Yet another long-held tradition and highly anticipated rodeo has been canceled this summer due to state-enforced restrictions. Chief Joseph Days in Joseph, Oregon, will not hold its 75th annual event in 2020 and has rescheduled for last full week of July, 2021.
The rodeo committee promises to have a ticket refund policy in place in the coming days, as well as updates on the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Court and other possible events that may be rescheduled as soon as Oregon state-mandated restrictions have been lifted.
In an official statement released today, the board of directors said:
We will have a ticket refund policy in place within the coming days. For additional questions, please contact our rodeo office, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, from 10 am – 3 pm.
Stay tuned for exciting news and updates regarding Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Court and other possible events as soon as state-mandated restrictions have been lifted.
In early March, the Chief Joseph Days Board of Directors began meeting every other week to discuss options regarding having Chief Joseph Days amid Covid-19 and it’s related impacts on our Rodeo Celebration. In the beginning, we felt very positive about our chances that the 75th Annual Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Celebration would happen as scheduled. We had many special festivities planned to make our 75th year an extraordinary year to remember.
In April, our meetings became weekly. We still felt that the situation would improve and that by the end of July, the 75th Chief Joseph Days Rodeo would take place.
Each week, we talked about how to proceed with planning our event. We discussed the pros and cons of holding Chief Joseph Days while trying to keep our community safe. We discussed the impact that canceling Chief Joseph Days would have on our community, local businesses, supporters, sponsors, and loyal fans. We also talked about the effects a cancellation will have on our contract people, such as stock contractors, bullfighters, announcer, specialty acts, barrel man, judges, scoreboard, rodeo secretary, timers, vendors, and of course our contestants. In May, our weekly meetings became even longer as reality started to set in. Rodeos all over the country began to cancel. A lot of them were scheduled for August and later. ...
All of these issues were thrown into the mix and repeatedly debated in our weekly meetings. In the end, our top priority was always the safety and well-being of our community, visitors, fans, Nez Perce encampment participants and their families, along with that of our competitors and support staff from the spread of the virus.
With all that in mind, the directors had to make one of the toughest decisions that any of the past 74 Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Committees had to make. That is to cancel the 2020 Chief Joseph Days Rodeo celebrations. ...
Our sincere wishes go out to our fans, sponsors, contestants, vendors, volunteers, support staff, and everyone involved in Chief Joseph Days Rodeo family. May you all remain safe and healthy. We will get through this together and come back even stronger in 2021.