Come and Take It returns!

Organizers calling it ‘a success’

Chick flick A contestant in the Gonzales Rotary Club Come and Fly It chicken flying contest found full extension with her pernicious plunger and sent her pulchritudinous poultry plummeting back down to St. Joseph Street Saturday afternoon. Sadly, this shove did not shore up a win.

Lew K. Cohn

The Old 18 fire a volley at the Mexican Army during the battlefield re-enactment at Pioneer Village on Saturday as part of the Come and Take It Celebration. This year’s re-enactment was very well attended.

Lew K. Cohn

Oscar Garcia of Los Garcia Brothers plays up to the camera during his group’s headlining performance Saturday night at Come and Take It Celebration in Gonzales. A large crowd was present to see and hear the Conjunto superstars play all of their greatest hits in their classic zoot suits.

Lew K. Cohn

Posted Wednesday, October 6, 2021 5:17 pm

By LEW K. COHN, Inquirer Publisher

The numbers are still coming in from this past weekend’s Come and Take It Celebration in Gonzales, but organizers are expressing their gratitude to residents for coming out and supporting the festival in its 65^th year — and first year back after COVID-19 shut it down in 2020.

“We are still processing things, and running financial numbers, so it’s hard to give anything too definitive, but we are calling this CTI a success,” said Brad Cox, executive director of the Gonzales County Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture, which hosts the event.

“We only had 35 days to plan for it after the decision was made to have it. Friday’s attendance was lower than anticipated, but rain in the early morning and forecasters predicting a rainy weekend may have put a damper on the Friday turnout. However, Saturday and Sunday were typical of previous years.”

Festival goers enjoyed all of the great attractions at this year’s event, including the Pride of Texas Shows carnival; live music; the Come and Take It parade; the battlefield re-enactment at Pioneer Village; the Rotary Club chicken flying contest; the Lions Club T-Bone Cookoff; the car show; the Miss Gonzales County coronation; and plenty of great food and arts and crafts vendors.

“The parade was well attended and included 111 entries,” Cox said. “Pioneer Village reports that 760 people came to the re-enactment, which is a very strong showing. I’ve personally been to many of the re-enactments and don’t believe I have ever seen that many people there.

“The carnival operator told me his sales were good and they were down two rides dues to staffing.”

Those who came out also came and took part in a lot of food and drink, Cox noted.

“Here are some fun factoids we figured out. 14,700 beers were sold, 2,300 hamburgers, 3,600 sodas, 2,800 bottles of water, and 900 funnel cakes,” Cox said.

The Chamber and all participants now a year to get ready for the next Come and Take It Celebration in October 2022.

For more information about Come and Take It or the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture, go online to gonzalestexas.com.