Yee-Haw – Whooping It Up at the Clark County Fair & Rodeo
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We haven’t been to a county fair or a rodeo in years. When we were visiting the Lost City Museum in Overton last month, we saw a poster for the upcoming fair/rodeo and thought it would be fun… and it definitely was. We figured since it was a local rodeo, it’d be ‘small-town’ entertainment which would be just fine. Instead, we found out it was a PRCA event. The PRCA, Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, is the largest rodeo organization in the world, so we were keen to get good seats and enjoy the show.
Walking the Midway - No lack of healthy offerings!
The fair isn’t just the rodeo, however. There were strolling buskers, a hypnotist, mimes, story tellers, stilt-walkers and magicians. Beyond the rodeo competition, pig racing (Swifty Swine competition), ‘mutton bustin’” (kids riding sheep) and a Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show were among the highlights we were looking forward to watching...not to mention taking in the carnival and walking the midway. We gave the poodle show a miss as well as the sea lions, just because of timing.
The day dawned sunny and beautiful with a clear blue sky and expected temps in the mid-70s… a great day for being outside and enjoying the fair. Logandale is about a 1-1/2 hour ride north of Las Vegas on I-15.
Signage was good and we made it to the parking area without a hassle. We had digital tickets which were convenient as well as fast entry, but figuring out our way around took some doing as we had no program. We finally found a kiosk and took pix of the fairgrounds layout and events schedule and planned our day accordingly.
We watched the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show first. It was kind of corny with lame joke banter definitely aimed at the kids in the audience. There was axe throwing, log rolling, cross-cut sawing, and chainsaw sculpting. We’d seen similar shows in the past, most notably at the Tall Timber Days Festival in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Though we enjoyed the show, the Minnesota show was definitely superior to this one. And after attending the Huon Lumberjack Competition in Tasmania back in 2012, these demonstrations, though amusing, are not all that impressive.
The Swifty Swine Racing Pigs evidently make an annual appearance at the fair. Swifty, a pot- bellied pig, and his pot-bellied friends don’t do it for the money, we’re told, rather they race to get the Oreo cookies waiting at the finish line. They release four pigs which race around a small oval track and one lucky kid wins a pig nose. The rest of the kids could buy a pig nose for a mere $2. The kids loved it.
Mutton-bustin’ was fun to watch as 4-7 year olds latched onto a fleecy sheep, and held on for dear life while the sheep danced and bounced around trying to remove her load. Most kids slipped off, but one young fellow who looked as if he was velcro’d to his ewe, managed to hang on for the full 8 seconds and was awarded a much-prized rodeo belt buckle.
We recently saw the Vegas Golden Gals, a senior pom-pom team, at the Henderson St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We watched as they pom-pommed through six choreographed routines and wondered how they remembered all the moves. Our memories aren’t all that sharp lately. The music was lively and the gold-glittered gals smiled consistently. We figured their ‘smilers’ were pretty tired at the end of the show. Unbeknownst to us, the group entertains to raise funds for the Alzheimer Association and won two Gold Medals at the Senior Olympics in 2022. Pretty impressive.
We toured the small animals barn and checked out the exotics like llamas and emus as well as the less exotic like cows, sheep, goats, chickens, Shetland ponies, and lots of rabbits. The Indoor Market offered lots of craft vendors, games for the kids, and I got my rings polished for free.
As we strolled the Midway on our way to the rodeo arena, we were enchanted by Mango and Dango, colorful and entertaining stilt walkers. Mango, clad in a kaleidoscopic costume and trailing vibrant streamers, led the way on stilts followed closely by Dango who pedaled his phantasmagoric flying umbrella ship with stilts as well.
Mango & Dango and the Adventures of the Flying Umbrella Ship - awesome!
After a quick stop at the Beer Garden to split a cold brew, we headed to the rodeo. The lines were long to check tickets, but moved quickly and efficiently. We found our primo seats in the center section and settled in for eight separate rodeo events.
Most of the contestants were from the central and western states and provinces as you’d suspect although one New Yorker made the list, as did one Aussie and one Brazilian. Since this rodeo is a qualifier for the big money rodeo events coming up throughout the year, the cowboys and girls were definitely keen to win.
Rather than bore you with details, see photos below of the events. Click on the thumbnails to make them larger.
I was particularly impressed with the animal’s names like a bronco named ‘Unforgiven’ and one named ‘Maniac Wheel’ and bulls named ‘Thrasher’ and ‘Hammer Time’ and ‘White Strike’ shown above. Watching the cowboys thrown off their broncos and bulls looked so painful and rough on their bodies. After sitting on a hard bleacher seat for two hours, I could barely walk. Obviously, I’m not cut out for rodeoing… even from the stands.
We walked the Midway again after the rodeo and strolled through the bright neon lights of the carnival. Some of the rides swung wildly and we could hear the shrieks and whoops. I had tried some of these as a kid but had no intention of paying to relive the experience.
This ride was more our speed, but sadly, we didn’t fit into the seats.
Next time… yet another festival. This time we’re going to the Las Vegas Highland Games for a dose of Scottish culture.