Les mères, ne lais' pas vos fils devenez des cowboys...

Celebrating the free spirit of country life, a heartfelt music that people listem to for a lifetime, and well, just getting together for some good clean fun, thousands in French people have imported a curious festival.
They are something like the community get-togethers of the American rural west. And they're call it their Rodeo.

Having rejected the use of the word 'cowboy' as a slur, and the endless repetition of the driving off of Native American culture, they get together for the love of country & western and the great outdoors.

From The Telegraph:

«"When I started the event six years ago, I thought it would work for a year or two, but it has just kept on growing. Last year we counted 5,000 attendees," said Yves. That's a big crowd for a town such as Auboué, which has a population of only 5,454.

Muller views le country's popularity as a reaction to the times we live in. "French people are looking for ways to escape the stress of our modern, isolated lives and congregate, as a community. Like we used to in France, for example, after the grape-harvesting."

So why don't the French look to revive traditional French community events? "The costumes aren't as much fun," he said. "And even if le country is not technically our culture, we grew up watching Westerns and playing cowboys and Indians. America is our dream, too."»

It seems that very few are immune to the sincerity of the cowboy culture, wherever it is found. I say revive those events - you have nothing to lose other than twisting an ankle dancing...