The folks behind the annual Cochrane Fair and the Cochrane Classic Bull Riding are lining up for a busy weekend with no shortage of crowd-pleasing entertainment.
Jason Borton, founder and organizer of the annual Canadian Professional Rodeo Association-sanctioned event, is anticipating a strong turnout.
This is the first year Borton has held his event in conjunction with the Cochrane and District Agricultural Society’s fair.
The fair runs Aug. 18 to 20 at the Ag Society grounds, with the bull riding event taking place during the evening of Aug. 19.
“We just started selling tickets (less than two weeks ago) ... I’m looking forward to it,” said Borton, adding that ticket sales are off to a good start.
The Blake Reed Band will be on deck to carry the tunes late into the night following the Saturday evening bull ride.
Advance tickets to the bull ride are available at Drycleaning by Daves and Tony’s Western Wear for $30/adult, $20/senior and students 5-17 years of age.
These early bird tickets include entry into the fair grounds.
Tickets to the fair alone run $5/person and children ages five years and younger get in the gates free.
Molly Sapergia, general manager of the Ag Society, said the local sponsorship support has been “tremendous ... it’s like somebody flipped a switch and realized the fair is a part of the community.”
Sapergia said a big component to the three-day long fair - which boasts a midway, junior kids’ rodeo, marketplace, food vendors and family-friendly beer gardens - is education.
“Alberta Open Farm Days is a huge event ... we lucked out at getting on board with them,” she said.
Alberta Open Farm Days takes place Aug. 19 and 20 province-wide, where farmers and ranchers open up their gates to bridge the urban-rural divide by inviting Albertans to take a look at how their food is grown.
The Cochrane Fair will have an indoor staging area with information aplenty and outdoor pens with animals of all shapes and sizes.
Horse breed demonstrations will also take place on the mornings of Aug. 19 and 20, as part of the Open Farm Days event.
The West Coast Lumberjack Show will run eight shows throughout the weekend - featuring axe throwing, log rolling, log cutting and more.
The 48th annual Old Tyme Fair bench exhibition will take place at the Cochrane Fair at the same time.
For a complete list of fair events visit cochranefair.com and cochraneclassic.com.
