Santa Maria Elks begin countdown to 82nd Annual Rodeo with official kickoff of ‘rodeo season’
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The countdown to the 82nd Annual Santa Maria Elks Rodeo and Parade is now officially underway with the start of "rodeo season."
Santa Maria Elks Recreation, which that heads up the planning and organization of Santa Maria's showcase event, has kicked off this year's "rodeo season," the period of time where a number of rodeo-related events and announcements take place over the next 15 weeks.
"It's incredible that it's rodeo time again and yet here it is," said Johnna McGuire, Elks Recreation media director. "Things are going to be happening fast and furious. There's so many activities that the community can get involved with starting now. Leading up to our opening night of May 29th. It really is a four months of just event after event after event that builds the excitement, the anticipation, and the community involvement, and of cours,e raise an amazing amount of money for organizations in our community."
This year's rodeo is set to take place at the Santa Maria Elks Event Center from May 29-June 1, with the parade scheduled for Saturday, May 31.
The first major announcement released by Elks Recreation this year is the revealing of the organizations that will sponsor a Queen Candidate in the Rodeo's iconic Queen Contest.
"We have four organizations that will be participating in the Queen Contest this year, and we're really excited about that," said Elks Recreation President Peter Sterling. "Two of them are brand new and they're very excited to get into it. There's the Children's Resource and Referral program. We also have the (Santa Maria) Saints Football Booster Club, as well as the two organizations that are returning, St. Joseph High School and Kiwanis Club of Guadalupe."
While the organizations have been announced, the identities of the four Rodeo Queen Candidates will not be publicly announced until Saturday, April 5 during the annual Queen Contest Kickoff Dinner.
"That really gets the thing started," said Sterling. "The Queen Kickoff on April 5th at the Lodge is a great event to attend you. That's where you're going to meet all the Queen Candidates and you're going to hear all about them. They'll talk about their background and what makes them a good Queen Candidate, and it's all exciting, the auction and the food. People should go to see that because that's when you're going to learn about the Queen candidate so you can select what group you want to support or support of all of them."
With the countdown to the start of the rodeo at 107 days as of Feb. 11, Elks Recreation is seeking young applicants who would like to take part in two of the rodeo's most popular positions, Miss Mini Rodeo and Jr. Barrelman.
Miss Mini Rodeo serves as an official ambassador to the event during the entire run of the rodeo, while the Jr. Barrelman will have the opportunity to experience the rodeo up-close-and-personal, working inside the arena to entertain the crowd during the mutton bustin' competition.
The two children that are selected will each receive a Resistol cowboy hat and silver belt buckle.
Applicants for both positions must be between the ages of 7-to-10-years old by Dec. 31, 2025 and apply by Monday, March 10, 2025.
Looking ahead, the Elks Rodeo will feature several returning favorite activities that many have come to cherish as longtime annual Santa Maria traditions.
"PRCA rodeo will have four days of exciting event competition," said McGuire. "The Golden Circle of Champions, our pediatric cancer program will be back. All of the and excitement of the skydiver and the entertainment and really just the celebration that happens, lik our pre-rodeo concerts and our Central Coast kids got talent."
At the same time Elks Recreation is just starting to ramp up its promotion this year's event, McGuire indicated there is a major new addition coming to the rodeo that is not quite ready to be announced.
"I will say to stay tuned," said McGuire. "In a few weeks, we will be making some major announcements and some additions to our Santa Maria Elks Rodeo that will truly make it bigger and better."
Sterling was also tight-lipped about the soon-to-be-revealed new addition, but added it's all part of the Elk's strategy to keep this annual showcase a premiere spectator event.
"We always look for other for other ways to make this a successful event and to keep it refreshed and ongoing," said Sterling. "We do have some other things in the works that we're not ready to we're not prepared to announce at this point, but it will be very exciting. It's going to be a great event, just like every single year. The rodeo always seems to gets a little bit better, and we look at those things, how to freshen it up a little bit, and always want to make sure that we're on top of things that we're bringing this excitement to our fans."
For more information, email elksrodeo@elksrec, call (805) 925-4125 or click here for the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo and Parade official website.
