The Brothers Reed

J.D. Platt, of Bend, was hitchhiking down from Mount Bachelor when he met someone who would change his life.

It was 1996, and at the time, Platt was a professional snowboarder nine years deep into what would be a 13-year career, and probably had no idea the chance meeting would change his life.

“He happened to be an NFL halftime entertainer with Frisbee dogs. That was literally the time in my life that changed everything,” said Platt, whose K9 Kings Flying Dog Show is among the sizable contingent of local acts providing entertainment at the 2021 Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo. The show will perform daily throughout this year’s fair.

A man of many talents, Platt’s résumé also includes stretches of both breakdancing and inline skating professionally. But when he retired from World Cup Tour snowboarding in 2000, “I (had) the bug for the Frisbee dogs thing ever since I met that guy, and I just said, ‘You know what, I’m going to do this.”

He did. Today, Platt and his dogs have performed up and down the West Coast and as far east as Florida and New York. Lajara, a Mexican rescue dog he got through the Bend-based nonprofit Street Dog Hero, which finds homes for street dogs from around the world, serves as team captain.

When he gives one of his 30-minute shows, Platt said, he sees “a lot of smiles, joy and laughter.”

Local music

Dry Canyon Stampede, a Central Oregon country-western dance band, will be smiling themselves after having to take much of the last year off, and having its first performance at the fair come two years later than originally planned.

The group was supposed to perform for the first time at the fair in 2019, only to lose guitar player Matt Engle, who died tragically of a heart attack, the night before they were to play, according to guitarist and singer Kurt Silva.

COVID-19, of course, disrupted plans to play the fair last year.

“This will be our first year actually being able to do it,” said Silva. The pandemic forced the band to go a year between practices at one point, and also led to some line-up changes, with a number of new players joining the band.

“We’re kind of just getting started again,” he said.

With a lot of its upcoming shows private events, Dry Canyon Stampede’s sets on Friday and Saturday at the fair offer a good opportunity to catch them out in public.

“The best part about it is, you know, we have a pretty large following here,” Silva said. When the band played a gig in early July at Over the Edge Taphouse, “The staff there was just blown away by how many people showed up. That was the best thing to see, people out having fun again. … They’re just ready to bust out and do something fun.”

This year’s local music acts represent a variety of genres, including jazz from The Notables Swing Band, blues from Thomas T. and The Blue Chips, and hard rock from Braving the Fall. While most of the acts will be playing one of the fair’s several entertainment stages — these include the Center Circle, Chute 9 and Food Court stages — One Man Band’s Don Banich will be strolling the grounds throughout the fair, according to Geoff Hinds, executive director.

Other acts from around the state playing the 2021 Deschutes County Fair include Southern Oregon folkies The Brothers Reed and Portland’s Catherine Loyer and Strawberry Roan, known for a mix of rock, blues and alt-country.