A pie-eating contest is not usually the detail that tells you something's changing in a town of a few thousand people, but this year it did. Taste of Gaines, the township's newest tradition, added a community pie contest for its second outing this fall, then had to move the whole event back a week, from September 19 to September 26, before a single pie got eaten. The rodeo down the road at Pinehill Park, now in its 23rd year, has had two decades to settle into its routine.
That gap between a two-decade institution and a two-year-old event that's still finding its footing is the actual story here, and it says more about how Gaines Township runs than any single festival recap would.
The Same Handful Of People, Running Two Very Different Machines
Gaines Charter Township has just over 6,600 residents spread across 35 square miles, and the incorporated Village of Gaines inside it counted 377 residents as of the 2020 census. That's not a lot of people to build a social calendar around, which is exactly why the town leans so hard on two anchor weekends: the Gaines Community Rodeo in July and Taste of Gaines in September. Between those two nights, most of the township's public gathering happens.
What's easy to miss, if you only think of them as "the summer thing" and "the fall thing," is that they don't run on the same fuel at all.
The Rodeo Pays For Itself
The Gaines Community Rodeo started when a member of the newly formed Knights of Columbus council, who used to ride bulls, floated the idea that you could just have a rodeo in a cut corn field. It worked. What began with a few hundred people a night has grown into a few thousand, and this year marks the rodeo's 23rd run, with Flying Star Rodeo, a professional outfit that's been staging family rodeo entertainment for 31 years, returning to Pinehill Park for barrel racing, bull riding, bronc riding, steer wrestling and calf roping.
Pinehill Park itself has a longer story than the rodeo does. The Gaines Lions Club has run the park since the 1970s, decades before the Knights of Columbus ever set foot in it with livestock.
The rodeo is a ticketed event, and the ticket revenue isn't incidental. It's the entire point. Knights of Columbus Council #12186 uses the rodeo as its main annual fundraiser, and rodeo chairman Brian Wendt has said the council has donated more than $105,000 back into the community over the past three years, funding things like water heaters for elderly residents on fixed incomes and support for MI Turning Point, a Durand-based nonprofit that helps veterans and domestic violence survivors. This year's admission runs $16 for adults 13 and up, $8 for kids 5 to 12, and free under 5, with family and four-pack pricing available. The council has kept prices low on purpose.
"We could capitalize on raising prices, but that's not what it's all about," Wendt told the Swartz Creek View. "We don't want to discourage families from coming out."
No alcohol, coolers or pets are allowed inside the gates, though there's a separate 21-and-up entertainment tent after the main event winds down, something the rodeo has offered for years with acts like Shiatown and 6 Shot Whiskey rotating through. The whole operation runs on volunteer labor. One Knights of Columbus member estimated the actual week of the rodeo takes well over 2,000 man-hours from setup through teardown, much of it from local high schoolers who aren't even Catholic or Knights members themselves.
The rodeo doesn't need the township's help to exist. It's a private fraternal organization's fundraiser that happens to double as the town's biggest annual gathering, and it has been stable enough to run uninterrupted for 23 years.
Taste Of Gaines Runs On A Different Engine Entirely
Taste of Gaines is the newer of the two, now in its second year. The event is jointly hosted by Gaines Charter Township and the Gaines Chamber of Commerce, and unlike the rodeo, it's free to attend. There's no gate fee funding the operation. Instead it depends on vendor and sponsorship participation, small bites from local eateries, live music and interactive activities for families, all coordinated by township supervisor Bob Terpstra and Chamber executive director Barb Nauta.
The first year drew a strong enough turnout that organizers were confident going into year two, expecting thousands of attendees for 2026. New this year, alongside the usual food and music, is a community pie-eating contest.
Then the reschedule happened. The event originally set for Saturday, September 19 got pushed a full week to Saturday, September 26, still keeping its 4 to 8 p.m. window. Rescheduling an event for thousands of expected guests is a routine part of organizing one, and the Township and the Chamber kept the same 4 to 8 p.m. window so the plan for the evening stayed the same.
A few quick facts on this year's version:
- Hosted by Gaines Charter Township and the Gaines Chamber of Commerce
- Rescheduled from September 19 to September 26, 2026, 4 to 8 p.m.
- Free to attend
- New in 2026: a community pie-eating contest
- Vendor and sponsorship inquiries went through the Chamber, not the township office
Two Anchor Nights, Two Different Structures
A one-week move is an ordinary part of a young event's second year. The two anchor nights of Gaines Township's calendar are held up by two completely different structures. One is a private charity fundraiser old enough to have its own institutional memory, built around ticket sales and a professional rodeo partner under contract. The other is a public-private civic event still figuring out its own rhythm, built around sponsorships and volunteer coordination between the township office and the Chamber of Commerce.
Both work, and both draw thousands of people. The rodeo has had 23 years to settle into its rhythm, and Taste of Gaines is building its own track record with each year.
The Same Volunteer Engine Shows Up Elsewhere Too
The pattern isn't limited to these two events. Down in the Village of Gaines, a separate effort is underway to restore and reopen Oakwood Cemetery, and it's being driven the same way the rodeo began: local residents, businesses and organizations pitching in time, materials and money because that's how things get built here, not because a government budget line covers it. It's the same engine, just pointed at a different project.
If you've lived in Gaines Township for any length of time, you already knew the rodeo was the big one. What's newer is watching the town try to build a second tradition from scratch, in real time, with all the small logistics that come with it.
Gaines Township's calendar doesn't run on a big budget. It runs on volunteer labor and a willingness to try again when the first date doesn't hold. That's not a knock on the town. It's the clearest evidence of how it actually works.
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