The San Benito County Saddle Horse Show & Rodeo is expanding its horizons when it comes to food and entertainment.
The rodeo, June 28-30 this year at Bolado Park Event Center, will feature an array of new food and entertainment to go with the traditional events inside the facility.
In the past, the Rotary Club of Hollister has overseen food and concessions inside the grandstand area. This year, Rotary will handle the wine, beer and drinks. Three food trucks and several other local vendors will be on hand to ease attendees’ hunger.
The food trucks will include the local operation Louie’s Smokey Trail doing barbecue, Jimmy’s Watering Hole from Paso Robles and We Cook For You. Ohana Shave Ice will also be on hand again this year serving its treats, said Rebecca Wolf, who’s on the board of directors for the Saddle Horse Association.
“Everybody’s becoming foodies so we’re trying to upgrade,” Wolf said.
There will be a lot of other offerings, too, though.
Wolf mentioned how Friday night of the rodeo weekend is the wine and beer tasting with pork and beef sliders available from a caterer. Singing on Friday night will be local resident Martin Pulido, who has a George Strait vibe.
Then on Saturday, the rodeo will once again host its traditional barbecue along with a silent and live auction. Additionally this year, there will be a band, The Aromas Quarry Boys, playing bluegrass and western-style music that day.
On all three days, Marc Page from Sonora will display his restored stage coach that appeared in the movie “The Big Valley”. It will be in front of the Saddle Horse Show Museum for the weekend.
Then, of course, there are the bevy of rodeo and saddle horse show contests each day. Events start in the mornings, 8 a.m. June 28 and June 30 and 9:30 a.m. June 29, with the actual rodeo and horse show starting at 7 p.m. the first day and 1:30 p.m. the final two days.
Those events all happen after the traditional Saddle Horse Parade taking place at 11 a.m. June 22 in downtown Hollister. That night is also the kickoff to the Hollister Concerts series at Guerra Cellars.
“It kind of ties in with the Hollister Concert,” Wolf said. “We put our banner up. We introduce Miss San Benito at the concert.”
