MONTE VISTA — Monte Vista’s Ski Hi Park hosts the 97th Annual Ski Hi Stampede this week with great food, music, parades, special events and rodeo action.

Before enjoying the kick-off concert on Thursday featuring Gary Allen and Smithfield, enjoy a great chuckwagon dinner sponsored by the Monte Vista Rotary and Monte Vista Kiwanis at 5:30 p.m.

This year’s headliner on Thursday night is Gary Allen who delights fans with his signature blend of smoldering vocals, rebellious lyrics and raucous live performances.

His last album “Set You Free” topped the Billboard 200 and produced his fifth #1 country radio chart topper, “Every Storm Runs Out Of Rain.” The California native released his first album “Used Heart for Sale” in 1996 and since then has released eight additional studio albums selling more than eight million albums, 10 million tracks, been certified platinum on three back-to-back albums and been certified gold five times.

Allan has five #1 hits at country radio, 14 Top 10 hits to his credit and amassed over 1.5 billion total streams. He sells out venues as a headliner from New York to LA and has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Live with Kelly and Michael and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He has also landed on the covers of Country Weekly, Pollstar and People magazine.   

Opening for Allan is country music’s hottest rising duo “Smithfield,” whose breakout hit “Hey Whiskey” put the independent act on the map in country music. To date, “Hey Whiskey” has sold more than 60,000 downloads, accumulated more than 2.7 million streams on Spotify, topped CMT’s 12-Pack Countdown and was in the Top 5 on SiriusXM’s Hot 30 Countdown for six weeks.

Consisting of Jennifer Fielder and Trey Smith the groundbreaking duo has opened for artists including Dustin Lynch, Eric Paslay, Scotty McCreery, Granger Smith, Kane Brown, Sara Evans, Old Dominion and more.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 26, at Ski Hi Park in Monte Vista.

Following the concert, plan to attend the Stampede dance featuring the music of Austin English. Dances will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday night will be Youth Night at the dance with the first 100 youth under 21 years of age with paid admission receiving free commemorative Stampede T-shirts.

Stampede features two parades, with the first at 10 a.m. Friday morning, July 27, and the second on Saturday morning, July 28, at 10 a.m. in downtown Monte Vista. This year’s parade theme is “A Blaze of Glory,” and firefighters will be honored as parade marshals.

World class PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) rodeo action begins on Friday evening, Family Day at Ski Hi, at 7 p.m. and will continue at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, July 28 and 29 at the stampede grounds. Enjoy Colorado’s oldest pro rodeo that draws nationally renowned competitors. Saturday will be pink Saturday, supporting the Stephanie Miner Women’s Imaging Center.

Expect to see exciting action in events such as steer wrestling, bareback riding, barrel racing, saddle bronc riding and bull riding.

Enjoy local amateur events and professional slack at 1 p.m. on Friday.

Start Saturday with a filling pancake breakfast with Monte Vista Kids Connection from 6-9 a.m.

Also in town for the stampede will be Wright’s Amusement Carnival, which kicks off today, Wednesday, July 25, and runs every day throughout the weekend.

Sunday events also include a 10 a.m. Christian Cowboy Service at Ski Hi Park.

For more information or to purchase tickets call 852-2055 or go to www.skihistampede.com/

Caption: Smithfield: Trey Smith and Jennifer Fielder/Courtesy photo