Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival
Date: April 25 & 26, 2009
Location: Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Santa Clarita, California
Distance From Home: Approximately 23 miles
Festival Fee: $20 for adults, $10 for children aged 2-11
Parking: Free. There is no parking at the Melody Ranch for the festival. The city of Santa Clarita operates a free shuttle service from a parking lot (open field) about a mile away from the studio. They seem to run frequently enough that there aren’t really any lines waiting for them, though maybe we just lucked out both ways.
As a long time fan of westerns and someone whose family vacations often consisted of traveling around the American Southwest and looking for old ghost towns, the Cowboy Festival seemed like a logical choice for our next festival outing. That, coupled with the fact that it was being held on the studio lot where they recently filmed the HBO series Deadwood, made it a no-brainer, at least in my book. Alternatively billed as the Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, this festival celebrating the American West through music, poetry, food, and western gear was marking its 16th anniversary in its present location and was very easily accessible from the Los Angeles area.
Immediately upon arrival at Melody Ranch, I was hard pressed to imagine a better location for a festival like this. Walking around the outskirts of the festival we tried to get a lay of the land, while poking our heads into the various tents that were set up around the outer edge. General Stores, Haberdashers, Carpetbaggers (well, people selling carpetbags), every merchant felt relevant to the theme of the festival, with most of them going so far as to dress for the period. I was thrilled at the level of commitment to the theme of the festival and I had yet to make it into the heart of the location. Getting further into the grounds we started to pass by several living history displays. Spots to learn about quilting, weaving, horse gear, or chuck wagons. Interactive spots where kids could learn about panning for gold, making biscuits, or the very important western skill of putting together macaroni necklaces.
Courtney looking pretty in the General Store…
People were a lot smaller back then…
It was, however, the main street that was the real soul of the festival. Populated by full functioning buildings and not just facades, allowing merchants to be located inside the buildings it left the street feeling like it was pulled from a full city and not there to simply give the impression of a city street. Mixed in with the buildings (and in some cases inside the buildings) were various venues set up for the live entertainment, a steady stream of musicians and poets, though we never stumbled across the later. While we never took in more than little snippets of any one performance, they provided a nice soundtrack to the day. Perhaps the standout for me was Dave Bourne (www.saloonpiano.com) who was playing inside the saloon – a wonderful pairing of music and place that left me wishing there were poker games, bottles of whiskey, and clouds of smoke to complete the tableau.
One tall cowboy in the middle of Main Street…
The Band of the California Battalion…
Mixed in with the crowd were a wide variety of people in various stages of authentic western dress to the point that it was difficult to tell who was there as festival staff and who was there as a patron. Several times I found myself wishing that I were wearing at least a pair of cowboy boots to stride down the dusty street or across the boardwalk in front of the stores and anyone looking for western gear could do a lot worse than shopping this festival – shirts, dresses, spurs, chaps, and hats were all on offer as well as patterns to make whatever it was they were missing.
While we were on the Studio lot we decided to also take in the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Museum. Much to my surprise, expecting it to be mainly western themed, upon entering we were immediately greeted by the sight of a very large Incredible Hulk statue (apparently the old TV show filmed around the ranch). The museum itself was an interesting collection of props and set pieces from various movies and TV shows but ultimately took me out of the spirit of the festival. If you find yourself on the lot for some other reason I would say that it is worth a peek, but not a must see if there for the festival.
Sampling the Food
While the food court was populated largely by standard festival type foods it felt a bit more central to the theme simply because a lot of festival foods are sort of western themed – barbeque and Mexican food. There were however a lot more stands offering tri-tip and brisket than your normal festival – as well as at least one Thai BBQ stand, although one could argue that with the Chinese being so integral in the building of the railroad and the American West as a whole, a little bit of Asian food is not entirely out of place. Opting to try to remain as authentic as possible I went with the Cowboy Cultural Committee Chuckwagon Cooks out of Visalia, CA (http://visaliacowboys.com/). They had a nice set-up complete with chuck wagon (for show) and Dutch ovens (for cooking). I was torn between the tri-tip sandwich and biscuits and beans with my decision made for me when I was told that they were out of biscuits. This is unfortunate as it turns out that the tri-tip sandwich is being mass produced in the back of their tent, while it seems the beans, if not the biscuits as well, were being cooked in the Dutch ovens (although this is all speculation on my part). I went with the tri-tip sandwich, and while tasty, it didn’t really stand out as spectacular, and looking around at some of the other meat sandwich options didn’t even look to be the best one there. Lesson learned, if you are going for the chuck wagon for authenticity, get something cooked off the chuck wagon and not something being mass produced in the back of the tent.
Enjoying my tri-tip in front of the chuck wagon…
Buying a Souvenir
There was certainly no shortage of potential purchases here, though many of them were less than practical. As much as I may have wanted to buy a Cattle Baron’s collar, or the jaw bone of an opossum, I decided to instead go with something that might get a little more use or that I could proudly display as a conversation piece (not that I wouldn’t be proud to display either of those, it’s just…well, you know, I don’t want to be that crazy guy with the funny collar waving a jaw bone around). I had considered a few items - a deck of cards based on a Civil War design, hand carved wooden dice, a horseshoe with my name stamped into it by the “blacksmith” – but ultimately settled on a t-shirt with an old (probably faux) flour sack logo on it. In retrospect, one of the other options may have been a bit more authentic to the theme, but the idea of a t-shirt was still in my head from the Cherry Blossom Festival and I’m sort of a sucker for those old style designs.
Your Name on a Horseshoe (with historically accurate yellow plastic bucket)…
Talking to a Local
I didn’t do so well with this one. I had intended to talk to the living history folk at the chuck wagon, learn a little bit about the history of the chuck wagon (and their part in chuck wagon cook-offs), but found them otherwise engaged or just gone when we walked by the wagon. Sadly, that meant that I had to fall back on one small conversation I had with Peter Sherayko, who played Texas Jack Vermillion in the movie Tombstone and who runs Caravan West, a company which provides horses, costumes, props, weapons, etc. for film and history events. I recognized him from Tombstone and thought he could be interesting to talk to. However, after a few awkward words which left me feeling like a jackass, I cut my losses and walked away. I was pleased to hear Courtney say that he was particularly standoff-ish and didn’t seem to be interested in talking and it wasn’t just me. So I can say that I’ve enjoyed his work, but did not really enjoy talking to him.
The chuck wagon folk I should have talked to…
Overall I would give the Cowboy Festival five out of five spurs. While there were some things I may have liked to have seen done a little better in the end I am delighted to say that I enjoyed the Cowboy Festival as much as I had hoped that I would. You can’t beat the location which feels as authentic as you are likely to get in this day and age and the only negative thing I can say is that I was sorry I couldn’t have taken in the main street without the large crowd of people in modern dress (or better yet - with a large crowd of people in historical dress). With some activities for the kids, a very good dose of music (and presumably poetry), and a great location for fans of the western, it’s a good day out for the family or anyone who wants a little taste of the old west in modern America.
Click on photos for larger views.
