Tickets on Sale for Annual Red Bluff Round-Up
Round-Up stampedes into town with 3 rodeo performances and plenty of ancillary activities
World champion saddle bronc rider Zeke Thurston, Big Valley, Alberta, rides a bronc at the 2018 Red Bluff Round-Up. This year’s Round-Up is April 20-22, with many community events taking place throughout the week of the Round-Up. Photo by Hubbell Photography.
Red Bluff, Calif. (November 15, 2018) – Tickets are on sale for the biggest show in the North State!
The 98th annual Red Bluff Round-Up will be held April 19-21 at the Tehama District Fairgrounds in Red Bluff, and tickets can be purchased for the rodeo, one of the top twenty biggest rodeos in the country.
And for Red Bluff residents, the rodeo is a long-time tradition.
Vicki Stroud has attended the rodeo since she was two years old, and has missed very few years of it.
She remembers when her dad, Jim Davis, who passed away in July, would back the truck up to the arena fence and the family would watch the rodeo from there. Her dad volunteered for the Round-Up for years and was one of the oldest Top Hand award winners before he died earlier this year.
Three rodeo performances make up the Round-Up, with over 500 cowboys and cowgirls in town to compete for nearly a quarter million dollars.
But there’s so much more than just the competition. John Payne, the “One Arm Bandit,” will be the specialty act. The Oklahoman wows crowds with his wild mustangs, Watusi-cross steers and buffalo. The American flag is brought into the arena with all the pageantry it deserves, from a skydiver 3,000 feet in the air. The young cowkids compete in the wild pony races and the mutton bustin’, and the Wild Ride brings out the crazy costumes for the cowboys on the last day of the rodeo.
For Stroud, Round-Up time is a busy time. As a member of the Red Bluff Rotary, she helps organize the club’s annual “Think Pink” media luncheon and volunteers with the Rotary’s beer stands at the event. She usually manages to watch at least one rodeo performance, but, like most Red Bluff residents, is involved with putting it on. “If you’re not busy at the rodeo, you’re hiding somewhere because there are all kinds of things to do.”
Stroud is a shareholder in the Round-Up Association, having inherited her share from her dad, who got it from his uncle, Guy Davis.
She encourages everyone to buy their tickets early. “You don’t want to wait to buy them, because they’ll be sold out. It’s a good time.”
Tickets for the rodeo range in price from $14 to $35 and can be purchased online at www.RedBluffRoundup.com or at the Round-Up office (530.527.1000).
The rodeo starts at 7 pm on Fri., April 19, at 2:30 pm on Sat., April 20, and at 1:30 pm on Sun., April 21. For more information, visit the website or all the office.