Kikino Rodeo developing into a summer classic

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The 14th annual Kikino Celebration Days and Silver Birch Rodeo, held Aug. 7 to 10 at Kikino Metis Settlement, drew overflow crowds throughout the three main days of the event.

More than a thousand people a day went through the gates, combining with another thousand camped on-site to pack the stands to watch cowboys and cowgirls from the Lakeland and Foothills rodeo associations compete for $17,500 in prize money, and to take in numerous other events on the grounds.

The Celebration Days kicked off Thursday night with pony chariot and chuckwagon races, which ran all four evenings of the event. Close to 300 competitors from across Alberta took part in the three days of rodeo. Other events on the grounds included pancake breakfasts, a two-day talent show, steak barbeques, a horseshoe tournament, horse races, a small midway, and the Adrian Hope Memorial one mile run, won by Trent Lavallee of Lac La Biche. Off-site events included a parade and a rodeo dance at the Kikino Hamlet.

The rodeo featured daily performances by a team of women trick riders and the Texas Tornado Bull Show, which had a full-grown Brahma bull doing tricks, including balancing on all four feet on a platform the size of a kitchen chair and jumping through a ring of fire.

The four-day event was capped off with a 21-minute fireworks display on the shore of Whitefish Lake, which started earlier than scheduled because of an approaching storm. The fireworks were "absolutely excellent," said Kikino Settlement administrator Roger Littlechilds, and were enhanced by a thunder storm rolling in across the lake.

Littlechilds noted that the rodeo has grown in size again.

"The talent show area was packed both days," he said, even while the rodeo was running. "It was a really good weekend," he added. "We managed to slip in and out of the weather so even Mother Nature co-operated."

Littlechilds said a total of 3,456 people went through the gate over the four-days. The on-site camping was sold out, with many sites booked as early as January.

Silver Birch Resort manager John Ritchie said there were about 1,500 campers, including the rodeo competitors and chuckwagon drivers and their families.

Among those campers were 50 horsedrawn wagon units from the Great Western Wagon Train, which traveled to Kikino from the historic Victoria Settlement near Smoky Lake. The wagon train organizers have made the Kikino Celebration Days and Silver Birch Rodeo a "must attend" event on their summer calendar.