Premier rodeo event returns to Waikouaiti

Waikouaiti Rodeo Club president Richard Robinson is ready to welcome all to the National Finals Rodeo on Saturday, March 14. PHOTO: SAM HENDERSON

A dusty showdown awaits as the country’s best cowboys ride into town.

For the first time since 1999 the Waikouaiti Rodeo Club will host the national finals next month.

President Richard Robinson said the return of the top-tier event was a chance for the organisation to show what it could do.

"I think every club just wants to try and strive to do that wee bit more and be a wee bit better and every now and then it is nice to think now ‘it is our turn, we have got it’, you know and we can handle it.

The club is investing about $70,000 to put on the event.

"But to be fair running a normal rodeo is not exactly cheap either."

The committee had been "chipping away" at plans for the national finals over the last few years to upgrade the facilities.

"All the yards have been redone, the timed event end has been redone."

"This year we have done a couple of pens up for the open bulls and we are doing the announcer’s box."

Organisers hope to more than double the usual attendance to 5000-6000.

"I think it would be quite cool if we could."

People will be able to enjoy four to six hours of entertainment for a reasonable price, he said.

"You get out in the fresh air, there is plenty to do here, there is going to be a bouncy castle for the kids and things like that, so mum and dad can sit down, adults can sit down and watch the rodeo."

The spectacle was set to be "full on" with top cowboy talent coming to Waikouaiti.

"You have got the best of the country there, you have got the eight top competitors in each event."

Spectators new to the scene did not need to know anything about rodeo to see when it was a good ride, Mr Robinson said.

"If you see a good, fast run of the barrel race, you think, ‘wow’.

"It might be a half a second faster than everyone else, but that half a second is just, ‘how’d that happen?’."

As Festus the Clown, Richard Robinson has entertained rodeo crowds for decades. PHOTO: ALLIED MEDIA

While he is club president, Mr Robinson is perhaps best known to crowds as his alter ego, Festus the clown, a role he has performed since the early 1990s.

"Once you put your makeup on and bits and pieces, you are just ‘right, I am someone else now’."

He viewed the character of Festus as a gregarious crowd-pleaser.

"What makes me as him happier is seeing other people happy, you know."

Previous announcements of Festus’ retirement proved to have been premature.

At just about the end of every season he thought he had "had enough" and would never do it again.

"And then, you know, someone will give you a call."

After putting on the paint and costume he realised he had a "great day and you love it".

Mr Robinson’s connection to the sport is lifelong.

His grandfather Jack Robinson was instrumental in starting rodeos in the South Island in the mid-1950s.

"That is all I can remember, is rodeos and stuff."

Mr Robinson acknowledged naming sponsor WAE Engineering & Crane Hire and all other supporters.

"I just hope we get a good crowd and I hope people enjoy their day out, you know?"