Santa Clarita's 15th Annual Cowboy Festival To Offer Fun, Food and Wild West Performers
2008's April 23-27 Celebration Just North Of Los Angeles Offers Best Of New West Set At Working Western Movie Studio
If enjoying the Old West is your cup of camp coffee, plan to attend the 15th annual City of Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, April 23-27, 2008, for some real family fun set in a New West format.
Located in Santa Clarita Valley just 35 miles north of Los Angeles, the Cowboy Festival showcases some of the best Western singers, storytellers, poets and artists from around the nation.
The festival also uses two historical settings as background — Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and the William S. Hart Ranch and Museum.
Melody Ranch, formerly owned by singing cowboy Gene Autry, still serves as a working movie studio complete with a famous Old West town where many Western movies and TV shows have been filmed. The nearby 265-acre Hart Ranch, donated by the silent film cowboy star to Los AngelesCounty, is now part of the county’s Natural History Museum system. The Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival is one of the largest such celebrations currently being put on in the West. Visitors may walk down Melody Ranch’s frontier street, meet and talk with cowboy artisans, trick ropers, musicians and performers, see street shows, visit vendor displays ranging from leather goods, bead work, paintings and sculptures, jewelry, home furnishing and Western memorabilia.
Spend an afternoon walking down a movie studio's working Old West town and mix with cowboy entertainers. Photo courtesy Cowboy Festival.
Organizers plan two new events for 2008. On Friday, April 25, starting at 11 a.m., will be the California Fiesta De Rancho Camulos with noted Western entertainer Don Edwards. Edwards’s concert at Don Ygnacio del Valle’s estancia will be the highlight of the afternoon at Rancho Camulos, the site that inspired the novel “Ramona” where the history, myth, and romance of old California still linger. Attendees will be able to enjoy a Southwest Vaquero buffet, music, and costumed docent-led tours. The event includes lunch, tours and the concert.Tickets will be $45 per person. All proceeds benefit museum historical preservation. On Saturday, April 26, starting at 7 p.m., will be “Art at Hart” at the William S. Hart Mansion. Fans of Western art will be able to watch a number of artists create pieces in one hour or less. Attendees will then be invited to bid on items. Proceeds will benefit the Hart Museum. Tickets to the event will be $20.
Jim Townsend, trick roper, mixes with Old West fans to show off his skills. Photo courtesy Cowboy Festival.
Fans of the Old West can also enjoy the music of many of today’s New West entertainers. On hand will be the likes of cowboy poet and story teller Pat Richardson, cowboy balladeer Don Edwards, youth entertainers Carin Mari and the Pony Express, Belinda Gail and Curley Musgrave, the John Moore Band, and melodies from the Sons of the San Joaquin. Ticket prices vary.
Walking the streets of Melody Ranch is open to the public only on Saturday or Sunday. A two-day Melody Ranch pass is $30 for adults, and $15 for children under 12 years old. Saturday admission is $20 for adults, and $10 for children under 12 years old. For other ticket prices, show times, a map and directions, see the festival’s Web site at http://www.cowboyfestival.org
There’s also plenty of good grub to be sampled. One of the culinary highlights of the festival is a Chuckwagon Dinner Show on April 24, starting at 6 p.m., which features chuckwagon cooking demonstrations and dinner. The program includes music and storytelling, and benefits the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. Price is $40 per person.
The festival also dishes up a Spaghetti Western Family Dinner, a Behind the Scenes Tour, and the highpoint of the festival, the Walk of Western Stars gala dinner and awards ceremony on Friday, April 25, at the Hyatt Valencia Hotel main ballroom.
The annual $100-per-person dinner celebration salutes and honors some of Hollywood’s greatest Western performers of film, stage, radio and television, some dating back to 1900. In 2007, Walk of Western Stars inductees included Phil Rawlins, Harry Dean Stanton and the Sons of the San Joaquin.
A portion of the dinner proceeds raised, along with other Walk of Western Stars donations, benefit the Carousel Ranch, a non-profit organization which uses horses to help provide developmental therapeutic and recreational programs for disabled and disadvantaged children.
Tickets went on sale Jan. 7. For pure Old West fun and entertainment, the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival is a sure bet. For more information call festival organizers at (661) 286-4021.
