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JERSEYVILLE - After a decade years without, the rodeo returned to the Jersey County Fair Thursday.
Fair Board President Phil Ringhausen said there was a lot of excitement after the announcement of the long-awaited comeback and he's glad to have it back.
"We used to have a rodeo about every year but we haven't had a good full rodeo for over ten years," Ringhausen said. "We've had the bull riding and the bronc riding but we've never had a full rodeo with all the different events."
Although there has been bull and bronc riding at the fair more recently than a full rodeo, it's been about five years since either of those events Ringhausen said. This year's rodeo not only includes the bull and bronc riding but calf roping, barrel racing, bull dogging and team roping. Ringhausen said with a good turn out he expects to bring back the rodeo next year.
"If I have a good crowd tonight and I have a lot of people wanting to talk it up I'll bring it back next year," Ringhausen said. "I'm not saying it's something I'll do more than two years in a row because I like to change up this Thursday night. But that's what was happening in the past, we were gradually dwindling in attendance. So we thought we'd change it up a little bit."
The crowd was very happy with the rodeo. Pearly Hamold and his son both agreed that it was a fun show and they hope to see it back at the fair in the future.
"Its a good show," Hamold said. "I like the how they got the variety of a whole bunch of different events. I'm glad they brought it back."
With the fair going on through Sunday Ringhausen hopes to see more people come out over the weekend.
"I Hope to see everybody come up here to Jerseyville for the Jersey County Fair," Ringhausen said. "We got two nights of truck and tractor pulls coming too, Friday and Saturday night."
The fair wraps up Sunday night with a demolition derby 5:30 p.m.
"The derby is always a big thing," Ringhausen said. "It's just one of the biggest events you'll ever see at this county fair. I'm hoping I have about 60 cars here. Last year we had 32 cars. The year before that we had 36. I'm kind of hoping with opening it up, kind of upping prize money and doing things a little different that we could have 50-55 cars in here."
For more information about the fair and the events can be found on their website at jerseycountyfair.com.
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