National Cowboy Poetry Gathering

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is a week-long celebration of life in the rural West, featuring the contemporary and traditional arts that arise from lives lived caring for land and livestock.    

Where:    Elko, Nevada Fairgrounds
When:    Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 8:00 am until
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Nate will have a booth at The 26th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering January 28-30 in Elko, Nevada, which will overflow with thousands of cowboys and cowgirls, poets and musicians, artisans and scholars, rural people and city folks. Produced by the Western Folklife Center, the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering was started in 1985 by a small group of folklorists and poets, and has become an annual ritual for thousands of people who value and practice the artistic traditions of the region, and are concerned about the present and future of the West. Hundreds of cowboy poetry gatherings have since taken hold across the West and the nation over the last 25 years, as the Elko Gathering has reinvigorated a tradition that never ceased to be a part of the lives of cowboys, ranchers and rural westerners. In 2000, the U.S. Senate recognized the cultural value of this tradition and the event responsible for its renaissance when it passed a resolution naming the Elko Gathering the “National” Cowboy Poetry Gathering.