I lived in Santa Clarita for something like 16 or 17 years and I never ever went to the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival (formerly the ‘Cowboy Poetry Festival’) …. but as soon as we move to Encino, there we were. back in SCV!
Every April for a full weekend the city of Santa Clarita puts on their Cowboy Festival.
It reminded me of the Renaissance Faire … but for the ‘old west’ ….
For the last decade or so, the festival has been held at Melody Ranch, an old movie studio deep in old Newhall …. so interesting.
Of course, a big part of the ‘Festival’ is all the shopping there is to do. Some really tacky stuff. And some interesting stuff. Full period costumes (some fun fun stuff) …. pocket watches, parasols, …
And Confederate soldier hats. Which, frankly, I think are in TERRIBLE taste.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen horses in real life …. which *sounds* bizarre …. but it was so fun!
All kind of vintage/period vignettes set up around the “ranch” …. including this tea set, an a woman sewing on a (very) vintage sewing machine ….
There were several men dressed in Union soldier uniforms and one of them was demonstrating how to shoe a horse, while another was teaching a couple little boys about guns …
so so so interesting!
looking down the street ….
Cowboy hats EVERYWHERE!
People dressed as modern-day cowboys, but also dressed in costumes….. *not* working the festival, just visiting, dressed in a period 3-piece suit and hat. Pushing a very 2010 stroller. ….
bunch of crazies
Melody Ranch boasts a film museum ….
I thought these guys doing … what is it? Blacksmithing? Is that a word?
Anyway. Cool to watch.
This dude in the white shirt …. you can’t see his face, but he was probably 15 or 16 …. !! Sticking his hands in the coal (look how dirty they are) and shaping the metal …. cool cool cool!
union soldiers …
Oh, yea, before I forget. We went with Andrew’s family. It was his dad’s bday and Andy paid for all 7 of us to go to the Festival for the day …. Fun family time.
I think most of the buildings had actual rooms and were not just false fronts. There was all kinds of things inside. Mostly shopping, but also music/concerts throughout the property.
Andrew, Daniel and I stumbled upon this gentleman doing card tricks.
First of all: Hilarious. Obviously, he’s been working on his ‘bit’ for awhile. Totally entertaining 
Second of all: crazy good at magic/card tricks. I’d hire him for a party …
Third of all: He goes by the name Pop Haydn …. awesome.
And, as the grand finale …. a cupcake-cake for the birthdays (Andy and Daniel’s are a couple days apart)
love love ….
I’m pretty sure they call what blacksmiths do “smithing” or more specifically “forging.”
That’s funny, I was going to say the same thing as Maggie did as I was coming down to the comment box. We were looking for modern Blacksmiths to fix our camping axe last month.
Looks like fun. Did she get that cupcake mold from TV? I think I might have watched an infomercial on that
Fun! We talked about going there before, but I think the fact that it was called a Cowboy POETRY Festival just seemed strange. I’m glad they dropped the “Poetry” in the title. I imagine it helps to bring in a wider range of folks.
One of my favorite things at the Biltmore Estate in NC was the blacksmith. He was amazing! I got some great pics of him too.