Council discusses Fiesta Days committee, single-weekend schedule and sponsorship-driven events

City council members and event organizers spent the meeting reviewing logistics, budget and staffing for Fiesta Days and discussed creating a standing Fiesta Days committee to manage the celebration.

Participants tentatively agreed to consolidate Fiesta Days into a single weekend and floated specific event scheduling and sponsorship options, including reintroducing a sponsor-driven Caleb Bennett invitational rodeo. Organizers and council members said a committee should be given a budget and authority to run the year-long planning process and report back to council.

The discussion opened with a proposal that the Fiesta Committee be given a budget by the council and manage the celebration’s operations: "Much like a lot of other event committees, the Fiesta Committee would be given a budget by the council, and they would manage the celebration," a council member said. Participants agreed the committee should be publicly noticed and take on the logistical work the past volunteer groups have performed.

On schedule, participants debated single versus two-weekend formats for the derby and rodeos. Cindy, a meeting participant, said, "2 weekends are hard. And I I the comments I've heard is bring it back to 1. Bring it back to 1." Multiple organizers and volunteers said a single weekend would concentrate volunteer effort and reduce exhaustion even if it could reduce some ticket revenue.

Organizers discussed specific date options repeatedly during the meeting; one summary phrase used by participants was "20 second through the 20 fifth," which the group treated as a tentative four-day window for Fiesta Days. Council members and staff said they would confirm county resources and contractor availability before finalizing dates.

Sponsorships and budget were central to the conversation. Event organizers reported sponsor revenue substantially exceeded earlier expectations this year: "you overachieved by $24,000 over and above the budget that I had in there," one participant said when thanking Kirby for sponsorship work. Organizers said sponsorships—some described as as much as $48,000 this year and potential sponsor pools of roughly $50,000—were the primary reason the celebration finished in the black despite high production costs.

Participants reviewed cost lines from previous years and discussed how the Caleb Bennett invitational would affect both expenses and sponsor interest. Organizers presented a version of the event budget that isolates stock-contractor and prize costs from shared production costs such as a jumbotron; they said a standalone estimate for that event would be roughly $99,000 (with prize money discussed separately at $30,000 in one breakdown). Past amounts discussed in the meeting included $37,500 in rodeo prizes for a prior year and total show-production costs over $110,000 in earlier reports.

Logistics under discussion included parking, ticketing, gate flow, security and vendor management. Organizers said parking and pit access had been a recurring problem and recommended clearer pit-pass rules, defined driver counts, and reinstituting electronic ticketing at specific entrances. Security and bag checks were inconsistent across nights this year; one organizer said that failing to check bags on derby night led to a much dirtier cleanup and pledged to close that gap next year. Vendor placement and enforcement were also raised; one participant said vendors selling small novelty items that left difficult cleanup should be excluded next year.

Facilities and operations items raised for capital or near-term repair included replacing or upgrading the cooking shack’s hot-water system (tankless or larger tank), repairing electrical circuits that tripped under use, restoring floor drains and improving pen and fence repairs. Participants suggested those items could be eligible for restaurant/restaurant-tax or other improvement grants.

Participants proposed the committee composition should include staff and event experts (several county rodeo organizers were named as possible committee members) plus one or two council liaisons so the council remains accountable for any budget shortfalls. Several people said the committee should have authority to allocate the budget during the year and return to council with spending changes or requests.

The council set a near-term procedural timeline: decide whether to form a Fiesta committee at the next regular meeting and, if approved, give it a budget and authority to begin scheduling and vendor/sponsor outreach. Council members and organizers emphasized the event is a year-long planning effort and would require sustained volunteer hours.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to adjourn: moved by an unnamed participant (speaker who offered "I'll move to adjourn"), seconded by another participant; vote recorded as all in favor (ayes). Outcome: approved.

Ending

Council members and organizers said they will return next week with a decision on whether to create the Fiesta Days committee and, if approved, a proposed budget so the committee can begin outreach to sponsors, finalize dates with county support, and address operational fixes before next year’s celebration.