Having had to forego the staging of the Rupununi Rodeo twice, in 2020 and again this year, the organisers of Region Nine’s biggest public entertainment, ‘money-spinning’ event, have their fingers crossed, hoping that next year will see a significant injection of resources into its coffers arising out of its first staging of the event in three years.
But Rebecca Rodrigues-Faria, Chairperson of the Rupununi Livestock and Producers Association (RLPA), the planners of the Rodeo, still refuses to make a definitive ‘call.’ “We would like to host Rodeo in 2022, but we have to await confirmation from the (COVID-19) Task Force… and given the new variant (of the pandemic) that we are reading about we will have to wait and see. We cannot say yes or no at this point of time, but we are preparing.” That was as far as she was prepared to go.
Beyond the prevailing speculation as to whether or not next April will see the return of the Rodeo which, over time, has been a critical money-earner for Lethem and the nearby communities, Rodrigues-Faria moved seamlessly into the plans which the Committee continues to make for the event itself. “We are hoping to establish a new site, next to the Rodeo Ground, so that we can have better facilities, more space and better infrastructure as we progress. We need to procure some technical advice in terms of the entire infrastructure… We were hoping to generate funds from the last two Rodeos but that did not materialise.”
