Cowboy Art Fest Tickets Sell Briskly : Culture: Organizers expect poetry and music extravaganza to sell out before event starts, fueling growth of tourism.

City officials here are riding tall in the saddle over their second annual Cowboy Poetry Festival, which has generated brisk ticket sales and is expected to sell out before its three-day run starting next month.

They hope the strong sales will mollify critics who complained that Santa Clarita leaders were horsing around with taxpayers’ money when they launched the event last year.

More than half of the festival’s nearly 2,500 tickets--ranging from $10 for an evening dance to $60 for a morning horse ride and breakfast--have already been sold, said Cecilia Burda, Santa Clarita’s special projects coordinator.

Ticket buyers are coming from as far away as Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

“We will sell out before the event, there is no question in my mind,” Burda said.

Only about 10% of the festival’s tickets had sold by this time last year. Sales for next month’s event have been boosted by a direct-mail campaign aimed at last year’s attendees, Burda said.

“We may not have to do any paper advertising,” Burda said. “We won’t have to do what we did last year, which was advertise from Stockton to San Diego.”

The increased awareness will trim nearly $20,000 in advertising costs for the event, which is expected to carry a price tag of $85,000, Burda said.

Organizers hope the poetry and music festival will eventually become a large-scale tourist event that will attract visitors to Santa Clarita and heighten the 7-year-old city’s profile.

Critics contended that taxpayer money would be better spent on traditional improvements such as road projects rather than cowboy poetry.

Regardless of the cost of the program, organizers say they will tailor their expenses to the level of ticket sales and corporate sponsorship, thereby breaking even on the event no matter what it costs.

“We won’t spend more than we raise,” said city spokeswoman Gail Foy. “And whatever we raise, we will spend.”

City officials say the true financial benefit of a large tourist event is the business it brings to Santa Clarita Valley hotels, restaurants and entertainment outlets. A city survey of 200 festival-goers, 10% of those who purchased tickets, indicated that the event poured about $244,000 into the local economy last year.

About 89% of the survey respondents rated the event “excellent” or “very good,” and 95% said they would return for a future festival.

The second annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival is scheduled March 31 to April 2 at the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Newhall.

It will include concerts by country singers Ian Tyson, Don Edwards, Riders in the Sky and Sons of the San Joaquin and readings by cowboy poets Waddie Mitchell, Buck Ramsey, Glenn Ohrlin, Virginia Bennett, Peggy Godfrey and Wallace McRae. The festival will also feature cowboy gear shows, a dance and a morning breakfast and trail ride.