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Easter Family Fun in Brookings: Cage Fighting!

It's crazy enough to make me think I was being spoofed... but a reader's tip proves to be true. Apparently Easter festivities at the Brookings Swiftel Center include an Easter Egg hunt Saturday morning, followed by cage fighting in the evening:

Easter Eve cage fight, March 30, 2013, Swiftel Center, Brookings, SD
Easter Eve cage fight, March 30, 2013, Swiftel Center, Brookings, SD

Yes, do, please "Bring the whole family to witness" twelve "kid friendly" matches, one for each disciple. Crack your eggs for lunch, then come watch these gladiators crack skulls, just like back in Roman times.

And for extra special family time together, you and your kids can all cheer for your favorite Fury Fights heroes (because Easter is all about fury) and get into the Easter spirit by shouting "Crucify him!"

Brookings city councilman John Kubal saw an ad like this in the Brookings Register (for which he works) and said No way! He got his fellow councilors to vote 6-to-1 to put discussion of banning cage fighting at all public facilities, including the Swiftel Center, on a future council agenda. Only councilwoman Jael Thorpe voted no, saying the issue has been discussed enough.

14 Comments

  1. Dougal 2013.03.29

    Sounds like a whole different take on the Passion Play.

  2. Mark 2013.03.29

    Fun for the whole family!

  3. Barry Smith 2013.03.29

    Kid friendly. And for the title match The Easter bunny Vs Elmer Fudd- Merrie Melodies.

  4. Mike Henriksen 2013.03.29

    To be fair, there are several events that go on the Saturday of Easter weekend. I know of 3 events scheduled for this weekend, including one that was cancelled, that did not realize Easter came this early this year. And nowhere in this ad is "Easter" invoked.

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.03.29

    Mike, I don't mind the secular world going on with its business regardless of religious holidays. But if I'm running a public facility and scheduling big events, I'm always cognizant of what big events are going on and might or might not affect our ability to draw a crowd.

    I coincidence with Easter provides some blog fun. The portrayal of blood sports as family fun is disturbing beyond any religious issue.

  6. Steve Hickey 2013.03.29

    Like I tried to say on the House floor last month... "King of the Cage Greatest Knockouts #19" is now coming to a county fair near you. In my view, the Governor took his eye off the ball on this one. The issue he first, (and then later I) raised was violence, not safety. Making violence safer does not make it somehow acceptable or good. No one gets hurt for real in movie violence (unless you count the carnage copycat Jokers like James Holmes produce). We had 27 people in the House vote for my amendment to totally ban cage fighting in SD - that would have been enough to sustain a veto. Now every community can sort this out - Watertown and Webster have led the way in banning it. Hopefully Brookings will too.

    Advertisements like this are surely frustrating to the professional and sanctioned cage fighters who I have met and I'd think they would say the new State Commission will weed out all these shady, greedy promoters who put on these presently unsanctioned and unsafe matches. Perhaps. I still contend the issue is violence not safety and there is no way to make this kid friendly. It feeds something in society that we don't want to feed.

  7. Nick Nemec 2013.03.29

    The Easter Vigil Services will never be the same, but wouldn't scheduling on Good Friday be more in keeping with the blood and gore aspect of a steel cage match.

  8. Bill Dithmer 2013.03.29

    If you keep this up we wont be able to have Long Valley dances anymore.

    Easter, ba hum bug.

    Long Valley, come for the dance and the hotdogs, stay for the whiskey and the fights. Men women, and mix doubles.

    The Blindman

  9. Roger Elgersma 2013.03.29

    The same legislature that brings guns to school, brings cage fighting to entertainment. They saw the results of their own bad mistake coming so they need to arm the teachers. They can no longer say the people of south dakota are better people. Because of the type of legislators that they elect.

  10. SDBlue 2013.03.29

    It is difficult for me to wrap my brain around the concept of a State being so pro-life, yet so pro-gun and pro-violence.

  11. Douglas Wiken 2013.03.29

    "It is difficult for me to wrap my brain around the concept of a State being so pro-life, yet so pro-gun and pro-violence."

    That is because brains have little to do with it. This kind of violence is even below the "reptilian" part of our brains.

  12. grudznick 2013.03.29

    Easter is bull Mr. Dithmer. It is people insaner than I trying jam their painted eggs down our maws without asking us what color of eggs we like all in the name of some dead guy from eons ago. Easter BAH indeed.

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.03.30

    Nick's got a good point about scheduling. Carrying his logic further, we'd come back Sunday and name the loser champ. My read of the Bible and Ben Hur reminds me that Jesus was a peaceable chap, not some macho punchthrower.

    As Steve notes, thanks to the Legislature's lack of good sense, we now have to fight these battles at the local level. If we'd listened to Steve, we could have spared local communities the hassle of fighting the big-money interests who want to profit from MMA violence. And if Steve and his Pierre colleagues had listened to me on the school gunslinger bill, we could have spared local school boards the hassle of fighting the big-money interests who want to profit from violence and fear by selling more guns and winning product placement in our schools.

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