bailey Rae, Black White Blues, Davis and Mavrick, Erica Sunshine Lee, Jim Wilkinson, Kalyn Beazley, Mountain Duo, Paige King Johnson, Poudre Valley Playboys and Wooster & Allen.
Lee, Wilkinson, Beazley, Johnson and the Poudre Valley Playboys are also performing on the Sidewinder Saloon stage in Old Frontier Town on other days. Artists are often booked for multiple performances so they can get the most out of their time at CFD, especially those traveling from out of state.
Some artists are new to The Garden, while some are frequent returnees, including Lee, who will be here for her seventh year. Rae, who was a semifinalist on season 19 of NBC’s “The Voice,” is also here for her third year.
At The Garden, the first act starts on stage at about 3 p.m. and goes until 4:30 p.m., and the second act does a three-hour show from 5 to 8 p.m., just in time for the night show performances to begin.
How performers are secured
Lakin’s team oversees the performances at The Garden and Buckin’ A Saloon, but Jim Wilkinson, a local musician, and Dawn Thompson, the beverage manager and volunteer coordinator for CFD, help secure the artists for both venues.
Although this is Wilkinson’s first year performing, he was previously the corporate relations manager at Cheyenne Frontier Days for years before he retired, and has been booking artists on the CFD side stages for as long as he can remember. Even when he retired, Thompson asked Wilkinson if he’d continue to help book artists, and he agreed.
“You know, I’m a musician, so I love it,” Wilkinson said. “I play around Cheyenne quite a bit, and I’m just excited as heck to finally get to play (at CFD) now.”
Most artists who are on The Garden or Buckin’ A Saloon stages reach out to CFD through a form on their website, according to Lakin. However, Wilkinson told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that they used to just recruit entertainers that they saw, noting that he saw Erica Sunshine Lee perform in Key West, Florida, before bringing her to CFD.
Thanks to the form, though, they’ve been able to secure more acts that haven’t performed in Cheyenne before, so they’ll likely look into doing it again next year.
“It gives everybody a chance to throw their hat in the ring,” Wilkinson added. “We’re really excited for this lineup this year.”
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