Business View Magazine - Feb 2024

and some of the finest leather people in the country attending this show and selling their wares. The two facilities that the show is held in during the Western Heritage Classic are just constantly crowded; people love to go through there. It’s a unique event within the show itself.” “We also have the Rhinestone Round Up,” Johnson adds, “which is a gala. We also have cowboy poetry and music and Matched Horse Race World Finals. Western Heritage Classic is a huge gathering of ranching families–about 30,000 people attend that event. It has a very loyal following, and this will be the 39th year that it’s taking place.” “Our other event is the West Texas Fair and Rodeo, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a livestock show, carnival, with creative arts and exhibitors, and our PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) Rodeo.” In addition to renting out facilities for concerts, weddings, birthdays, quinceañeras, seminars, and club meetings, which all bring in revenue, the Center, as a non-profit entity, also hosts some community events, such as the Taylor County Livestock Show, where local 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) members exhibit their prize-winning animals–goats, heifers, lambs, poultry, rabbits, steers, and swine. “One of my employees is the secretary of that show and we donate time and effort towards putting it on,” Johnson notes. THE COVID CONUNDRUM During the COVID pandemic, the Expo Center had a mixed record regarding its customary operations. “I had construction going on, and so I had to be here. So, we didn’t close down from that standpoint,” Johnson recounts.“But we did stop having the birthday parties and the wedding receptions, so we saw a decrease in revenue there. We were not able to have one of our largest events, the Western Heritage Classic in May of 2020, but we did have our Fair and Rodeo in September 2020, although our attendance was substantially less; I’d say by about 80,000 people.” 179 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 02 EXPO CENTER OF TAYLOR COUNTY