The President of the Quesnel Rodeo Club says this year’s rodeo during the Billy Barker Days festival was a huge success.
Ray Jasper says it exceeded their expectations on a number of fronts.
“The weather cooperated phenomenally for us, we lucked out there. Our volunteers. We had an overwhelming response to get a little help here and there, and our sponsorship was over the top. It started out great and then it just got better from there.”
Jasper says they basically filled the place every night.
“We thought we set a record a few years ago at about 6,000 and we over the top of that by about a thousand. We’re roughly, and we haven’t counted all of our sponsor tickets that we used so we’re not 100 percent sure, but just paid attendance was tickling 7,000.”
Jasper says they also had in the neighbourhood of 500 entries this year which was also massive, and he says the new format was also a big hit.
“Two slack performances, three performances, and Sunday’s performance with the top 10 format was probably one of the best rodeos I’ve been to all year. It ran off fast and smooth, the times, the rides, the scores, everybody was really going for it and the crowd loved it, so it is definitely something we’re going to stick with.”
In addition to the top 10 in each of the major events, the top 6 in the junior and pee wee events also qualified for Sunday’s final.
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