The 19th annual Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival will ride into the Fort Worth National Stockyards Historic District October 23-25, 2009.

The gathering will feature countless family oriented activities where visitors can experience the true west including everything from poets and musicians to rodeo performances featuring ranch hands from some of the most famous Texas ranch families each night.

“We are so proud to be able to bring the cowboy gathering back for an incredible 19th year,” said Red Steagall, organizer of the event. “Our hope is that everyone who attends will be able to experience a piece of the west and go home with a new perspective on true western living.”

The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival officially begins with a week-long wagon train leaving Jacksboro, Texas on Sunday, October 18th. It will travel through Perrin, Mineral Wells, Weatherford and Azle, stopping to overnight on Tuesday, October 20th, at the First Monday grounds in Weatherford. The public is invited to join the celebration that night beginning at 6 p.m. for an evening of cowboy music and poetry. The wagon train will arrive in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District on Thursday, October 22.

The festival’s family-friendly activities kick-off on Friday, October 23 with a Chuck Wagon Parade, featuring 20 authentic wagon teams. The parade will begin in downtown Fort Worth at the UTA Fort Worth Center’s Santa Fe Station on Jones Street, travel north on Main Street and end at the Fort Worth Stockyards marking the start of the event-filled weekend. Once at the event, the chuck wagons will set up for an authentic cook-off to be held for judges on Saturday, October 24.

The events continue with an authentic Ranch Rodeo where 14 Texas ranches will compete in traditional ranch events including wild cow milking, bronc riding, team roping, team doctoring, calf branding, maverick branding, mutton bustin’ and team sorting. Other featured events include a cowboy trappings and trade show, Ranch Cutting Horse Association National Finals, Craig Cameron horsemanship clinics, cowboy church, a youth fiddle contest, a youth chuck wagon cook-off, youth cowboy poetry contest, an invitational Tejas Vaqueros and Ranchero Visitadores Team Roping and the annual Texas Trail of Fame induction ceremony.

The weekend’s entertainment includes musical performances from Dan Roberts, Jean Prescott and The Quebe Sisters Band, and one of the country’s most popular cowboy singers, Don Edwards, will perform at the gathering.

“Don Edwards helped us found this event, and has been pleasing crowds since the very beginning,” said Red Steagall. “We are thrilled to have so many performers join us year after year, to bring our message and pass on a piece of our history to new audiences.”

Additionally, the weekend will feature western swing dances with Red Steagall and the Boys in the Bunkhouse, Leon Rausch and Bobby Flores, and showcase cowboy poetry from Red Steagall, Chris Isaacs, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Joel Nelson and Oscar Auker.

Born in Gainesville, Texas with a passion for the western lifestyle, Red Steagall competed in rodeos as a youth and learned to play the guitar and mandolin. After college, Steagall traveled to California to share western traditions and values with the rest of the world through songs, poems, books, television and movies. Although Red Steagall is best known for his Texas swing dance music, he is also highly respected by Texas cowboys for the lyrical way in which he writes about the western way of life; he was honored as the Poet Laureate of Texas in 2006. A world performer, he has only called one place home – Texas.


Tickets for the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering, October 23-25, 2009, are on-sale now and can be purchased by calling 1-888-COWTOWN (1-888-269-8696). For more information on the event and a full schedule of events, please visit www.redsteagallcowboygathering.com.