Williams Lake's Indoor Spring Classic Rodeo will take place April 18 to 20 at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex.
Roy Call, Richard Kohlen and a group of volunteers are organizing it for the third year in a row, having stepped up to the plate to keep it going.
As in previous years, truckloads of dirt will be hauled in to transform Rink One for the event.
The barrel racing qualifier will get underway Thursday, April 17 and the rodeo will be April 18 to April 20 with three rough stock events - bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding - as well as ladies barrels, peewee and junior barrel racing, junior steer riding and the wild horse race.
“We’ve always tried to make the indoor rodeo fit for what people want and then try to make it the best we can for the viewing guys,” Call said. “It’s not about the cowboys. We’re trying to make it fun.”
Initially they worried about trying to fill a two-and-a-half to three-hour event each day, but in the end had to cut it down.
"We were pleasantly surprised by the number of entries," Call said.
This year they will not use rink two for a beer and food venue. Having alcohol in the two rinks made it more difficult to secure and it wasn’t the best, he explained.
A $40,000 grant through the BC Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund is not available this year, so Call said they have had to cut some costs and pursue raising some more sponsorship.
“It is a challenge and has taken extra work, that’s for sure.”
The dance on Saturday night, however, will still take place in rink two and will feature DJ LNDN this year.
In the past the Indoor Rodeo has fallen on Easter weekend and Call said they’ve found they have had pretty good success with it.
“Everyone’s home for the holidays and after being around the house a day or two, they are realizing they need to get out of the house and do something,” he said, chuckling.
The format has been changed for Easter Sunday to add a Children’s Eggstravaganza in rink two that will be free and run 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday morning. It will have some rodeo-related events for children and some giveaways.
Also on Sunday morning there will be a breakfast available through the complex concession.
Last fall, Call and his brother Roy Call sold C+ Rodeos, which they owned for 40 years, providing stock the the Williams Lake Stampede, Indoor Rodeo and other rodeos. The buyer was Orrin Wade who owns a company called Big O Rodeo Co. in Eckville, Alberta. Wade will be providing the stock for the Easter weekend rodeo.
“The nice thing for us is Orrin bought our entire business," said Call. "He bought the steel, our memberships and all the stock and even a couple trailers.”
Well-known rodeo announced Tyson Pietsch will be return and Jason Charters will be the barrel man.
When the the summer rodeo season rolls around this year, Call said he knows he'll have some phantom feelings that he should be doing this and that, and will miss it in some ways.
But, he still has 1,000 acres, 100 head of cattle, three big trucks and a bunch of projects to do. He's also been helping doing some coach evaluating for BC Hockey, helping coach other coaches and doing some player evaluations as well.
