Anna Stonehouse/Snowmass Sun
The Snowmass Rodeo is canceling its 47th summer season due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Tuesday.
The village’s longtime western tradition has been a summer staple for many local and visiting families for years and was hard to call off completely, said Darce Vold, executive director and rodeo stock contractor of the Snowmass Rodeo.
“It was a really difficult thing because the rodeo is so beloved in Snowmass and is an event a lot of people count on,” Vold said. The Snowmass Rodeo is produced by the Snowmass Western Heritage Association (SWHA), which decided at its Monday night board meeting the rodeo would not take place again until summer 2021.
“But as a group we decided it was in the best interest of everyone to postpone until next year.”
Support Local Journalism
Up until Monday, Vold said the Snowmass Rodeo had planned to delay the start of the summer season from June to July and to take on the full cost of the weekly event. Vold said rodeo officials knew the event’s typical business sponsors were hurting due to the pandemic and wanted to be mindful of that.
But with the strict public health policies and social distancing requirements that are in place and will continue in some fashion through the summer, Vold said she and the SWHA board felt it best to cancel the season altogether.
“We didn’t think families could come and enjoy the rodeo like we’d like them to, and that’s important,” Vold said.
Over the past 46 years, the Snowmass Rodeo has aimed to engage local and visiting families in a fun way, introducing them to a lifestyle they may be unfamiliar with.
The rodeo usually kicks off with a family style barbecue, then features traditional bull and bronc riding events alongside kids’ mutton bustin’ and calf scramble competitions, ending with s’mores around a fire pit.
Vold has been putting on the Snowmass Rodeo for 23 years and contracting stock for the event even longer. All of her summers since she was 10 years old have been spent at rodeo grounds, and she comes from a rodeo family who is going through the same difficult decision-making she is due to the pandemic.
But despite the downsides, Vold knows the Snowmass Rodeo will be back in 2021 at the same high caliber and with the same tight-knit, family culture — something she and her staff looks forward to.
“It’s not easy, but we’ll manage. We’ll get through this,” Vold said.