"It was absolutely massive. There was not an ounce of grass you could see from the arena," said Carl Schubert, steward of the 2024 Wingham Summertime Rodeo.
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Carl said the crowd attending the rodeo, which took place on Saturday, January 6, was the biggest he'd seen in his eight or nine years running the event.
Capacity at Wingham Showground is 5000-5500 people, and Carl says he estimates that's how many people were there.
"But that's just a guess," he qualified.
Not only was the weather perfect for the event - not too hot and no rain - there were no incidents with patrons at the bar and none in the crowd.
There were also no accidents with cowboys or animals, making it a far less dramatic event that last year's rodeo, where local cowboy Dave Tisdell was carted off in an ambulance with a smashed jaw, broken in three places, when his head collided with the head of the bulls he was riding.
In true cowboy fashion, Dave returned to compete in the ring again this year.
"I got smashed up pretty bad last year but had another crack this year," he said.
This year, thankfully, Dave did not get injured, however it apparently looked a bit hairy for a minute.
"He got bucked off pretty similar to what happened last year," Carl Schubert said.
"He got jerked down over his head, but he didn't get hurt."
Dave was not deterred.
"I'll be back again, I love it," he said.
