MACHIAS — The Down East Stampede, a Wild West rodeo featuring cowboys from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association of Colorado Springs, Colo., will be held the first three days of July, in hopes of attracting about 8,000 people of all ages to the old Washington County Fair Grounds.

“I believe it will be the biggest thing to hit Machias in a long time,” said businessman Ivan Hanscom on Monday. He and the Rev. Raymond Melville, parish priest for the Holy Name Catholic Church, are co-chairmen of Down East Stampede.

The rodeo is sponsored by the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and the Machias Rotary Club. The sponsors have guaranteed $30,000 to the All American Rodeo Co. of Ballston, N.Y., to bring the national circuit rodeo to Machias.

“We’ve already raised $10,000, and neither of the two sponsoring institutions have any money in the venture,” Hanscom said.

Any profit from the rodeo would be shared equally by the two sponsors, Hanscom said. Each sponsor already funds numerous charities.

The sponsors, he said, “want to create entertainment and give all of our area businesses a big boost. We want the benefit to extend to every bed and breakfast, every motel, and every other place of business for three days.”

The rodeo will feature six main events, including bareback, saddle bronco, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, and barrel racing. Traditional rodeo entertainment will include rodeo clowns and trick riding.

Joanne Williams of the Chamber of Commerce said professional rodeos are being presented this year in 46 states and four Canadian provinces.

The fairground, originally Sylvan Park, was purchased from the county commissioners in 1993 by Julian Johnson. The commissioners had put the property up for public bid after running up a debt of about $90,000 from holding unprofitable county fairs. Legislative action initiated by local politician Bradford Snowe helped resolve the debt, Johnson said.

Johnson, who donated use of the park, believes the rodeo will be the park’s largest event in 30 years. He previously has made the property available to many other civic organizations for public benefits, including horse pulls by the area Fourth of July Committee, and for winter carnival snowsled races.