Labor Day weekend will kick off with a rodeo and fair in Columbia at the Columbia Expo Center.
J.C. Kitaif of Kitaif Pro Rodeos Inc. of Tylertown said he is looking forward to bringing an event of this type to the area.
“We did the Marion County Cattlemen’s Association Rodeo for years,” he said. “We’d made contact with a fair company years ago and finally this year, they contacted me and said, ‘Let’s go to Columbia.’ So we decided to do a Labor Day fair. There hasn’t been a fair here in, I think they said 37 years.”
The Quad County Free Fair and Rodeo begins Aug. 31 with ride and food attractions opening. The rodeo will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 1 and 2. Midway rides will be open prior to the rodeo. Kitaif hopes to attract attendees and rodeo fans from Marion, Jefferson Davis, Lawrence and Lamar counties and beyond.
“We decided to do it for Labor Day,” Kitaif said. “We wanted to do it before everybody went to Franklinton (La., the Washington Parish Free Fair). We wanted to do it without impeding on them, so we thought Labor Day would be a great time.”
Mitchell Brothers Midway will be providing the rides, and Kitaif said it is the company that handles the rides for the Washington Parish Free Fair.
“They are a very reputable fair company,” he said. “They will be bringing in a variety of rides. They are going to set up by the Expo Center. The rodeo will be inside. They’ll have games and food. It’s like any other fair. This being the first year, we’ll obviously have room to grow. Next year, we want to put in
a Thursday night gospel choir contest and things. The rodeo is Friday and Saturday and the fair is Thursday, Friday and all day Saturday.”
Admission and parking to the fair are free, with tickets and wristbands available for purchase for the attractions. Rodeo tickets are $7.
“This is actually a different kind of rodeo,” Kitaif said. “This is going to be a PRC Rodeo (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association). That rodeo is what you see in Las Vegas … like you see on TV. Those riders have to come through Columbia and those dollars count for that. It is high quality. These guys have to come through Columbia to earn dollars for the NFR in Las Vegas. That’s why we’ve been saying that the road to Las Vegas goes through Columbia.”
The rodeo will be larger than previous regional rodeos in the area.
“This is the NFL of rodeo,” Kitaif said. “It is the pinnacle. The PRC is like an NFL team coming to town. There is one of these events in Hattiesburg, the Coca Cola Classic. We have been applying for 15 years to do it here. We just got the approval this year. We’re pretty excited.”
The PRCA is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., and is the largest and oldest rodeo-sanctioning body in the world. The PRCA sanctions about 600 top-of-the-line events each year, according to its website. PRCA’s membership includes more than 5,000 cowboys. The PRCA includes one $6 million earner, four $3 million earners and more than 100 $1 million earners. The total payout in 2015 was $46,349,782.
Kitaif said his company produces 50 to 60 rodeos per year from Naples, Fla., to Cheyenne, Wyo.
“We’ll have competitors from across the country,” he said. “We hope to get a big crowd out for the fair and shows. We’re looking for as many as 20,000 people to come through the fair and rodeo. We’ll have plenty of parking available. We just ask that people respect the nearby businesses. We’ll have shuttles running from some locations, if we need to.”
For more about the PRCA, visit www.prorodeo.com.
Pictured Above: Ryder Wright competes in the saddle bronc portion of a recent PRCA rodeo. Compeititors will be in Columbia next weekend. | Photos courtesy of the PRCA
