Get ready to dust off your cowboy boots for the first rodeo of the year.
Organizers Roy Call and Richard Kohlen and a team of volunteers and sponsors are gearing up for the 2nd annual Indoor Spring Classic Rodeo in Williams Lake.
Set to take place April 19, 20 and 21, the three-day rodeo will see a rodeo on Friday evening from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and again on Saturday and Sunday starting at 1 p.m. each day.
“The people want to have a spring event. The timing is a no brainer,” said Roy Call of the tradition. “We knew all we had to do was get the doors open.”
Kohlen and Call were part of the original founders of the Williams Lake Indoor Rodeo in 1989, and stepped back in last year after COVID ran the original, 30-year-old organization out of volunteers.
“Kelly Walls and the whole association had put their time and heart into it. It was just another victim of COVID.”
Getting those doors reopened last year proved harder than they had hoped, but this year it is going much smoother with the duo able to focus on improving different aspects of the events.
A big part of that excitement is being able to book Bert Davis “The Coppertown Clown” and his Muttley Crew. As the name suggests, Davis is best known for his heartwarming act with his nine rescue dogs.
New this year, there will not be any traditional timed events featured such as calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping and breakaway roping. Call said the decision was made due to the smaller size of the indoor venue for rodeos, size of calves this time of year and length of the rodeo overall as well as parking availability.
Instead, rodeo fans can expect to see bareback, saddlebronc and bullriding as well as ladies barrel racing, junior barrel racing and peewee barrel racing along with steer riding, mini-bulls and a wild horse race.
Brian Poffenroth has been commissioned to provide all the handmade buckles to be won, while hometown artist Randy Moe was tapped to create an image for an original Indoor Spring Classic Rodeo poster.
The rodeo depicts 100 Mile House bullrider Kyle Frizzi riding a bull and will be for sale at The Laughing Loon.
Call said the replay board will be back for the crowd to watch the replay in the stands, and at the beer gardens set up in rink 2. There will also be a barn dance Saturday night with The Screech Owls.
The success of the rodeo wouldn’t be possible without sponsors, Call said, acknowledging chute and run out area sponsors MNP Accounting, Molson Coors, Cariboo GM, Peter Arnold Log Homes, Meuller Electric, Mount Polley and Titan Construction.
Additional sponsors include Williams Lake First Nation, Williams Lake Tribune, Grasslands Equipment, M.H. King Excavating, West Fraser, Super 8, Northern Development, The Goat radio station, and BC Cattlemen’s Association.
Kohlen urged rodeo fans to get tickets early online at eventbrite. as they expect three sell-out performances.