On April 20-21st, William S. Hart Regional Park hosted the 30th annual Cowboy Festival. A weekend that celebrated western and cowboy culture, consisting of several live musical performances, cowboy-related activities, merchants and vendors, and western swing dances. The gates of the park opened up to the public at 10:00 am. On both ends of the park, stages were set up and at 10:45 the first opener of the day, country singer Olivia Harms, played a few of her songs and covers.
To avoid overcrowding of the parking lot, people could park their cars in a grassfield at 22400 13th Street, Newhall, and take a Santa Clarita bus to Hart Park and back. Once at the entrance of the park, people would be greeted by vendors, and food stands.
On the left side where the SCV history center is located, there were stands with western-themed games and a pen where people could practice roping on a plastic cattle similar to tie-down roping events in rodeos. While on the other side of the park, there were two cowboys from The New Buffalo Soldiers group whose history dates back to the late 1800s, and shared stories and contributions of African-Americans from the west.
In the parking lot of the park, there were several dance floors setup for Bootscoot Bosses Line Dance Crew which led the line dancing event from 1:00-5:00 pm. Right next to the floors was a mechanical bull that swung people around and off, imitating bull riding events in rodeos. In the lot closer to the Hart Hall was food vendors that included Italian ice, pastries, beverages, and barbeque.
A student from Rio Norte, Jagger Hunt, went to the festival and participated as a Food-runner which collected money from the vendors, merchants, and artists and brought them food so they don’t have to leave their stands/stages. When asked in an interview about the festival she responded with “10,000 people attended this year and it only used to be on Main Street. I really liked the pioneer corner that was runned my Gilcrest Farm. I also made a candle and had home-made butter on bread! Though, it was a lot of walking, especially Saturday when it was really hot.” Hunt states that she was expecting a lot of western/cowboy fashion and clothes and was surprised to see how many vendors represented cowboy-culture nicely. Finally and most importantly, when asked about food truck/stand recommendations, she recommended Carter’s Smoked BBQ “We got a lot of orders and requests [from vendors, merchants, volunteers, and artists] for that place. And Cowboy Coddler! -The guy there was really good!”