Myrtleford's annual community fundraising rodeo has been cancelled for the second year in a row, but Thurgoona's Kinross Woolshed will host a rodeo event this December.
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The Myrtleford Lions Golden Spurs rodeo event should this year be holding its 68th annual event, but due to COVID-19, the 2020 and 2021 occasion were cancelled.
Rodeo committee secretary Darren Murphy said he was disappointed to cancel the major Lions Club fundraising event.
"All the profits (around $20,000) are put back into local community and also we're supported widely by all the local sporting clubs," he said.
"They all make some money as well, so we're all missing out with the rodeo not running this year.
"And obviously there's a flow on effect to the local eateries and the accommodation providers as well."
Mr Murphy said COVID restrictions had deterred many cowboys and girls travelling from Queensland or NSW to the event.
"Our rodeo announcer wasn't prepared to travel to Victoria because of the COVID situation and being possibly locked down and having to quarantine when he went home," he said.
"Similarly, there's no bull riders in Victoria, or very few, and obviously that's the main sport, so it's very hard for us to put on a quality event without having bull riders.
"This double vaxxed, unvaxxed situation is a bit problematic as well - I'd hate to think that we'd have to screen everyone out there, because we run it with 25 to 30 volunteers and if we had to do it with COVID screening and marshals and registration it would be another 10 people who'd have to work on a public holiday, and they would have been hard to find as well."
Mr Murphy said the committee was committed to running the rodeo next year.
"The community needs these things to help us get back on our feet following a horrid COVID situation," he said. "Everyone is desperate to see each other."
"It's the thing to do for people who come for Christmas ... it's where kids go and meet the kids they went to school with.
"They see their families on Christmas Day and then they go to the showgrounds on Boxing Day to catch up with all their friends and find out how they all are."
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Meanwhile, Thurgoona's Kinross Woolshed has organised its own rodeo.
Venue manager Grant Wheeler said it was an opportunity to show the community what the hotel could do after it was taken over by new management five weeks before the March 2020 COVID lockdown.
"It's been a tough two years with COVID and with everything that's happened, but hopefully we're past the worst of it now and we're coming out the other end," he said.
"It's good for us to be able to get back and get the community involved and have the locals around Albury area come out to the hotel."
Mr Wheeler said he didn't anticipate any problems sourcing talent for the rodeo.
"Obviously a lot of the cowboys come out of Darwin and sort of the Queensland areas as well as some in NSW," he said.
"But the promoter is very confident that he's going to fill the cards pretty easily and even have some more than he should, so he might have to have a pre-rodeo ride to knock some cowboys out.
"If he thinks he can get the riders, I've got to back him to say that he can get the riders."
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