If you’re looking to fully immerse yourself in country culture, Desert Rodeo is the place to be this festival season.
Desert Rodeo is set to take place at the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, CA the weekend of April 25 to April 27, which happens to be the same time as Stagecoach.
“It’s a very big weekend for the country music fans,” co-founder and Entertainment Tonight correspondent Cassie DiLaura exclusively told Us Weekly. “We wanted to offer the community and festival goers a supplementary experience to an already incredible weekend in the desert.”
DiLaura, 32, shared with Us that her team wanted to do something “true to the Western Spirit” and landed on doing a “sanctioned professional rodeo.”
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“This is the real deal,” she explained. “Prize money, prizes, all of it. You have the MLB, you have the NFL, you have the NHL, you have the PRCA. The PRCA is the oldest and largest sanctioning body in western sports. It’s as big as you can get.”
The PRCA only holds about “700 rodeos throughout the year,” with Desert Rodeo being one of them, per DiLaura.
“The cowboys that are going to be competing, this goes towards their numbers to qualify them for NFR [National Finals Rodeo],” she gushed, adding that the “work ethic” of the cowboys is something she admires. “The community itself has just been the most welcoming.”
DiLaura noted that along with the rodeo consisting of three days of competition with eight events each day, there are also fun side activities for guests to participate in.
“Our friends over at “Fox Farmer Wants a Wife” are coming and we’re gonna have a big photo moment so fans can take their photo with the farmers,” she explained. “You can go over to the Tito’s activation and you can build charms for your boots. And you can do western games. We also have a retail ranch.”
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Although festival-goers will probably be in their favorite country gear for Stagecoach, DiLaura did share some of her favorite fashion tips for the rodeo.
“One thing that is so special about Western fashion, you can be as creative as you want and you can do what you want. You can channel your personality however you want,” she told Us. “Boots highly encouraged. Cowboy hat, highly encouraged. Tank top, shorts also highly encouraged. …. There are no rules. You’ll see people in all sorts of get up during this weekend. … But at the very minimum, cowboy boots.”
Guests can purchase tickets for Desert Rodeo at desertrodeo.com.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
