Kaycee to celebrate final LeDoux Days
BUFFALO (WNE) — The music festival and rodeo event that would go on to bring thousands of visitors to southern Johnson County first started as the unveiling of a bronze sculpture in 2010.
Famed country musician, world champion bareback rider and longtime Kaycee resident Chris LeDoux was memorialized five years after his death of a rare cancer at age 56. The bronze was constructed by Chris’ friend and nationally recognized local sculptor D. Michael Thomas.
That initial unveiling in June 2010 swelled Kaycee’s typical population of fewer than 300 people to 5,000, recalled Ned LeDoux, Chris’ son.
“It was going to be a one-time thing, then we thought that maybe we could make this an annual deal,” Ned said in an interview. “It’s been amazing, a lot of fun, thousands of people showing up.”
The event has grown each year as it evolved into Chris LeDoux Days, a music festival on Kaycee’s Main Street and a rodeo at the arena at Harold Jarrard Park each Father’s Day weekend.
The LeDoux family recently announced that this year’s event will be the last. Ned said that his family discussed a few months ago whether to continue. Ultimately, he said, this year felt like “a good way to wrap it up” with the popular country band Sawyer Brown as the festival’s headliner.
In addition to Sawyer Brown, the final concert lineup features Ned LeDoux and Kip Attaway.
LeDoux didn’t deny the possibility of the event eventually coming back in some capacity.
“Who knows? Maybe down the road, we’ll do something else,” Ned said.
This story was published on April 3, 2025.