We are already a week into this year’s Houston Livestock and Rodeo! It’s a month-long event, and for those of us who are native Houstonian’s or who have been in the city for a while, we know that this is a marathon and not a sprint. I have been going to the rodeo just about every year for probably all of my life and I consider myself somewhat of a pro at this so I wanted to share some of these tips with you guys!
If you’re not bringing kids go on a Sunday morning. I know this sounds like it might cut into your brunch time, but the rodeo’s here for a month and you can miss one Sunday to go. There won’t be any lines for the rides at because everybody’s gonna be at church, and you’ll have immediate access to all the carnival food you want to eat.
Wear comfortable clothes. I know you’re going to see people walking around in cute skirts and boots and all that, but unless you’ve broken in those Luccheses it’s not worth it to wear them to the rodeo. You’ll be walking a lot and you’ll probably be uncomfortable if you don’t wear the right clothes or at least the right shoes. Tennis shoes, TOMS, those are much more fitting, and if you have a pair of broken in boots then definitely bust those out. But the rodeo is not the place to break in a new pair of boots.
Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a SRO concert ticket than to pay for rodeo carnival admission. Carnival admission passes come with every concert ticket and sometimes the cheapest standing tickets for a show for like $12-$13 bucks instead of paying for a carnival pass
Try not to pay more than face value for concert tickets to the rodeo. Keep in mind that these rodeo shows are only an hour long and yes, these are big artist coming especially within the country music genre but you do not need to pay three $400 to see Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, and Reba McEntire at the rodeo. I saw tickets for Garth Brooks going for as much as $600-$700 for nosebleed seats! While that might not seem like a lot for an artist of his caliber, keep in mind this is an hour-long show and those are terrible seats. I would rather spend that much and see him at the Toyota Center possibly on the ground floor than to sit in the 600 section of NRG Stadium. The same goes for artists like Maroon 5, OneRepublic, and Alessia Cara. Pay face value or as close as you can for those tickets; it’s only an hour show.
Make sure you get inside the stadium early enough to see the rodeo events before the concert. Those events are just as exciting as the concert that follows them; especially the little kids do in the Mutton Bustin’. They are the cutest thing in the whole wide world and seeing them hang onto those sheep for dear life is so adorable.
Never turn down tent passes. The annual cook-off is the weekend before the rodeo officially starts, and is one of the biggest events in Houston. People come from far and wide to participate in that and the city shows up in droves every year! You can buy a pass to get into the fairgrounds those three days, but in order to gain tent access, you have to be invited. You’ll want to have tent passes if you were going to the cook-off; that’s really the only way you’ll get great food and strong drinks for free.
I’ll be sharing more tips with you guys on next week’s episode of Le Haute Paire so be sure to tune in, and if you have any questions or want to share some tips of your own please feel free to drop them in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter!