The 100th anniversary of the Pendleton Round-Up will kick-off with a New Year’s eve celebration on December 31st, 2009. The “Let’er Buck Ball” is planned as the initial kick-off event for the 2010 rodeo, to be held September 15th through the 18th.
The 21-and-over event, taking place at the Hamley and Co. facility in downtown Pendleton, will feature celebrities, dignitaries, public officials, and cowboys and cowgirls from around the northwest, along with multiple entertainment options through the evening as well as a live and silent auction.
Tim Hawkins, Pendleton Round-Up arena director and chairman of the Round-Up centennial committee says the intent is to kick off the year in a style unique to the Pendleton Round-Up.
“When the concept came about, there was no doubt in my mind that it had to be a first class, once-in-a-lifetime western affair,” Hawkins said. “We have the unique ability to make this happen and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Hawkins says guests are encouraged to wear their favorite rodeo regalia from the past hundred years. The evening will include live entertainment, food by Hamley Steakhouse, and a live and silent auction for one of a kind Pendleton Round-Up memorabilia. Auction items will include the first of 100 bronzes titled “Let’er Buck” by Austin Barton, the first of 100 numbered Pendleton Round-Up Centennial blankets by Pendleton Woolen Mills, custom Justin Boots, centennial rodeo contestant numbers, and many other items.
Tickets to the event are $150 and can be purchased at The Pendleton Round-Up Office or by calling 1-800-45-RODEO; Hamley and Co or on their website at http://www.hamleyco.com/webstore; or at the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce. Proceeds from the Let’er Buck Ball will go toward the Pendleton Round-Up Centennial Plaza project.
For more information please visit www.leterbuckball.com.
The Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon is held the second full week of September in Pendleton, Ore. The Round-Up began in 1910 and is recognized as one of the oldest and most prestigious rodeos in the world and has won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s 2003 Large Outdoor Rodeo Committee of the Year Award, and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association’s Large Outdoor Rodeo Committee of the Year Award in 2008. The Happy Canyon Night Show is a colorful display of Indian pageantry and tradition and takes place every night of Round-Up. A week full of activities, including parades, concerts, PBR bull-riding competition, barbecues, dances, gambling and numerous other events begin Saturday, Sept. 11th and continue through Saturday, Sept. 18th. For more background information about the Pendleton Round-Up, Happy Canyon Night Show and its many ancillary events, visit www.pendletonroundup.com.
