WILD RIDES AT BARRETOS FORTHCOMING RODEO FESTIVAL

The Festa do Peão de Barretos (Portuguese for "Cowboy Festival of Barretos") is a rodeo featuring bulls and horses. In Barretos, Brazil, hundreds such festivals are held throughout the year. The Festa do Peão is one of the most famous such festivals, and has become world-famous for its size. The festival is held every year in the São Paulo (state) city of Barretos, where it has traditionally been organized and promoted by the social club Os Independentes ("The Independents").

The festival has its origins in the transfer of cattle from pasturing in the nearby states of Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Mato Grosso to slaughterhouses in Barretos. The cowboys in the "entourages" that led the herds would meet in the afternoons and compete with each other to see who could ride the most spirited horses - the precursor to today's competition. The more difficult tradition of riding bulls instead of horses was brought from the United States of America.


In 1955, in Barretos, a group of bachelors organized the first recorded Festa do Peão de Boiadeiro. Since that time the festival has become world famous for its scale, and the high quality of cowboys, horses, and bulls. The festival takes place every August, coinciding with the anniversary of the founding of Barretos, August 25. It continues to be organized by The Independents.
One of the most common artifacts seen throughout these festivals is the  blowing horn or winding horn, which is a sound device by and large shaped like a horn or actually a cattle or other animal horn arranged to blow from a hole in the pointed end of it. It is still used by Brazilian cowboys to gather the cattle in the fields or when transferring it between pastures.








Full info in English, Spanish and Portuguese at:
http://www.independentes.com.br/en/