Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
Will Rogers Memorial Center
3400 Burnett Tandy Dr., Fort Worth
Fort Worth Cultural District
817/877-2400
fwssr.com
Hours: 8am–8pm January 18 through February 9.
Admission: General admission is $10 adults; $5 ages 6–16. Rodeo tickets are $19 for matinees and $25 for evening.
Parking: $8.
Courtesy of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is back for its 117th run and Cowtown is going buck wild for more than three weeks of rodeos, livestock shows, midway games and carnival rides, live music and performances.
First up, join 100,000 spectators in downtown Fort Worth to watch the all-western parade on Saturday, January 19, at 11am, and by all-western they mean no motorized vehicles. Authentic wagons, riding clubs, stagecoaches, marching bands – it’s all there on a new route starting at the Tarrant County Courthouse. Later that day, head over to the Will Rogers Memorial Center to watch local celebrities compete in a goat-milking contest at 6pm followed by a goat creative costume contest in the cattle arena.
The children’s barnyard and petting zoo are full of baby pigs, chicks, lambs, calves and more goats, sheep and llamas to ogle. Both are open daily from 9am–7:30pm, which is convenient because the kids very well may spend most of their time there. They can also get a lesson in where milk comes from by watching live milking demonstrations at the five-stall milking parlor between Cattle Barns 1 and 2, open daily from 10am–6pm.
If the kids still can’t get enough of the animals, check out the livestock shows schedule for the more than 22,000 heads of livestock including rabbits, poultry, sheep, sheep dogs, dairy cattle, steers and horses of every color and size.
For a more hands-on experience, don’t miss Kids Gone Wild on January 27 for ages 5 and older in the cattle arena. Cast your line into the catch-and-release tank stocked with 2–5-pound catfish, get an introduction to archery, test your shooting skills with an air gun rifle and practice safe firearm handling techniques from 11am–6pm.
And of course the star of the festival is the daily rodeos with professional bull riding, steer wrestling, bronc riding, trick roping, barrel racing and Whiplash, the capuchin monkey that rides atop his buddy, a border collie. See fourth-generation charro Jerry Diaz, mariachi groups and folklorico dancers at the Best of Mexico Celebración, watch chuck wagon races and brave kids hang on for dear life in the calf scramble at the PRCA Rodeo, or see 40 pro bull riders in the toughest competition at Bulls’ Night Out on January 22 and 23.
Want to get into the game? Use the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo 2013 smartphone app to score the riders, and the average scores from participating audience members and judge will appear on the scoreboard. For a complete list of activities, event schedules and helpful information, use the smartphone app to find more events and even the closest restaurant from where you are standing.
The app is free and so is admission to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the Cattle Raisers Museum, and the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame with your Stock Show grounds admission ticket. The museums are right next door, so hop over and give the kids the whole the Moos-eum Experience. No promises that they will suppress pleas for child-sized cowboy hats and boots.