Newport Rodeo ready to kick the chutes open
The Newport Rodeo is back in action with rodeo events planned for Friday and Saturday as well as a host of other events, including a parade through downtown Newport on Saturday. Pictured is action from the 2019 Newport Rodeo.
(File photo/MARY MALONE)
NEWPORT — The rodeo is back.
After a year away because of the pandemic, the Newport Rodeo returns this weekend with a full slate of activities beginning Friday and continuing Saturday.
"It's amazing to be back," Ray Hanson, president of the Newport Rodeo Association, said. "It was a downer that we had to cancel last year but we understand and we had to do what was necessary to protect everyone. Now we're ready to kick open the chutes and get back to the old normal and have fun."
While last year had to be canceled due to the pandemic, Hanson said the Newport Rodeo has been a fixture in the community for more than 70 years. And, for much of that time, the rodeo has been a member of what is now the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association — something that is moving back to this year with a full rodeo planned for both Friday and Saturday nights, Hanson said.
"We've worked really hard to make a super event for everyone," he added.
In addition to the rodeo, a record number of vendors will be on hand — Hanson estimates there will be 120 or so — with lots of food, crafts and more. Booths open at 1 p.m. on Friday on the rodeo grounds. On Saturday, the action kicks off with a parade at 11 a.m. in downtown Newport, followed by vendors in the park at noon as well as live music and entertainment throughout the day, face painting and stick horse races.
The top six finishers of the stick horse races will be invited to Saturday's rodeo to compete and for a chance to win a bicycle sponsored by the Low Range Ridge Runners, a local four-wheel drive group.
"We want to get back to having a great community event," Hanson said.
According to its website, the Newport Rodeo originated on the Cusick flats in 1935 with a group of local ranchers and farmers that called themselves the Hoot Owl Gang. In 1949, the group formed the Pend Oreille County Rodeo Association and joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association. The rodeo continued to be held at the Pend Oreille County Fairgrounds until 1956 when it moved to McNeil Memorial Field in Newport.
In the early 1990s, the association changed its name to the Newport Rodeo Association, moved the rodeo from August to June. The rodeo celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2019 and was an amateur rodeo for a number of years.
However, the association is again joining the PRCA Columbia River Circuit Rodeo and events on both nights promise a lot of action and excitement, Hanson said.
Tickets can be purchased at North 40 in Ponderay or online the rodeo's website.
Information: newportrodeo.com