Conejo Valley Days to Revive the Wild West : Thousand Oaks: About 100,000 people are expected to attend the carnival, rodeos, parade and other events. The five-day festival will raise money for charity.

Conejo Creek Park in Thousand Oaks will be transformed this week from a tranquil playground into the bustling hub of the Conejo Valley Days festival, a citywide Wild West celebration with a historical flavor.

The five-day fair, an annual event at the park, will feature a carnival, two rodeos, a parade, game booths and a barbecue at which fair-goers are expected to consume 2,500 pounds of meat.

The celebration is the largest event of its kind in eastern Ventura County, and about 100,000 people are expected to attend, event chairwoman Diana Runnion-Kohlbrand said.

And although there are few ranches left in the Conejo Valley, suburban cowboys and cowgirls use the event as an excuse to bring their Western duds out of the closet.

“People like to dress up the week of the event,” Runnion-Kohlbrand said. “In fact, I’ve got my cowboy boots on right now.”

A junior rodeo for contestants under 17 years old will be held Friday. Then cowpunchers will come out of the woodwork on Saturday for the two-day rodeo sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn.

A total of $3,000 in prize money is up for grabs for anyone who is not afraid to get bruised while bareback riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling or team roping.

After missing last year’s Conejo Valley Days rodeo, Simi Valley stuntman and cowpoke Dave Garber decided to sign up last week for the calf roping event.

“It’s a good little hometown rodeo,” said Garber, 49, who competes regularly in rodeos in the Southwest.

The $500 prize money for the roping event “is not bad for nine seconds of work,” Garber said. “It’s more than I make in the picture business.”

For the past three weeks, Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce volunteer Mary Ann Keeler has been busy preparing an arena for the rodeos.

Keeler, who has been organizing the rodeo for the past 16 years, said there is an art to getting the arena ready for the show.

“We have to go out there and rototill it all up,” she said. “You have to make it soft enough so the cowboys don’t break their . . . “ she said, pausing tactfully, “when they fall down.”

This year’s theme is “Rolling Hills and Country Frills.”

Years ago, before Conejo Valley Days had a Western theme, it was called Circus Days and was held at the wild animal park known as Jungleland.

In 1965, Leo the Lion, one of Jungleland’s residents, was named honorary mayor and rode down Thousand Oaks Boulevard in a white convertible, according to an account in “The Conejo Valley,” a book on the city’s history published with the help of the Chamber of Commerce.

In other years, the carnival has also been held at the Janss Mall and the Westlake Auto Center.

The event also serves worthy causes.

It is the chamber’s largest fund-raiser for local charities. Volunteers from organizations such as the Boy Scouts and the Kiwanis Club will work at the 75 food and game booths at the carnival site on Janss Road.

The contestants for the position of grand marshal also host fund-raisers aimed at raising donations for nonprofit groups not represented at the carnival, Runnion-Kohlbrand said.

Last year the event netted $31,000, an amount that was distributed to five charitable organizations, she said.

Mary (Lulu Belle) Miller of Thousand Oaks raised the most money for charity and was selected from among three candidates for grand marshal. Miller’s contributions will go to the YMCA; Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank; Interface: Children, Family Services of Ventura County; Battered Women’s Shelter, and the Dean Triggs School for the Handicapped. As grand marshal, Miller will host Saturday’s parade.

About 10,000 people are scheduled to attend the parade, which has 162 entries. The parade will start at 9 a.m. and follow Thousand Oaks Boulevard from Auburn Court to Los Feliz Drive.

FYI

Conejo Valley Days will be held for five days beginning Wednesday at Conejo Creek Park, east of the Moorpark Freeway on Janss Road. Admission to the carnival grounds is $3 for adults, $2 for students and $1 for children ages 7 to 12. Children 6 and under are free.