Previous Issues of the Hill Country Sun

Celebrate Bandera this Labor Day weekend

By Dan Wise

The history of one of the Hill Country’s most colorful towns comes alive as Bandera, Cowboy Capital of the World, hosts the fifth annual Celebrate Bandera party Labor Day weekend.

The celebration begins Friday, August 31 at 5 pm. Follow the cowboys and horse trailers to the rodeo grounds at Mansfield Park, where Dodge Rodeo presents the Cowboy Mounted Shooters Competition, sanctioned by the national Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association.

The annual event, hosted by Bandera’s own Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association chapter, gives attendees a chance to see cowboys and cowgirls in period costumes riding at top speeds while shooting pistols at balloon targets.

The group returns Saturday morning at 8 am for a highly competitive Colt Eliminator Competition.

September 1, Bandera will be buzzing with a huge arts and crafts fair opening on the Courthouse lawn at 10 am with music from Larry Nolen, an inductee into the Bandera Music Hall of Fame, headlining the early morning concert behind the Courthouse. The Music Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Bandera County Kronkosky Library.

The Almost Patsy Cline Band and this year’s winners of the Bandera Idol competition, Tiffini Morris and Brandy Neely, also perform Saturday morning.

Anticipation builds as time grows near for the longhorns to make their appearance at 11 am Saturday when Y.O. Ranch wranglers drive their herd into Bandera from the Hill Country State Natural Area. The Y.O. cattle drive has become an annual tradition at Celebrate Bandera. The unique procession features cattle and trail ride enthusiasts, followed by characters and re-enactors representing different periods of Bandera’s history.

Bandera was a major gathering point for the longhorn herds that made their way up the Western Trail to market in Kansas and beyond.

The longhorn procession kicks off the annual Labor Day Parade and heralds Bandera’s colorful past, reenacting cattle drives of the late 1800s.

This year, Bandera is proud to welcome the 2006 Cowboy Poet Laureate of Texas, Red Steagall, as parade marshall, along with 2007 Kings of Western Swing, including Asleep At The Wheel and the legendary Jake Hooker.

The Intertribal PowWow—bigger than ever and lasting for two days—gets under way at noon Saturday down by the river at the Alkek Boys and Girls Pavilion.

A new children’s game area opens at this year’s Celebrate Bandera, and more exhibits are offered along the river, including the San Antonio Living History Association, Brazos Bottom Cowographers, the Concho Cowboys, Buffalo Soldiers, Texas Badland Rangers, and the Texas Camel Corps.

Also represented are Texas Longhorn Riders Association, Dr. E.T. Bushrod’s Medicine and Wild West Show, Pistol Packin’ Paula, Trail Rides, Stagecoach Rides and Clyde the Buffalo.

Beginning at 1 pm Saturday, guests can cool their heels at Blue Gene’s at a free sponsors’ reception and dance.
Red Steagall (presented by the Flying L Guest Ranch) performs at Bandera High School’s auditorium immediately following Riverside Players’ Melodrama production of “Dogsbreath Devereau” at 3 pm Saturday.

Red’s globe-spanning career has covered a period of more than 40 years. He has performed for heads of state, including a special party for President Reagan at the White House in l983, and made three overseas tours to the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, Australia, and South America.

Although Red is best known for his Texas swing dance music and songs such as “Here We Go Again,” “Party Dolls and Wine,” “Freckles Brown,” and “Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music,” he also is unabashedly loved by Texas cowboys for the quiet times they have spent with him around chuck wagon campfires.

In many a cowboy’s opinion, the public has never heard his best music. And if you ask Red to name his favorite place to play, he might say the White House, some famous stage in Nashville, California, Spain, or Germany—or he might say a lonesome cow camp in West Texas.

There’ll be more rodeo action Saturday night in Mansfield Park, when guests can catch the Dodge Rodeo’s Cowboy Mounted Shooters Competition finals at 7 pm, followed by the Dodge Rodeo National Professional Bull Riders’ Challenge at 8 pm. Immediately following, the first of the Kings of Western Swing Dance series begins at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar featuring Asleep At the Wheel.

That only leaves a few hours before Sunday’s Cowboy Church service and the Intertribal Pow Wow, plus arts and crafts and real gospel music at the Courthouse.

Sunday afternoon brings the second in the dance series at Arkey Blue’s Silver Dollar Saloon, featuring one of Texas’ favorite swing artists, Jake Hooker.

Then it’s back to the Dodge Rodeo National Professional Bull Rider’s Challenge at 7 pm Sunday, September 2.

Final party time begins at 10 pm at the famous Longhorn Saloon with entertainment from Brian Black and special guests.

FYI • For more information about Celebrate Bandera, and to get ticket information for special shows, the Dodge Rodeo Bull Rider’s Challenge, and the Red Steagall show, call 830-796-4447 or 800-364-3833, or visit the web site at www.celebratebandera.com.