Early Saturday evening, I mingled with rodeo fans at the immense Palmer Events Center. The hat per-capita ratio remains high at this heady event, which later scooted to the tunes of Dierks Bentley.
Sincerely sorry to miss that performance, but it I expected it be a 3-gala night and so scooted out myself early.
Luis Medina and Leigh Ann Lindsey
Ran into Luis Medina and Leigh Ann Lindsey, whom I met on almost exactly the same spot at a previous gala. Lindsey looks after the charitable work for the Austin-based EZCorp. We planned to chat over coffee about her company’s giving strategies.
Rodeo Austin, by the way, funds millions in college scholarships. I’m glad they do that, but they could qualify for good deeds by simply continuing to preserve Western culture in Austin.
I sorely wish the rodeo was more visible in central Austin — it was an essential cultural event for the city years ago before it moved out to East Travis County — which is why I’ve proposed staging demonstration events at Auditorium Shores during South by Southwest.
After all, what visitor wouldn’t want a bigger slice of Texas culture while in town?
Trey and Kelly Griffin
The rodeo’s core constituency is slowly evolving. It was good to see young couples like Trey and Kelly Griffin at the gala.
The Rodeo Austin brand is priceless. Yet other than the carnival and midway, most Austinites don’t really get the original function — stock show — and the later wildness of the sporting events.
I’d like to see the rodeo thrive in part by returning to those roots. And fixing whatever image issues — and there are some — could undermine its value.