Grab your hats and boots and get ready for some wranglin’.
The 2002 Williamson County Fair and Rodeo kicks off tonight and will last through Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Williamson County Expo Center, featuring carnival rides, live music, food, vendors, rodeo attractions, a petting zoo, pig races and so much more.
Scott Heselmeyer, the president of the Williamson County Fair Association’s executive committee, and the treasurer for Williamson County, said he expects this year’s rodeo be amazing.
“It’s going to be a really great time,” Heselmeyer said. “We have been excited the last couple of years to get to put this together.”
Heselmeyer said the Expo Center, which was approved by voters in the 2013 bond election and built in 2015, makes an event of this size and stature possible.
“I’m kind of amongst three or four people who really envisioned having the fair, including Judge (Dan) Gattis, along with Clint Chitsey, who used to be our director of the Expo Center out there,” Heselmeyer recalled. “We really felt like Williamson County had never had a true what you would call a county fair, something that really celebrates completely our agricultural heritage, our heritage as a county.”
Heselemeyer said that while there were individual aspects celebrated, the Expo Center allows it all under one roof.
“We have great rodeos in the county, and we have livestock shows,” Heselmeyer said. “We haven’t had something that really brings together everything in one place with the rodeo, carnival and live music, and the other things that are associated with that, and a big part of the reason in the past was we didn’t have the facility to do that, but the county now in the last several years has done the work there at the Expo Center, and we have a great facility that allows us to do that.” The fair will kick off tonight with a family night, sponsored by the YMCA, featuring free gate admission for families to the fairgrounds.
Activities will include carnival rides, a beer and wine garden, a petting zoo, pig races, stick horse races for kids ages three to five, arts and crafts vendors and more. In addition, visitors can watch the Paul Bunyan show, a competition of world champion lumberjacks demonstrating modern and old-time lumberjack skills.
The rodeo, which is sponsored by the Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association, will be held Friday and Saturday and will feature riders from all over the county competing for bragging rights and cash prizes. There will be a mutton bustin’, and kids calf scramble as well.
In addition, the Patriot Pro Mustang Showdown returns to the fair and rodeo this year on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Six experienced horsemen teamed up with local veterans from the Ride on Center for Kids “ROCK” Veterans Program for this competition.
The competition includes grooming and riding the mustangs in the arena as veterans show off the tricks they’ve learned while working with the experienced horsemen.
A new feature for this year will be a Tejano night Friday, featuring mariachi music, folklorico dance, a tribute to the late Tejano artist Selena by Amanda Solis, as well as musical performances from Ram Herrera, Yayo Castillo y Rumores and more.
“This is just a very important part of the heritage in Williamson County, so we are really excited to bring in some great live music in that regard to really celebrate that on Friday night,” Heselmeyer said.
The four-day event will close out with country singer and songwriter Mark Chesnutt on the main stage Saturday night, directly following the rodeo.
Tickets to the fair are on sale now for $10 online, or $12 at the gate, and $5 per child online at $6 at the gate per day. Tickets for the fair, concert and rodeo are $20 online, $22 at the gate, $10 for children online and $12 at the gate.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to wilcofair.com
