Fans from near and far packed tightly into Oakley’s rodeo grounds and stadium on Monday evening, combating swirling winds and high chances of rain. The evening’s competitions, along with all of the rodeo’s four days, had been sold out for months.
It is longstanding tradition for most of the fans to come to the grounds in search of its local vendors, spectacular rodeo competitions and more; however, this year’s festivities boast an even greater spectacle. The rodeo swapped out its announcers and livestock provider from previous years in search of something bigger.
On Monday, this new announcing tandem had the crowd riled up. Spectators were treated to circuit-professional events such as bareback riding and team calf roping. In the stadium dirt, it was men meeting much larger animals, trying and mostly failing to bend the animals to their wills.
Some of the human performances were still strikingly acrobatic and the capacity crowd was loving it.
An usher mentioned the new livestock provider and larger livestock as a reason why Oakley believes it now has one of the top three rodeos in the nation.
Rodeo committee member and Oakley City Councilman Steve Wilmoth echoed that sentiment Monday, saying, “That’s been huge for us. We’ve got a guy that sends quite a few animals to the NFR (National Finals Rodeo).”
Wilmoth also mentioned the large, widespread economic impact that a strong rodeo could have on all of Summit County. “Oh, it’s huge,” he said. “It’s not just our community it helps, it’s everybody … Park City helps us out, Kamas helps us out, Heber helps us out, Midway, so it’s spread out through (the) whole of Wasatch Back there.”
One of those feeling the beneficial impacts of the rodeo was Kamas’ own Ballerina Farm, which had a stand set up outside on the rodeo grounds, selling T-shirts, hats and its own baked goods such as croissants and cookies. Annie Thackery, who works for the farm, said it was its first time selling at the rodeo and that she believed more businesses were taking advantage of the publicity generated by the rodeo than in years past.
“It draws people from the Wasatch Front up here, a lot of people, and it gives them the opportunity to get their business marketed,” she said.
The rodeo concludes its 88th running Tuesday, July 4, with a sold-out performance at 7:30 p.m.