A SEA of cowboy boots and hats flooded the Tallangatta Showgrounds for a big return of the Stampede Championship Rodeo on Saturday.
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The 3000-strong crowd watched in nervous anticipation as a procession of bareback riders tried their luck at staying on the bucking broncos.
Heath Chalmers wasn’t so lucky, suffering a big fall in the men’s bareback competition.
But after the sun went down, it wasn’t the riders who kept the crowd there until 1am.
Local country singer Danny Phegan jumped on stage from 11pm to conclude the night, but kept more than 500 people going for an hour longer than the event was supposed to run.
Event organiser Graham Heffernan said the atmosphere was better with the event running for one night instead of two. He said about 3000 people attended the inaugural rodeo over two nights last year, the town’s first rodeo in more than 60 years.
“We were probably jumping ahead of ourselves running it over two nights last year,” Mr Heffernan said.
“As the event develops, we’ll probably go back to two nights but, of course, it takes a little while to get established and once it is I think people will put it on their calendar and one night may not be enough.
“Next year we’ll run it over one night again ... maybe in it’s fourth year we’ll run it over two nights.
“But when you’ve got a bigger crowd together on the one night it certainly creates a better atmosphere.”
Mr Heffernan said there were plans for some excavation work which could mean the venue would be able to cater for up to 5000 people.
“So that should see the event grow to the point where we can have up to 5000 and probably as we get closer to (those numbers) we might run it over two nights,” he said.
Leading Sen-Constable Peter Stewart, of Tallangatta police, said the crowd was well behaved.
“It was a large crowd, it looked like a very successful event,” he said.