Join us for the monumental 75th Annual Gold Rush Days & Senior Pro Rodeo in Wickenburg, Arizona, from February 9-11, 2024! Celebrate with three action-packed days featuring senior pro rodeo excitement, a vibrant carnival, artisan fair showcasing local talent, classic car show, thrilling parade, daring western stunts, and much more. Experience the rich heritage of the Wild West in the heart of Arizona's historic mining town. Don't miss this iconic event where the authentic spirit of the West comes alive. For more information visit wickenburgchamber.com
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The 75th annual Wickenburg Days is here and we are so excited to have Mike Wallace, the
00:06 Executive Director of the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce here to tell us more.
00:11 Mike, welcome.
00:12 Thank you.
00:13 Thanks for having us.
00:14 Thank you for being here.
00:15 So this is such a cool event and as we were just saying, this is the 75th anniversary.
00:19 That's a huge, huge deal.
00:23 So tell me a little bit about the event for those at home who are like me and haven't
00:27 had the opportunity to check it out yet.
00:28 Well, if you've never been to Wickenburg, it was founded by our heritage, our mining
00:36 and ranching people.
00:38 So that's when...
00:42 That's kind of what the history is.
00:43 1863, that's what the history is.
00:45 And this is our festival to appreciate all of our people from back in the day.
00:51 There's mucking and drilling.
00:52 Oh, wow.
00:53 Yeah.
00:54 And a lot of people don't know what mucking and drilling is.
00:55 I don't even know what it is either.
00:57 Yeah, tell me what mucking and drilling is.
00:59 Specifically mucking is.
01:00 Mucking is when you take the ore in the old train cars and you got to put it all in there
01:05 and take it down.
01:06 There's an actual timed event on Sunday for it.
01:09 And drilling, drilling for gold.
01:12 Got it.
01:13 For gold rush days.
01:14 See, it wasn't just in California.
01:15 We did that out here too.
01:17 Very cool.
01:18 And you'd hold a drill and another guy swings a sledgehammer and hits the drill and he
01:22 turns it.
01:23 So there's a single jack and a double jack on Sunday also.
01:27 So these are some of the events that you can come out and do and experience.
01:31 Really get that old Arizona vibe, that cowboy vibe.
01:34 Because in Arizona, that's kind of what people think of.
01:37 They think of the wild west.
01:38 The wild west.
01:39 You know, the OK Corral.
01:40 That's kind of our history, right?
01:43 So those are some of the events.
01:44 What about other things like food and drink?
01:47 I mean, what can people expect when they come out?
01:49 Well, food and drink.
01:51 Well, our gold rush days starts Friday.
01:55 We'll have our opening ceremonies at 10 o'clock in front of the chamber, the old train depot
01:59 built in 1895.
02:02 And we'll have a car show there.
02:05 And then from there, we'll have a little show and stuff like that.
02:08 But we'll have on down the road, we'll have 150 craft fairs.
02:13 And then that's where the carnival will be.
02:16 And that's where you can pan for gold, actual gold.
02:19 And you'll have actual gold out there.
02:22 And then Saturday, that is the big day.
02:26 We'll have a big parade down.
02:28 It's like a three mile parade coming down Wickenburg Way and in front of the train depot,
02:33 nine announcing stations.
02:35 And right there, showing Will Roberts.
02:38 He is our trick ropist.
02:41 He'll be performing on Friday and Saturday.
02:44 And if you watch the movie Oppenheimer, he's the general out of Oppenheimer.
02:49 There's also, we got him coming out here too to show trick guns and roping and everything
02:55 else.
02:56 Wow.
02:57 So this is truly a huge event.
02:58 There's shows, there's food, there's all kinds of stuff.
03:01 There's also the rodeo, which is incredible.
03:03 On Saturday and Sunday, slack is free on Friday if you get there early Friday morning.
03:08 Then Saturday, the full pledge senior pro rodeo.
03:11 After the parade, half the people go out to the rodeo and it starts at two o'clock, gates
03:17 open at noon.
03:19 You can bring cash or you can buy them online or you can come down to the chamber and come
03:23 see me and buy your tickets there for Saturday or Sunday, same price all the way around.
03:29 So that's for the rodeo.
03:30 What about tickets for the event itself?
03:32 The event itself is free.
03:33 If you want to, like what I did when my kids were younger, I'd give them the carnival tickets.
03:39 They would go ride the rides and I'd shop at all the 150 arts and crafts booths.
03:44 That's free to get in.
03:45 But the carnival is what costs.
03:47 The carnival and the rodeo are the only thing you need tickets for.
03:50 So if you want to come in and just walk around, experience it, enjoy, like you said, let the
03:54 kids run off and have fun.
03:56 Let them mine for gold and you can just enjoy shop, get some food, drink, just enjoy the
04:00 environment, the experience.
04:02 That's an awesome way to do it.
04:03 You will not go hungry in Wickenburg.
04:04 Okay, I love that.
04:05 Really cool.
04:06 This sounds like a fantastic event for the whole family.
04:09 So remind everybody where they can find information about you guys there at the chamber to come
04:12 buy tickets and all that.
04:13 Wickenburg chamber.com.
04:14 Go to our annual events and you'll see the gold rush days and it'll tell you everything
04:19 you need to know about it.
04:20 You can buy tickets on there also.
04:22 Fantastic.
04:23 And this isn't this coming weekend.
04:24 This is coming up a little bit later here in February, the ninth of the 11th.
04:27 Because I will, I'm too busy next week to be here.
04:29 So you still got some time to go online and get your tickets and get prepared and get
04:34 the kids all ready.
04:35 So this sounds like a fantastic event.
04:36 Mike, thank you for telling us all about it.
04:37 Absolutely.
04:38 Come on to Wickenburg.
04:39 Yeah, absolutely.
04:40 And thank you to the Wickenburg chamber of commerce for sponsoring this segment.
04:45 Thank you.
04:46 Thank you.
04:46 [inaudible]
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