As summer plans hang on the race between COVID-19 vaccines and the spread of new, more contagious COVID-19 variants, some major Umatilla County events are trying to plan ahead the best they can.

Farm-City Pro Rodeo board member Dennis Barnett said the rodeo will go on in Hermiston in August, after being canceled in 2020 while Umatilla County was under strict COVID-19 restrictions.

“There will be a rodeo, we just don’t know if there will be no fans, or some fans or 100%,” he said.

Barnett said there have already been other rodeo events held at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center without fans present since the pandemic began, establishing a precedent for using the arena. So the board is making three plans — one for an event with no live spectators, one in an arena at partial capacity, and one for an event that looks like years past.

“We owe it to the cowboys, we owe it to the contractors, because they need to make a living too,” he said.

Barnett said in March that the Farm-City Pro Rodeo has not received any government money to support the event, despite its cancelation last year. So if event organizers can’t sell any tickets this year or half the usual amount, it will fall to sponsors to make up the difference.

Fortunately, he said, sponsors he has met with so far have all been very supportive. The rodeo takes place each year in tandem with the Umatilla County Fair, held on the same dates, also at EOTEC. Fair Manager Angie McNalley has said the fair board is also moving forward with plans on the assumption that there will be a “fair that looks like a fair” in August, even if there are some regulations in place regarding social distancing, capacity, sanitation and other safety measures.

On the east side of the county, the Pendleton Round-Up Association is planning a full slate of events the second week in September, according to Pat Reay, the Round-Up’s publicity director.

When the Pendleton Whisky Music Fest canceled its 2020 event, it retained headliners Eric Church and Macklemore for a rescheduled 2021 concert. Whisky Fest is still advertising a July 10 concert, but in mid-March, co-founder Doug Corey said he was still waiting on word from the state about what would be allowed before making a final decision.

Pendleton Bike Week recently posted to its website that the 2021 event was postponed to July 2022 because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Jackalope Jamboree, a music festival that held its inaugural event in Pendleton in 2019, is selling tickets for its June 25-26 shows.

The Pendleton Cattle Barons are gearing up to restart April 30. The two-day event will feature a mix of rodeo, horse auctions and trade shows with the goal of raising money for college scholarships.