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Down in the Dirt: Lone Star Rodeo returns to Ag Expo Center for a full slate of competition
Feb 12, 2009 (The Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The Lone Star Rodeo runs deep in Preston Fowlkes' blood.
"The company was started by my dad in 1949 in Marfa, Texas. Daddy moved it to Franklin, Tennessee. Then he got killed in 1976, and then I moved the operation to Fairview, Tennessee," the rodeo producer said. "I've been doing it 33 years. Now we have it on our 660-acre ranch in Crofton, Kentucky."
After 60 years, the Fowlkes family continues to work together, hence the theme of this year's event: the 2009 Still Standing Tour, which will be at Western Kentucky University's L.D. Brown Agricultural Exposition Center. The rodeo will begin with "South Central Bank Night" at 8 p.m. Friday, "Kids Day at the Rodeo" at 2 p.m. Saturday, "Big Country Powersports Night" at 8 p.m. Saturday and "WNKY CBS and NBC 40 Day at the Rodeo" at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets -- $17 for reserved seats and $13 general admission -- are available at the Ag Expo Center, select South Central Bank locations in Bowling Green and Glasgow and Big Country Powersports. Advance tickets are available until 5 p.m. today. Tickets will be available only at the Ag Expo Center beginning Friday. Children ages 3 and under are admitted free, but must sit in a lap.
Contest events will include bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, cowgirls breakaway roping, steer wrestling, team roping, cowgirls barrel racing and Brahma bull riding.
"We have 350 contestants entered for the weekend," Fowlkes said.
The 2008 Announcer of the Year, Danny Newland of Clinton, Ark., will be the emcee. There also will be clowns, including two-time Rodeo Clown of the Year "Mighty" Mike Wentworth.
"He's really good," Fowlkes said.
Other activities will include Best Dressed Cowboy and Cowgirl Contest and Gold Rush -- both for children ages 10 and under -- and specialty act Lindsey Heid, a sharpshooter and fancy trick roper.
"We take pride in providing wild and Western family entertainment," Fowlkes said. "We've provided entertainment for all ages. I say we provide entertainment for ages 3 to 103."
Lone Star Rodeo produces more than 40 events each year, traveling to 11 different states and drawing about 2,500 people per performance and about 10,000 for the whole weekend, Fowlkes said.
"The whole thing we've done that a lot of businesses haven't done is kept the tickets affordable, and it's family entertainment. We haven't raised ticket prices in four or five years," he said. "You can almost bring your family to the rodeo for what it costs to go to the picture show. This is live entertainment."
Show sponsors include Big Country Powersports, South Central Bank, WNKY-TV, The Beaver, Insight Communications, Soap My Ride, WBKO-TV, The Country Leader 95 WGGC, West Kentucky Horse Sales, Barry Guillory Bits & Spurs and Mortenson Silver & Saddles.
-- For more information, call the Ag Expo Center at 745-2578.
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