Gone Country and Twins Cancer Fundraising

Every July, a few thousand people in cowboy hats spend a Saturday night in a fake frontier town in North Langley, and by the end of it they’ve raised a staggering amount of money for people with cancer. That’s Gone Country, and if you live here long enough, someone you know will have a ticket.

How it started

Chris and Jamie Ruscheinski were in high school when their mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. They first raised a couple of thousand dollars for her with a party; she died about three years later. Afterwards, a plan to do a long cancer walk turned into a different idea: they threw a backyard barbecue and raffle instead, and it raised $22,000.

The barbecues kept growing, and in 2013, by then TCF’s seventh annual fundraiser and with more than half a million dollars raised, the twins launched Gone Country – Here for the Cure. The outdoor country concert ran ten times at the Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre on the Cloverdale Fairgrounds in Surrey. In 2022 a single night brought in a record $842,000, TCF says 2023 raised $1,007,000, and by TCF’s count the 2024 finale, headlined by Dallas Smith, drew about 7,000 people and raised $1,456,000. The twins, who also sell real estate in Langley as the Property Twins, had decided to end the big Cloverdale show after 2024, while it was still at its best.

Gone Country Jamestown

It didn’t end; it moved home. Since 2025 the festival has been held at Jamestown, an old-west film set on a working farm in North Langley that also has a brewery. The first Jamestown show in June 2025 raised more than $600,000. In July 2026 the second drew about 3,000 people to two stages, a 60-foot main stage on the grass and a smaller “Outpost” stage, with the James Barker Band headlining and local and Fraser Valley acts filling the bill. Singer Karen Lee Batten and her team now run most of the entertainment. The Langley hospital foundation says that night raised a record $970,000, part of it toward 3D diagnostic mammography at Langley Memorial Hospital.

Going

It sells out, so the ticket page is the place to watch. It’s 19+, with two pieces of ID. TCF says parking details for 2027 will come closer to the date; in 2026, parking was free across the road at Thunderbird Show Park. Plan a safe ride home: it’s a country road at 11 pm. Prices, tiers and the practical details are in our 2027 guide.

Helping

TCF runs on volunteers, about 300 of them in 2026. The volunteer sign-up is on its site, as are donations and a “Raise it for your cause” page if you want to fundraise on your own.

More on Gone Country

• Gone Country Jamestown 2027: tickets, times, getting there
• Gone Country history, year by year
• Chris and Jamie Ruscheinski, the twins behind it
• Jamestown, the movie-set venue
• The 2027 event listing in our calendar

More Langley causes are in our charities and galas guide, and the date is on our annual events calendar. Something out of date? Tell us.