Country Thunder Saskatchewan

The event was originally founded by Roman Catholic priest Lucien Larré as a fundraiser for his youth housing charity Bosco Homes.

A historic feature of the festival has been the "Gopher Run", a rush seating line where up to 3,000 spectators can bring their own chairs for the front row.

[1][2] Contrasting its earlier reputation as a family-oriented event, a more raucous atmosphere also began to develop, to the point that the Ministry of Health distributed free condoms at the Jamboree in 1993, a Regina-based company organized a strip show at the local curling rink in 1994, and an attendee in 1995 was quoted as saying that she was in search of "fast horses, faster men and more beer".

[1] After going into receivership, the Big Valley Jamboree was sold to the Queen City Kinsmen in February 1996, who ran the festival with a "back to the basics" approach with less commercialization.

[3] On October 27, 2016, it was announced that the event had been rebranded as part of the Country Thunder series of festivals (which are run by Vollhoffer via his company Premier Global Productions),[1] with organizers stating that the integration gave it more "buying power" in terms of attracting larger acts.