Western Days Parade

At 9:35 on a Saturday morning in late April, the Lakeside Western Days Parade steps off from Woodside Avenue and Winter Gardens Boulevard. The Chamber of Commerce gives the starting corner as “Winter Gardens & 67.” The parade runs east on Woodside, turns left onto Maine Avenue, and ends at Lakeshore Drive. For the 2025 parade, roads along the route were closed from about 8 a.m. to noon. Spectators are advised to plan around the closures and to bring chairs or blankets. The Lakeside Chamber of Commerce hosts the parade on the same weekend as the Lakeside Rodeo. The Chamber calls it “a long-time tradition of celebrating our Lakeside Rodeo and Western heritage.”

The Chamber gives awards by category, and its list of winners from the most recent parade outlines the line of march. That list was posted with a promise to return in 2027. The El Cap HS Marching Vaqueros took Best Marching Band. Skyline Church won Best Musical Entry, Manzanita 4H won Best Youth Entry, Bob’s Crane won Best Commercial Entry, and the Lakeside Historical Society won Best Community Entry. Fables & Friends won for portraying the theme, and Sioux Munyon of Equine Diversity took Best Western Days Entry. The Grand Marshal’s pick for best overall went to White Dragon Martial Arts.

Hometown Heroes, 2025

Each parade has a theme, and community members serve as its Grand Marshals. The 60th annual parade, on April 26, 2025, took the theme “Hometown Heroes.” Its Grand Marshals were two El Capitan High School basketball coaches. A student collapsed from cardiac arrest during practice, and assistant coach John Curo performed CPR and chest compressions while head coach Sahil Alami called 911. The East County Californian reported that their actions saved the student’s life.

The same parade honored three others. Steve Menefee, Chairman of the Board, was recognized for years of commitment to the community. Nina Drammissi was the 2024 Citizen of the Year, honored for her work as principal of Lindo Lake Elementary, vice principal of Lakeside Middle School, and president of the Lakeside Kiwanis Club. Barbara Sigsworth, Scoutmaster of Troop 45, received the 2024 Rick Smith Award.

The 2026 parade went down Woodside on Saturday, April 25. The Chamber has not yet announced a date for 2027.

Maine Avenue and Lindo Lake

The last leg of the route, on Maine Avenue, passes through Lakeside’s historic former downtown, which now sits apart from the central business district. The Lakeside Historical Society, the same group that won Best Community Entry, works mainly to preserve the buildings there.

The town grew up around a small natural lake. The Kumeyaay lived here before European contact and called Lindo Lake Ha Ptur, meaning lake or “circular water.” In 1886 the El Cajon Valley Land Company bought 6,600 acres around the lake, promoted the land as a town, and built the 80-room Lakeside Hotel. The railroad reached Lakeside in 1889. In 1904 John H. Gay bought the hotel and fenced off the park around Lindo Lake as part of his estate. He then built an automobile and horse racetrack around the water, and Barney Oldfield set a land speed record there at the track’s opening in 1907. When Gay died in 1920, the hotel and track were demolished according to his wishes.

A rodeo ringed with autos

Lakeside’s first rodeo came in that same year, on July 5th of 1920. Resident Bill Kuhner organized it on Emil Klicka’s property, just south of Lindo Lake, in a makeshift arena. Rodeos used makeshift arenas for several years, and the rodeo’s own history says some were made by ringing a fence area with autos. Then for several years there was no rodeo at all. After the ownership of Lindo Lake was settled, the rodeo returned in 1933 as a celebration, using bleachers left over from the car-racing days, and the Lakeside Rodeo Association was formed. Under local blacksmith Tom LaMadrid, it moved to an area west of what is now Channel Road, where Café 67 stands today. There the organizers built a covered grandstand, chutes, and fences, and held three or four rodeos a year. In 1958 the grandstand, fences, and walls were torn down to make room for commercial construction.

A football field brought the rodeo back. In the mid-1960s, parents, teachers, and school officials wanted a lighted stadium for El Capitan High School, but the district had no money for one. Calling themselves the El Capitan Stadium Association, they met with Ben Bruton, a long-time Lakeside cowboy, and he suggested a rodeo as a fundraiser. In the spring of 1964 Bruton found temporary seating, chutes, and fencing and put on a rodeo in a vacant field. It went well enough that the association decided to hold one every year, and in 1966 it incorporated as a not-for-profit.

In December of 1969, Mrs. Marion Carlson gave the association 8 acres of vacant land, both to raise money for youth and to hold the rodeo. The volunteers finished the high school’s football field, lighting, bleachers, and concession stands, then built the Lakeside Rodeo Arena on her land. The PRCA-sanctioned rodeo held there usually falls on the last weekend in April and regularly draws more than 20,000 spectators. Its 61st edition ran April 24 to 27, 2025, and the parade went down Woodside on that Saturday.