TEHACHAPI, Calif. (KERO) — The Western Swing Out, a four-day festival featuring 17 bands, returns to Tehachapi for the Memorial Day Weekend.
- Staff for the Western Swing Out transforms the Tehachapi VFW into a barn dance party.
- Tickets and more information can be found on their website.
- About 500 people attended the Western Swing Out last year.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It's time for music, dancing and vintage western clothing. It's time for the Western Swing Out in Tehachapi. I'm Steve Virgen, your neighborhood reporter. The four-day festival fills up Memorial Day weekend with various activities and events.
The Western Swing Out features 17 bands. But there’s so much more to do at the four-day festival. There’s a car show, whiskey tasting, dance lessons, dance contests, a Western fashion show and more.
“It’s one of those experiences. And I think that’s probably the best way to say it. It’s an experience. So when you come up here for the Western Swing Out, you are kind of immersed in everything. The streets have everyone walking back and forth in Western wear, from vintage clothing to modern, but all Western adorned. It really does create a wonderful vibe that isn’t just the actual show itself, but the whole town kind of becomes that,” Danielle O’Neil, a co-producer of Western Swing Out, said.
When Danielle O’Neil visited Tehachapi a decade ago, she discovered the perfect spot to have a Western-themed festival. She said she enjoyed the small-town feel of the mountain town. Soon, she and her friend Christina Coffey transformed the VFW into a barn dance party.
“We found just the right atmosphere. What we do is a very niche style of country music. It’s the Western Swing Out, named after Western swing music, which was popular in the 1930s to the 1950s. So we wanted it to feel like a beautiful country barn dance. We wanted it to feel like this beautiful small-town atmosphere we were able to find in Tehachapi,” said Christina Coffey, a co-producer of Western Swing Out.
There will be a special Memorial Day ceremony Monday at 11 a.m. at Marx Central Park.
“It’s a very fun-packed weekend. We also have, here in this beautiful gazebo, we have a free Memorial Day concert featuring Jerry Cosorski and the American Patrol All-Stars, and Sean Duffy. That’s going to be on Monday. It’s our way of saying thank you to the town of Tehachapi and general Kern County. So it’s free and open to the public. And that starts Monday, Memorial Day, at 1 o’clock," Coffey said.
For tickets and more information visit our website and click on this story. I'm Steve Virgen, your neighborhood reporter.
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