After canceling the initial Tucson Rodeo Parade and the rodeo itself because of the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinators of the annual event are offering an alternate way to celebrate the tradition this year.
On Saturday, March 20, fans are invited to visit the Tucson Rodeo Grounds, 4823 S. Sixth Ave., for a free “reverse rodeo parade” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
More than 80 wagons from the Tucson Rodeo Parade Museum will be set up along a winding route in the rodeo’s parking lot, along with 15 stations that will feature historical exhibitions and live entertainment, including trick ropers, Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School and Gertie and the T.O. Boyz, a band from the Tohono O’odham Nation specializing in traditional waila music.
Drivers will move along the route, staying in their vehicles, socially distanced from their fellow spectators.
“A lot of the wagons that we’ll have out have never rolled in the parade,” said Herb Wagner, a Tucson Rodeo Parade committee spokesman. “They are antique and don’t do well rolling. But we can bring them out and put them on display in this format.”
Wagner said the committee was hoping the rodeo and parade would go forward as late as December, but with more than 200 volunteers and more than 2,000 people participating in the parade each year, not to mention the thousands of people who line the streets where the parade is held on Tucson’s south side, “it became a reality that we wouldn’t be able to host an event with spectators.”
The rodeo has been canceled only once before this year, Wagner said: in 1945, when the rodeo grounds were turned into barracks for World War II soldiers training in Southern Arizona.
“The decision was heart-wrenching,” Wagner said. “I’ve been a member of the committee for 34 years, and this was very difficult to do.”
The idea of a reverse parade seemed like a plausible alternative.
It didn’t take much to get participants from years past to agree to perform.
“Groups like the Tucson Boys Chorus have been a part of our parade for 50, 60 years,” Wagner said. “People were excited to come help out.”
Wagner said the format this year allows for people who have never been to the museum to check out some of the wagons that don’t generally make it to the parade, such as the museum’s early Sunset Dairy milk wagon.
“It is a one-person wagon,” Wagner said. “There is no other place to sit except where the milk bottles are, and you can’t see that. When people rent one of our wagons for the parade, they like to put a bunch of people on it.”
Among some of the other wagons on display will be an early Tucson Fire wagon and a burgundy landau, or carriage, used to transport Maureen O’Hara in the 1963 John Wayne film, “McClintock.”
Wagner said the parade is a thank you to the community for all of its support over the years. Cars will even get goody bags with tchotchkes inside and raffle numbers that can win recipients, among other things, a two-night stay at the White Stallion dude ranch or a night at the JW Marriott Starr Pass.
In association with the parade, the Tucson Rodeo will be collecting donations for Casa de los Niños at its offices, including diapers, baby wipes, children’s books and school supplies, in a “stuff the chute” campaign through March 26. Donations will not be accepted at the parade itself.
You can enter the parade from East Irvington Road. For more information, visit facebook.com/TRPCandMUSEUM.
