‘Like Disneyland for us’: Visitors flock to Clark County Fair and Rodeo

Attendees came from near and far Thursday to Logandale to see the livestock, watch the shows and eat the food at this year’s Clark County Fair and Rodeo.

Logandale residents — as well as people from outside the small town — were in attendance, as event staff said the crowd shifts from being mostly locals early in the week to nearly all outsiders during the weekend.

Staff and yearly vendors said people come from as near as Las Vegas and as far as states like Idaho and Nebraska to the event, which opened on Wednesday and will run through Sunday.

“All you gotta say is you’re missing out if you’re not coming out here. That’s my opinion,” attendee Hunter Soderquist said about the fair.

Soderquist is originally from Logandale, roughly an hour northeast of the Las Vegas Valley, but currently lives in the city with his wife, Katie Soderquist. The couple said they make it out to the fair every year, with the only exceptions being when the COVID-19 pandemic kept the county from holding the event.

The couple said the county fair is more laid-back and family-friendly than other fairs they’ve attended, which they said felt more geared toward teenagers. The Soderquists said their favorite part of the event is the food, and they’re specifically fans of the funnel cakes.

‘Having a blast’

Marjorie Tague works front register for Sleek Greek, a Mediterranean food vendor that she said attends the fair every year. Tague said she serves multiple people every year both from Logandale and as far as Nebraska.

Workers for the traveling events echoed Tague’s praise of the event.

“We’re having a blast here, the staff of the fair have been just as excited to see us and work with us as the patrons coming to the fair,” Frank Martin, with Sea Lion Splash, said about working at the fair.

Lyle LeCaptain works with the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show which goes to the fair once every two years. He works with his father on the show that features ax-throwing and woodcarving in its 60 appearances across the U.S. LeCaptain said the people at the fair treat him “like family,” which isn’t always the case for every event the show features in.

Fair coordinator Kasen Kolhoss was born and raised in Logandale and has regularly gone to the fair since he was a kid. This is his second year working for the event and he said it’s given him an appreciation for the work of the volunteers behind the scenes.

Kolhoss said the fair is put together by a volunteer-based organization with workers from both Logandale and Las Vegas. Both Kolhoss and the fair’s public relations representative Makenzie Bush credited Logandale’s community for the success of the annual event.

“This literally could not happen without the community, we have hundreds of volunteers that come out and make this happen … it really is like Disneyland for us, the fact that we get to come and put this on, everyone gets excited about contributing, because we want to show off who we are,” Bush said.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.