JACKSON, Wyo. — The Jackson Hole Rodeo season has wrapped up the Shriner’s Rodeo which took place on September 12.
It was an odd year, a fun year, a successful year, given the roadblocks imposed by COVID. The Wilson family, who put on the rodeo as WW Productions, were just happy to get the season in when it looked like the summer of 2020 was going to be a washout.
But, boy howdy, was it a lot of work.
“We had a rodeo, we can say that,” said Phil Wilson. “We had a lot of contestants because we were one of the few rodeos running. But we never worked so hard in our lives to lose money.”
It was truly a labor of love for the Wilsons and company who, in May and June, were looking at fairgrounds stands emptied by pandemic health orders and livestock that was not going to stop eating whether they were bucking or not.
When the rodeo finally got rolling on June 20, it was a mad scramble to figure out the new norm. Seating restrictions meant the Wilson’s had to retool their ticketing software and figure out how to sell and space out 600 tickets instead of packing in twice that twice a week.
Somehow, WW Productions pulled together a rodeo season and fans were the better for it.
Wilson said the annual year-end awards banquet is on hold right now as restrictions on gathering indoors may wipe out the event altogether. For now, it’s time to winterize the operation, count your blessings and your losses, and be thankful a little bit of dust got kicked up at the county fairgrounds this year.
