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BARRHEAD – After two years of COVID restrictions, Albertans were eager to get back to seeing some rodeo action, according to Wildrose Rodeo Association (WRA) president Glen Nash.
In an interview on Sept. 9, Nash said all of the rodeos scheduled by the association were able to go ahead this year and all featured amazing crowds.
“It actually has been an awesome season. We’ve got more members signed up than we’ve ever had,” he added.
Besides being eager to see rodeos in person again, Nash said he believes a lot of Albertans realized they could support their own communities by attending local rodeos and have as much fun as they would if they travelled.
In any case, all of those rodeos throughout the summer have been leading up to this weekend, when the Barrhead Agricultural Society will host the WRA finals from Thursday to Sunday, Sept. 15-18.
The rodeo action gets underway at the Barrhead Agrena at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, noon and 6 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Tickets for each rodeo performance are $20 for adults and $10 for youth between the ages of six to 17, though there are also packs of tickets available. Youth under the age of 12 can get into Thursday’s performance for free if they are accompanied by an adult.
Nash said that roughly 200 contestants will be competing in the WRA finals, all of whom finished in the top 10 or top six of their respective rodeo events.
Many of them – perhaps even a quarter of all competitors – will be from Barrhead, Westlock or nearby communities, Nash indicated.
While most of the rodeo events have been at the WRA finals before, Nash noted this is one new event this year: ladies breakaway roping.
“We’ve had awesome entries for that, and it’s been really good competition,” he said.
This is also the 40th anniversary of the Wildrose Rodeo Association, and as such, there will be a special event at the Saturday night performance.
Nash said they will be bringing past champions from the rodeo’s 40-year history into the ring.
“It’s going to be pretty interesting, because there’s some pretty old members showing up to walk out and take a salute. They were champions 39, 40 years ago,” Nash said.
In addition to the rodeo action, the Barrhead Ag Society is also putting on a performance with country music singer Drew Gregory at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night in the Bablitz Exhibition Hall. Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased online at showpass.com or at the door.
Gregory, who hails from Standard, Alta., has been named Country Music Alberta’s Horizon Male Artist of the Year in 2015, 2019 and 2022.
He also won Horizon Song of the Year in 2019 for his song “Better in a Bar”, and Horizon Album of the Year for “I Was There” in 2016.
Nash said he hopes the people of Barrhead come out to support the Barrhead Ag Society as they host the WRA finals, which requires a lot of work.
“It would be nice to have the support of the people in Barrhead to show they appreciated it,” he said.
