Elmore County Fair and Rodeo underway

The 2006 Elmore County "Wild West" Fair and Rodeo is underway and will run through Saturday, featuring entertainment on the midway, a carnival, a rodeo, exhibits and demonstrations.

The fair and rodeo are held in Glenns Ferry, just off I-84's exit 121 .

Domingo Aguirre has been named as the Grand Marshall for the Elmore County Fair and Rodeo, which this year has a theme of "Honoring Our Basque Heritage."

The fair opened Monday at the fairgrounds in Glenns Ferry with registration for open class events and a series of judging competitions that day and Tuesday for 4-H and Optimist youths and the 4-H horse show.

Today is the first of the full day of activities open to the public at the fairgrounds and the day the carnival midway opens.

Inland Empire Shows Carnival will be on site for four days this year with new rides to please event-goers. The carnival features over 30 rides, games and attractions.

Pay One Price (POP) tickets for the carnival can be purchased at the fair for a cost of $22.

A Player's Bonus Coupon will be given to every player each time they play a game on the carnival midway. All prizes on the midway have Player's Bonus Coupon values and fairgoers can redeem the coupons to get the prize of their choice at any booth, if enough have been earned.

According to L. Reed Williams, President of Royal West Amusements and Inland Empire Shows Carnivals, "We decided that it was more fun for everyone on the midway to offer a way, besides winning, to get the prize you want. The Player's Bonus Coupons give you something back for just playing, even if you don't win a particular game."

Families attending the Elmore County Fair this year also will receive a special Carnival Buck when they purchase their ride tickets at the carnival ticket booths. They'll get $1 off any large or medium drink with a food purchase, $1 off a bag of cotton candy, and three $1 coupons toward any of the games on the midway that they play.

"We like to give the folks who come to our carnival a little something extra. We know that they spend money at the event, and we want to ease their budgets a bit to thank them for making our carnival part of their experience," Reed said.

The carnival will be open from 4-10 p.m.Wednesday through Friday, and from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday.

The exhibit building will open at noon today. Besides the midway and carnival activities, the first hornet car races ever appearing at the fair will be held at the motocross site on the rodeo grounds beginning at 7 p.m. tonight, and the "Relative Rock" country rock band will provide entertainment on the midway in the evening.

The exhibit building opens at noon Wednesday through Saturday and will remain open until 10 p.m.

Thursday's activities are part of the alcohol-free Family Day at the fair.

The All-Youth Junior Rodeo will begin at 6 p.m. at the rodeo grounds.

The Little Miss Elmore County Fair Pageant begins at 7 p.m. on the midway, open to all young girls ages 3-8. To enter, call the fair office at 587-2136, ext. 287.

At 8 p.m. on the midway the Elmore County Hispanic Organization dancers will perform, and music will be provided by the Hispanic band "Explosivo Norte."

Friday's activities begin with entertainment on the midway from 5-9 p.m., including hypnotist Andrew Becker performing from 7-8:30 p.m. and music by the Jeff Palmer Band beginning at 9 p.m.

A dog demonstration will be held at the rodeo grounds at 4 p.m. and a drill team, the Treasure Valley Leather Slappers, will perform there at 7:15 p.m., just before the rodeo.

The ICA/IMPCA Rodeo begins at 8 p.m. The rodeo queen will not be announced during the rodeo, as the contest was cancelled this year (see related story this issue).

A wild-cow milking contest and an open saddle bronc competition, open to any member of the public that would like to try riding the bucking horses will be held during the rodeo.

Saturday is Cultural Day, honoring the area's Basques.

The 4-H Livestock Sale will begin at 9 a.m., followed at 11:30 a.m. by the Optimist Youth Group Livestock Sale. The hypnotist will perform at 6 and 7:30 p.m.

The second night of the rodeo begins at 8 .m., and the Jeff Palmer band will perform again on the midway beginning at 9 p.m.