Music, Rodeo and Even Elephants--Frontier Days Are Here : Santa Clarita: Annual festival opens today to celebrate community’s Western heritage.

The Old West didn’t have elephants, but Santa Clarita’s celebration of its pioneer past does.

As in the past, the 27th annual Frontier Days festival will celebrate the community’s Western heritage with a rodeo, country music concerts and Western dance lessons.

But this year’s celebration also has a few things that were rarely glimpsed in the days when cattle ranches dotted the Santa Clarita Valley: elephant rides, helicopters-for-hire and even one of Elvis Presley’s cars.

More than 25,000 people are expected to attend the festival, which starts today at 5 p.m. and ends Sunday at 8 p.m. The four-day event is sponsored by the Canyon Country Chamber of Commerce, which will donate some of the proceeds to local charities, said Bonnie Barnard, the chamber’s executive director.

The fairgrounds are at Lost Canyon and Soledad Canyon roads in Canyon Country.

Admission is $5 for adults and $4 for seniors and children. Children under 4 are free.

The fairgrounds will be open from 5 to 11 p.m. today, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

A rodeo sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo and Cowboys Assn. will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Events will include steer roping, barrel racing and bull riding.

Other events include a pancake breakfast from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Whites Canyon and Soledad Canyon roads and a pet parade at 8:30 a.m. at the same location. Ribbons will be awarded to the smallest and largest pets, the best-groomed pet, the most friendly, the most unusual and the one most like the owner.

In the past, children have brought pet rocks to the parade, but the pets must be alive to compete in the contests, Barnard said.