Today is the day the Los Baños Chamber of Commerce’s Henry Miller Wild West Weekend begins at the Los Baños Fairgrounds owned by Merced County.</p><p>Gates are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sunday and admission is only $2 per person or $5 per family. Today the school district’s fourth- and fifth-graders will be attending the event to learn more about American history from the many exhibits and presenters at the fairgrounds. School children attending the event will be given a coupon for $1 off a family admittance.</p><p>The exhibits, James Berrera, a trick roper and whip artist, and Tony Argento, a cowboy poet whose grandfather worked for Henry Miller and Charles Lux, and a Kid’s Corral will be at the event all three days for the public’s enjoyment. The “Huckleberry Fiddler,” a big hit from last year’s event will be returning to Los Baños to perform on Oct. 11 and 12.</p><p>Tonight between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., the public is invited to bring their guitars and voices to a cowboy campfire where songs of the old west will be sung, and stories will be told.</p><p>If the wind permits on Saturday, hot air balloonists will launch their crafts at about 8:30 a.m. from the baseball fields on Seventh Street. The public will be able to interact with the balloonists starting at 6:30 a.m. At 4 p.m. 8-year-old Ricardo Paz will perform at the crossroads on the fairgrounds.</p><p>Saturday night will feature dinner and dancing to the music of the Hometown Band at Cecelia’s Cantina. The cantina will be set up in the exhibit building at the fairgrounds. A no host bar opens at 6 p.m., dinner will be at 7:30 p.m. and dancing will follow. Tickets to the Cantina are $25 per person.</p><p>Cowboy church will opens its doors Sunday morning at 8:45 at the fairground’s Arburua Arena. At 2 p.m. the Big Bull Bonanza kicksoff with the Mutton Bustin’ event for children. Steer riding begins at 2:30 p.m. followed by the main event at 3.</p><p>Manuel Souza, owner of Souza’s Bucking Bulls in Cathey’s Valley said there will be 40 bulls at the event, many from his herd, and 30 professional bull riders participating in the event.</p><p>“I saw it (the Wild West Weekend) as an opportunity to promote the western way of life,” said Souza, who is bringing his bulls to the Westside for the first time. “It will be a first class show.”</p><p>Ticket to the bull riding show are $10 in advance or $12 at the gate. A family of four can watch the event for $30 with advance tickets, $40 at the gate.</p><p>There will be five different cowboy fast draw shooting events during the weekend. The public is invited to enter the Lefty Manzanedo Memorial Shoot on Sunday, where a novice shooter teams up with a professional shooter to compete for the best pro-am pair and a fine belt buckle.</p><p>There will be 30 vendors of Old West dry goods and food at the fairgrounds for the weekend. The Abraham Lincoln and Buffalo Soldiers Museum exhibits and Civil War re-enactors, with one cannon and a mortar, will be at the fairgrounds throughout the weekend.</p><p>The Los Baños High School wrestling program will be hosting Cow Pie Bingo events today through Sunday at the fair grounds. Tickets for that event are $5 each.</p><p>The Merced County Sheriff’s posse will be at the fairgrounds during the event helping with security while providing ambience suitable to the weekend’s theme.</p><p>For more information on this Wild West Weekend, contact the Los Baños Chamber of Commerce at (209) 826-2495 or log on to henrymillerwildwestweekend.com