BRYAN, Texas — The Brazos County Fair and Rodeo is back for its 10th anniversary this week!
After organizers were forced to cancel last year's event due to COVID-19, the community is oozing with excitement for its return.
Visitors near and far come out every year to enjoy all the Brazos Valley Fair and Rodeo has to offer.
The fair supports local vendors and encourages those from out of state to attend as well. Bringing tourism dollars to the local economy.
”We operate our business out of Kansas," said Paul Sutton, owner and operator of Roaring entertainment. "We do a lot of Kansas fairs and festivals up there with them and into Nebraska, a little Iowa, Oklahoma, and then mostly we’ve been coming into Texas here recently,”
The fair also brings activities the whole family can enjoy.
“It’s a great form of entertainment for the kids," added Sutton. "They have a lot of fun with it and the whole family too, I mean the moms and dads they get involved,”
Other families are traveling to Bryan from all over Texas for the event.
”It’s been a lot of fun," said Bridget Mariott, Brazos Valley Fair and Rodeo Visitor. "I'm from Houston and this size, the theme park, the animals, to see just the different things. It’s a lot easier to navigate toddlers through this size event,”
And organizers say the big turnout is good added tax revenue for local hotels, shops.
”One of the things that is really neat about the fair is our marketing dollars are a little bit different, so our reach is different than the expo," said Fiona Meyer, senior manager of the Brazos Valley Fair. "So, one of the things we try to do is pull in people that have never been here before we have kids showing livestock from Lubbock and up in the Amarillo area,”
During the pandemic, most Texas livestock shows and rodeos were canceled.
The Brazos Valley Fair and Rodeo had only a youth livestock competition, giving some participants a place to show their animals.
But this year they’re back to full-scale and hitting record attendance once again.
“This year we’ve already had record numbers, last weekend, without kickoff, we had over 200 kids competing in our welding contest again from across the State of Texas our rodeo is record-breaking this year, we have almost 400 competitors in our rodeo,” said Meyer.
This jam-packed weekend closes each night with big performances.
But tomorrow will be your last chance to catch some of these performances and activities until next year.
Anyone interested in attending may learn more by clicking here.
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