The Headbanger Festival? It’s a celebration of the relationship that we have with the Kootenay National Park Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep. It’s an annual opportunity to learn about our amazing 4-footed neighbors in interactive workshops, presentations … and just maybe, we will be able to get close to them because at this time of the year, they are all around us – on lawns, on golf courses, at the roadsides, crossing the highway, trotting down the community streets.

The Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep have been as much a part of the Village of Radium Hot Springs as are the Rocky Mountains – for decades and likely much longer than that.  The headbangers, as they are fondly called, are a tourist attraction, drawing countless visitors each year to the community.

We look forward to their annual descent from the higher elevations to their winter campground in the village each autumn.  We watch them cross the highway, bringing with them the latest crop of gangly youngsters. We may complain about their munching the grass on our lawns and the leaves from our trees and they are most certainly hazardous to drivers on the roads, but we can’t help but be fascinated by this yearly return, like clockwork, to our village.

The Rut

One of the most amazing events to watch is the annual rut in which the rams compete for the ewes by challenging each other to butting contests. They charge one another at more than 20 km an hour, banging their heads together with a cracking noise that can often be heard a mile away.

The Headbanger Festival is a weekend-long celebration of this annual event. It’s a fun event with hands-on, interactive workshops and unique presentations … and … we get to be up close and personal with the Bighorn sheep at the same time!

As details of the 2018 schedule become available, we will be adding to this calendar post so stay tuned. in the meantime, for further information you may contact:
Kara Cassidy
Tourism Radium Hot Springs Association
250-347-9331
tourism@radiumhotsprings.com