Lewiston Roundup organizers hope to stage rodeo as usual

The Lewiston Roundup Association plans to hold its 86th annual rodeo Sept. 9-12 and is working on providing additional sanitation and public safety measures.

“At this time we are planning for the Roundup to take place,” longtime Lewiston Roundup Association organizer Willie Deibel said. “We’ve been in contact with members of the State of Idaho COVID-19 team, as well as our local Public Health – Idaho North Central District members, and all are aware that we would greatly like to have our event.”

The Lewiston Roundup Association wants to communicate with county commissioners and the city of Lewiston as it plans its rodeo and downtown parade. Currently, the city is not accepting any parade applications.

“We are anxiously awaiting a decision on whether we can move forward with that or not,” Deibel said. “We’ll feel better about our current plan and situation once the governor and his team release the post-Stage 4 plan, but we’re still moving forward and cannot wait to have exactly what the original Roundup was — a celebration at the culmination of a lot of hard work at the end of harvest.”

Idaho’s Stage 4 of its reopening plan is set to expire June 26.

“The guidance they provide for events going on after that will really dictate more of how we proceed,” Deibel said.

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has released a document outlining the extra requirements because of COVID-19 concerns for rodeos that carry its name that Deibel described as “very all-encompassing.”

“We’re optimistic that we’ll be able to fulfill all needed sanitation measures, yet realistic there may be further requirements set down to abide by for social distancing,” Deibel said. “We have a lot of community stakeholders that want to see this event succeed, so we are trying our best to help the show go on, but if something changes we will make a public announcement to let everyone know.”