Welcome to Mustang Days 2024

Mustang Days is upon us, and what a fun celebration it is every year.

It all begins Friday night with the Drag Main event, which is a fun way to kick off the celebration. Of course, the idea is to parade classic, antique and show cars up and down Main, but really, just about anything is welcome. The event was first held in 2020 as a way to get people outside during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it caught fire.

Many families just head down to Main Street, bring some chairs and watch the cars go by. There’s lots of honking, waving and revving.

The triathlon on Saturday is just a youth triathlon this year, with a competitive adult triathlon returning to Big Horn Canyon on July 6, which is great to see. When Ben Zeller and family staged the Big Horn Canyon Triathlon a few years ago, it was one of the great events of the year in our neck of the woods. Nice to see it return.

One thing to take note of is the time change for the Mustang Follies. Staged for decades at 8 p.m., the show moves to 7:30 this year, with the Dollies of the Follies and the Mustang Band performing on Main Street at 6:30. The times were changed just to get families home a little sooner, though under Tianne Samson the Follies have clicked along in recent years. Tianne promises a really entertaining show this year based on a Hunger Games theme.

There are three shooting events at the Lovell Rod and Gun Club trap range this year, a youth shoot Saturday at 1, a traditional trap shoot Sunday at noon and a top gun shoot Monday at 5 p.m.

Most everything else is pretty much standard. It’s always amazing how much this community packs into one week. Hats off to all of the volunteers who make it happen, starting with Darece Grant, who stepped up as the Mustang Days chairman a few years ago and has done an amazing job organizing everything. This may well be Darece’s last year, with plans for a mission underway, but here’s hoping some great people step forward for next year. We know there are a couple of possibilities in the works.

Have a fun-filled and enjoyable Mustang Days, everyone. It’s a week when our community puts its best foot forward.

— David Peck