BOWDEN — The Saturday night crowd at the Bowden Daze Rodeo was the largest Bowden & District Agricultural Society president Keith Bailey has ever seen.
The 2024 edition of Bowden Daze ran July 12-14.
Exact attendance figures haven’t been compiled yet, but Bailey knows what he saw.
“(It was) probably the busiest night we've ever had, to be honest. All I know is it was jam packed,” he said during an interview with the Albertan. “There were people standing.”
Bailey described the crowds as good during on Friday and Sunday as well, but Saturday’s was by far the largest.
He said organizers made a few changes to this year’s rodeo and thinks they made a difference in Saturday’s crowd.
One was rodeo clown Dennis Halstead, 10-time Canadian Entertainer of Year. Trick riders were also brought in. Bailey said the prize money was upped a bit for the rodeo performers.
Bailey also thinks these days, people are choosing to only go out one of the three days instead of all or most of them.
“I think everything aligned and everyone came in on Saturday night,” he said.
He said the bands performing at the cabarets were “really good” and that helped keep some people around.
Bowden Daze organizers are now taking a well-deserved breather, but Bailey said they’ll reconvene as early as this fall to begin planning the 2025 edition.
When they do, Bailey is confident they’ll find a way to make the rodeo even better.
He’s just not sure how yet.
“We're always going to try to add something every year,” Bailey said. "You’ve got to keep changing and adding, or else you’re going to get stale.
“We'll always keep trying. Our main goal is to get better every year and I think this year we did a good job of that.”
Bailey believes one of the reasons the rodeo has done so well over the years is that members of the organizing committee have been together for years.
“We all work together and we've all been around a long time, so I think the hard work and dedication people have is why we're so successful,” he said.
