Organizers of Grande Prairie BuckWild announce the PBR event for October 2-3 at Revolution Place. Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

BuckWild

BuckWild PBR coming to Grande Prairie October 2-3

Jun 23, 2020 | 1:06 PM

For the second year in a row, a BuckWild PBR event is returning to Grande Prairie. This year, the event will take place at Revolution Place from October 2-3.

The BuckWild event has partnered up with PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Canada’s Elite Monster Energy Tour to travel to Grande Prairie for the first time.

The two-day event features the top Bull Riders in Canada, who go head-to-head to move up the rankings on the PBR tour.

It’s the first time the event will happen over two days. Last year’s event was held at Evergreen Park and was sold out. Because of that event’s success, they decided to expand the event to two days.

Dave Anderson with Grande Prairie BuckWild says that he’s excited to bring back the event to Grande Prairie for the second straight year.

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“There’s lots of anticipation, we’ve figured out a formula to do it safely, and that’s our first priority, and we are very excited to make it happen and bring this event back to Grande Prairie.”

Grande Prairie City Councillor Kevin O’Toole says it’s a great event for the city and will have lots of benefits for the community.

“I think this is going to be one exciting event for the whole city. When you look at (it), nothing’s been really happening for the last four months, the summer has kind of been taken over with no rodeos, festivals or concerts and this will be the big one that will start up again at Revolution Place.”

“In the downtown core it’s going to be accessible (with) cabs, restaurants, clothing stores and hotels. It will be really easy to get in and out of and I can’t say enough about how excited I am about this event.”

Despite COVID-19, this PBR event plans to take place with fans in the stands at Revolution Place.

While COVID-19 is a constantly evolving situation, organizers feel that by October, fans will be allowed to be back in the stands.

BuckWild and Revolution Place have been working on how they can ensure fans get in the stands and have a safe experience.

“The Revolution Place box office has created a POD system with social distancing in effect. You can buy pod’s of two, four, six or eight and then that’s your group and you social distance from other pods,” said Anderson. “They’ve been working on sanitizing the facility and setting up one-way traffic and all the protocol. It’ll be unbelievable what it will look like when fans arrive and be very well thought out.”

Every second row will also be blocked off to ensure that people sitting in their POD’s can maintain physical distance from each other.

Anderson says it’s up to each family or ticket buyer to decide who belongs in each POD.

“So, (it’s) the people you’d have over to your house, your family and it’s you who decides who will be in your pod.”

PBR will have it’s own guidelines when it comes to testing for it’s athletes for COVID-19. Those plans have not yet been revealed but Anderson says that they will be taking every precaution that is necessary so they can continue with a safe event.

Getting back to the Bull Riding, Anderson tells EverythingGP that this event is more significant this year, being that most of the Bull Riding season has been wiped out in parts of Eastern Canada. He says there will be a lot of Canadian talent in the ring.

“We are planning that we will likely just have Canadians that compete in it. A large amount of them are from Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan, so they’re in safe zones. We’ve got some great talent, great Canadians that will be here and we’ll also have the best bulls here. It’s quite exciting and all safety precautions will be taken.”

The event will also showcase the City of Grande Prairie to televisions across the country as the event will be broadcasted on tape delay two weeks after the event on TSN.

The TSN broadcast is expected to have a preview show, that will focus and showcase Grande Prairie.

“It’s all going to work out, it’s a great time of year,” said Anderson. “The bulls are ready to buck, the cowboys are ready to ride, the fans are ready to watch.”