COWBOY FESTIVAL RUSTLED UP FANS ATTENDANCE EXPECTED TO PASS LAST YEAR.Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - The city's annual celebration of six-guns, spurs and prairie soul drew swarms of eager cowpokes and city slickers yearning to relive the Old West, while organizers consider expansion to cope with anticipated growth. The 12th annual event, which changed its name this year from ``Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival'' to ``Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival,'' took place over the weekend at the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Placerita Canyon. While officials have yet to tally attendance and receipts, city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said visitors to the four-day festival will likely surpass the more than 8,000 who turned out last year. ``It looks like we're up over last year,'' she said Monday. ``This year, things were really smooth running at the ranch. We tweaked the layout at the ranch a little bit so things were a little more spread out. ... The flow was excellent.'' Still, there is room for improvement, Ortiz said. Organizers are considering expanding the number of performance stages from three to five and seating at the main stage. ``We do a postmortem postmortem /post·mor·tem/ (post-mort´im) performed or occurring after death. post·mor·tem adj. Relating to or occurring during the period after death. n. See autopsy. after the dust has settled,'' she said. ``Our main stage has seating for 500, and it wasn't enough. Next year, we would like to double the size of the Melody Ranch stage to accommodate all our guests.'' Ortiz also credited the HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy series ``Deadwood'' with helping to drive festival attendance. The award-winning Western debuted last year and is shot at Melody Ranch. Though much of the set was dismantled after the show wrapped production last month, visitors can still dream of times long past treading amid the studio's remaining Old West mock-ups. ``The streets kind of looked like the Deadwood Deadwood, city (1990 pop. 1,830), seat of Lawrence co., W S.Dak.; settled 1876 after discovery of gold. A Black Hills tourist center, it is also a trade hub for a lumbering, stock-raising, and mining region. street, and people really enjoy that,'' Ortiz said. City Manager Ken Pulskamp is credited with starting the festival in 1994 after visiting Elko, Nev., home of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. This year, the Santa Clarita festival drew such favorites as Waddie wad·die n. Western U.S. Variant of waddy2. Mitchell, Baxter Black Baxter Black (born January 2, 1945) is an American cowboy, poet, philosopher, former large-animal veterinarian, and radio commentator. Black grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. , Don Edwards For other persons named Don Edwards, see Don Edwards (disambiguation). William Donlon Edwards, (born January 6, 1915), usually known as Don Edwards, is an American politician of the Democratic Party, formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives from , the Sons of the San Joaquin and dozens of other singers, poets, performers and craftsmen. Eugene Tong, (661) 257-5253 eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com |
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