MOOSOMIN — The Moosomin Bulls & Broncs event brought in 1,300 people last weekend, the biggest crowd the Moosomin Rodeo committee has ever attracted.
“It was absolutely fantastic,” said Chelan Beckett president of Moosomin Rodeo. “I would say we had our top numbers ever. I don’t think any of us expected to hit a thousand people or over so that’s great.
“Our first year after Covid of course was really big, then we went down a little bit, and Saturday night was a huge amount of people.”
The annual Moosomin Rodeo event consisted of bull riding, bareback riding, saddle bronc, and novice rough stock. There were also beer gardens, and a cabaret with Quinton Blair as the live entertainment for the night, in celebration of the 30th anniversary.
Beckett said she thinks the cabaret helped bring in a good crowd of people to the event.
“The cabaret was something we haven’t done in six or seven years, that possibly brought a few more people in,” she said.
“We coincided with Whitewood Rodeo again this year, Whitewood went on Friday night, we went on Saturday night which brought a few more people in I think.
“The ball tournament too, that may have brought us a few more people.”
In addition to the Bulls & Broncs, various events took place in Moosomin on July 15, including the Moosomin Chamber of Commerce Parade, the 11U and 15U baseball provincials, as well as the Pinoy Community fundraiser in town.
Beckett said those events in town helped add to the great turnout the rodeo received.
“It helped, it may have hindered it a little with parking, but it worked out well I think in our favour,” she said.
She spoke about possibly adding more seating at the rodeo grounds for next year’s event, due to so many people showing up this year.
“Mike and I looked at each other halfway through the event and wasn’t sure where everyone was going to go,” Beckett said, laughing.
“We’ve definitely talked about building bleachers over the winter to make things a little more suitable for those numbers.”
With close to 30 local sponsors to help supply the event, the committee was happy with the amount of money raised.
“We haven’t had our final wrap-up meeting yet, but I would say we definitely had success financial-wise,” said Beckett.
“Going into it, we always try to have our sponsorship cover all of our costs so that we don’t have to worry about the weather making us a go or not.
“I think with our sponsorship support that we’ve gotten now, we’ve definitely covered costs, I would say 95 per cent of our costs going into rodeo day.
“Having just the fan base that we had this year, and then the support of the cabaret, we definitely did well.”
With the Moosomin Rodeo committee working all year around preparing for the annual Bulls & Broncs event, they were ecstatic to see the turnout on the day of the show.
“I’ve talked to a few of our sponsors who were new this year, Skout Brewery and First Resort Mechanical, they were floored with how many people would come to an event like this in a small town,” said Beckett.
“We were kind of expecting our same 800 to 900 people, then all of these people showed up which was pretty cool.
“Also just the fact that we could, a committee of 12 to 13 of us, can pull off something like that is pretty outstanding.”
The committee has already started looking at dates for next year’s rodeo event.
“We’re kind of thinking the July 13 weekend, that’s where we are headed,” said Beckett.
“As long as we’re approved with BRC, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Despite the hard work that goes into organizing the event, Beckett said it is all worth it in the end.
“There’s stress of course putting on something like this, our phones are off the hook a month before,” she said.
“That’s kind of when you’re like, maybe I don’t have time for this, maybe we should try and get more people, but at 7:15 p.m. when you see everyone there and there’s stock bucking then you can’t help but be happy.
“There’s definitely a reward for what you do.”
