Live blog: What to see and do at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
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2023 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
Yeehaw! Here’s your one-stop shop for everything to know about this year’s stock show & rodeo.
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The 126th run of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is underway at Will Rogers Memorial Center and Dickies Arena and will continue for the next 23 days, until Feb. 4.
This Fort Worth tradition has everything for everyone: from youth livestock exhibits to the rodeo. Every day features entertainment acts from the comedy of Larry the Cable Guy to a concert with country star John Montgomery. Rodeo events are ticketed separately, but there are many free entertainment performances available through the course of the stock show.
Get acquainted with how to navigate the stock show — how to get pickets ,where to park and what to expect inside the exhibit halls.
Follow us today as we walk through the various exhibit halls to give you a firsthand peek inside.
More: Historic photos from the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, 1930s-50s
Slow but steady Friday morning
Around 11 a.m., the scene inside the Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall has was slow but steady Friday. But do not let that deceive you, this exhibit hall will be hot spot for families over the 23-day run of the stock show.
There is plenty of merchandise inside to peruse, and, of course, the food.
Visitors can shop western wear including jeans, jackets, boots, gloves, belts and truly anything a cowboy or cowgirl might need. Several custom retailers are in-house, ready to shape cowboy hats or embroider any kind of wearable gear.
Felt cowboy hats at the Sombrero Brands booth inside the Richardson-Bass Building start at $325 and go up to $975 depending on the quality of felt.
Cowboy boots are also on sale, starting at $450 at the Serna Boots booth. This year is owner Ernesto Serna’s first year selling boots at the Fort Worth Stock Show. He said in previous years he was waitlisted, but this year his booth stands among the other vendors inside the Richardson-Bass Building, near Sombrero Brands.
Western paintings, knives, leather belts and a plethora of Southwest patterned clothes is also for sale inside the building, which is where the John Justin Arena is located.
Beyond shopping, visitors can look at the newest Chevrolet trucks, take a load off on Mattress Firm beds and even change their electricity or television provider.
The 6666 Ranch has a booth at the show
For all you “Yellowstone” fans, the TV show and 6666 Ranch have booths chock-full of ranch and TV show merchandise. This is an absolute stop for fans and all aspiring cowboys and cowgirls.
Booths for ‘Yellowstone’ and the Four Sixes are located next to each other at the front of the Texas Room inside the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall.
Cowboys warming up at stock show
Plenty of food to eat at the stock show
Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo visitors will not leave the grounds on an empty stomach.
Across the stock show grounds are booths with offerings from barbecue and pizza, to burritos and tacos. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone.
Next door to the Texas Room at the Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall is a food court.
Patrons can chow down on $6 cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes — from chocolate, chocolate chip, lemon and much more.
Tad’s Bodacious Burritos and Breakfast is serving up $14 burritos, from chipotle beef, to garlic chicken. Other items include soft tacos, nachos or a walking taco, aka a nacho cheese Doritos’ bag cut in half and stuff with lettuce, cheese and ground beef.
Bayou Kitchen has fried alligator on the menu, while guests with a sweet tooth can check out Sweetie’s Cheesecakes. Mama’s Pizza, who have a few locations across Fort Worth, is serving up fresh pepperoni pies all day.
Inside the exhibit hall are smaller food vendors serving up grilled cheese for $6, salads for $9, among other items. A cup of coffee or cold soda sets you back another $3.
A beef or chicken quesadilla is $12, while nachos are $7. Choose between a salted or cinnamon pretzel for around $9. Homemade soda runs about $5-$6.
Outside the exhibit hall is a mashed potato stand, yes, you read that right, a mashed potato stand.
Idahoan Foods, who makes a variety of instant mashed potatoes, has a large outdoor booth right outside the Amon G. Carter Exhibit Hall.
The booth is part of the company’s “Mashed in America” tour, going across the country serving up free potato cups, tour manager Dan Enger said.
“When something is free, people think there’s a catch,” he said. “Here it’s just free.”
Visitors can come in, grab a warm buttery home style mashed potato cup, eat and hangout in the outdoor eating area. There’s even a photo opportunity on the stuffed “coach potato”.
This is the first time Idahoan has been at the stock show and they’ll be here for the entire duration, Enger said. On Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, the crew is even topping the mashed potato cups with chili.
Calm before the storm
The calm before the storm. The auctioning arena and a showing arena in between the cattle barns.
By the afternoon, the livestock barns were slowly becoming occupied by cows, longhorns, pigs, goats and sheep. Exhibitors will show and auction off their livestock in the days to come. Inside the FFA Children’s Barnyard located in the livestock barns, guests could see grown and baby animals including sheep, goats, donkeys, turkeys, chickens, rabbits and pigs.
Wilson Daggs, FFA Children’s Barnyard supervisor, said the exhibit is set up to attract children and get them interested in the farm animals.
The Children’s Barnyard incorporates baby animals like chicks with a metal ferris wheel and ducklings who have a water ramp to slide down.
Daggs, a Fort Worth resident, doesn’t have a ranch background or own any farm animals, but he said this is the fourth year he’s worked the barnyard at the stock show.
“The Children’s Barnyard is set up to draw children’s interest in and of course children are drawn to the babies because they’re little too,” he said.
During the week, school children will go through the exhibit on class field trips to look and learn about the animals. Seeing the children come in for field trips is almost a full-circle moment for Daggs, who remembers visiting the exhibit as a child in the ‘60s.
The animals involved come from different owners or breeders who bring them in and help care for them throughout the show. Although the animals are in pens, Daggs said their owners will stop by and let them out for exercise throughout the day.“You will not find anybody who cares more for animals than the owners,” Daggs said.
Follow us here for continued updates from the stock show.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 1:01 PM.
