Rodeo fans get their own Cowboy FanFest
After four years of scouting fanfest events at the Super Bowl and NBA and Major League Baseball All-Star Games, Las Vegas Events rolled out its own interactive Cowboy FanFest this week to give rodeo fans a chance to chat with sport superstars such as Trevor Brazile, compete in an offbeat Redneck Rodeo and allow kids to do mutton bustin' in a replica NFR arena.
Las Vegas Events spent $750,000 on the inaugural 100,000-square-foot Cowboy FanFest as a companion event to the longstanding Cowboy Christmas Gift Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Cowboy FanFest and Cowboy Christmas are stoking the juices of rodeo fans who are packing the sold-out Wrangler National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center. The rodeo runs until Dec. 15.
"In the past, we tweaked the events around the NFR. This is a shot in the arm," said Pat Christenson, Las Vegas Events president. "We wanted to create content that was more compelling. We figured, 'Why don't the rodeo have its own fanfest?' "
EXPLORING THEIR INNER COWBOY
Christenson said the Cowboy FanFest isn't necessarily a business move to grow the sport of rodeo in Las Vegas. Las Vegas Events looks at the interactive event as "one of the 50 or 60 reasons why a person considering visiting Vegas will come to Vegas."
Cowboy FanFest, he noted, will give local residents a chance to explore their inner cowboy while touching a rodeo event where a record $6.125 million in prize money will be up for grabs.
The Cowboy FanFest offers predictable Western exhibitors such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and its 50-foot trailer of six mounted elk. Fans receive a free rifle if they buy a $1,749 Elk Foundation lifetime membership.
The Western-themed exhibitors were joined by the likes of the UFC, Harley Davidson and Awesome Adventures, a Las Vegas-based company that sells outdoor activities tours. The Ultimate Fighting Championship exhibit featured a punching bag machine that measured a fan's punch power.
"Both sports are high-intensity sports," Desh Barber, manning the UFC booth, said of fighting and rodeo this week.
FanFest sponsor Awesome Adventures, which offers kayaking, horseback riding, rappelling, zip lining and ATV touring in Nevada and Utah, drew fans for its Redneck Rodeo. Fans who paid $20 for the Redneck Rodeo were treated to a course of mechanical bull riding, a fishing challenge, catching rubber snakes while on a zip line and climbing a wall. Winners got $100 in cash.
Joshua Brandt of Nellis Air Force Base rode the mechanical bull for eight seconds, wowing the crowd and an Awesome Adventures employee who went by the name of "Buckshot," dressed in Hollywood-style cowboy garb.
"That's a tough one to beat. He did real good," Buckshot observed.
Awesome Adventures bought the sponsorship to expose its services to an estimated 200,000 people who are expected to check out the FanFest, said Stoney Ward, Awesome Adventures general manager.
"It was a neat way to get people to do crazy things and win prizes," Ward said.
The three Southern Nevada Harley Davidson dealers were also in the house, exhibiting six motorcycles.
It was a sound business move, said Nick Rivellini, Harley Davidson's local vice president of operations, because the company could tap into the rodeo fan demographic.
DRAWING NONTRADITIONAL FANS
FanFest is a good venue to capture nontraditional rodeo fans who might stop by for off-beat exhibits such as the Redneck Rodeo, said John Campbell, of Riverton, Wyo., an oil field trucking company owner who helps put on a small rodeo in his community.
"The traditional rodeo fan base is shrinking, so we need to get nontraditional fans in," Campbell said.
Indeed, Las Vegas Events wanted a FanFest that had an offbeat flavor besides the usual cowboy themes in hopes that local residents will be lured to the event, Christenson said.
Anchor displays include Rodeo Roundup, which is a center bar with six video screens showing live NFR footage and a 1,000-seat music and comic performance zone.
Traditionalists can check out the "Old West" area where exhibitors from various rodeos will be on hand. Miss Rodeo America will be there too.
Taking a page out of the NASCAR marketing playbook, Cowboy FanFest will feature autograph sessions with the rodeo stars so that fans can rub elbows with the likes of Brazile, of Decatur, Texas, an eight-time all-around world champion still in the prime of his career.
Las Vegas Events even enlisted cowboy chef Grady Spears to customize a Western-themed menu for Cowboy FanFest. The free event runs daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Dec. 15 .
Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.
