Get ready for crooning and bullfighting

The Osage County Tourism Committee has agreed to provide $5,000 apiece ($10,000 overall) to help two new attractions intended to make the county a preferred destination for travelers.

The Constantine Theater, of Pawhuska, put forward an application for money to pay for professional videography of live musical performances at the Old Firehouse, which is located in close proximity to the theater and City Hall. The live performances to be videoed are anticipated to take place from June through September of this year and attract a total (over the course of eight shows) of about 720 people.

The concept for the attraction of new visitors includes both the musical artists participating in “Firehouse Sessions” and Osage County Tourism having access to performance videos. The county will be able to use the professional images of emerging singer/songwriters to promote itself to potential guests. Meanwhile, the performers will be able to use the videos online to draw attention to their work.

The musical promotion project has at least two objectives for Pawhuska and Osage County. One objective is to address the problem of chronically poor attendance at the historic 550-seat Constantine for live music performances. The hope is that by using the Old Firehouse as an incubator, not only will the career hopes of young artists receive a boost, but music fans throughout the region and nation will come to identify Pawhuska as a must-visit location.

That way, there would, hopefully, be enough music tourists at some point in the future to fill the Constantine.

A second, even more aspirational, objective is identified by the funding application as follows: “to reclaim Oklahoma, specifically the Constantine, as a place where songwriting is nurtured and artists are discovered.”

Cyndi Kane, of Pawhuska, presented the Constantine’s application. She has personal knowledge of the obstacles young music performers face. She has a son, Phil, who is a singer/songwriter.

The second application that the Tourism Committee decided to fund at the $5,000 level came from Pawhuska resident and rodeo performer Tanner Brantley. He is planning an event for Nov. 23 of this year in the indoor arena at the Osage County Fairgrounds. He intends to use the $5,000 of funding for radio and digital advertising.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the traditional and ongoing popularity of rodeo events in Osage County, Mr. Brantley’s event is to involve bull riding. What stands out about his application, however, is the leading role to be given to bullfighting.

This is not the old-fashioned bullfighting memorialized by Ernest Hemingway in “Death in the Afternoon” (1932). Instead, Brantley says in his funding application that he intends to bring to Osage County audiences something called American Freestyle Bullfighting.

“A bullfighter will have to last 40-60 seconds in the arena with a purebred Spanish Fighting Bull, displaying their abilities to keep the animal engaged and maneuver around them without being harmed,” Brantley says in a description of the activity that he supplied to the Tourism Committee.

“This is the most exciting event in rodeo, and I am thrilled to bring it here to Pawhuska for the first time,” Brantley added. He is a professional bullfighter and has been fighting bulls for several years.

Unlike in Spanish bullfighting, the bulls in American Freestyle Bullfighting are not killed. They are very expensive animals and they go home after the fight.

Brantley’s event is to be called the “Brantley Cattle Battle Invitational” and it is to take place the Saturday before Thanksgiving.