{"id":217202,"date":"2026-03-23T22:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/217202\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:45:10","slug":"cody-johnson-sets-concert-attendance-record-to-conclude-2026-houston-rodeo-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/217202\/","title":{"rendered":"Cody Johnson sets concert attendance record to conclude 2026 Houston rodeo \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Houston<\/a><\/p>\n

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo<\/p>\n

Champion bull rider Jake Gardner of Wheatland County, AB at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.<\/p>\n

More than two million people attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this year, according to numbers shared by the rodeo, falling short of last year’s record.<\/p>\n

Some 2.6 million people attended this year’s Houston rodeo<\/a> across its three weeks. The total includes attendance at the World\u2019s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest, an annual rodeo kickoff event. More than 2.7 million attended the 2025 rodeo. <\/p>\n

The final night of this year’s rodeo set a record for highest attendance at a concert-only performance. More than 80,000 people attended Cody Johnson’s concert at NRG Stadium on Sunday, the highest ever since the rodeo began collecting such data.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018Biblically based, cowboy identified\u2019: Here\u2019s a look at the Houston rodeo\u2019s cowboy church service.<\/a><\/p>\n

The three most popular days at the rodeo were March 14, when Kelly Clarkson performed; March 21, when Tim McGraw performed; and March 12, when Chris Stapleton performed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo continues to represent the very best of Texas traditions, bringing our community together through exceptional entertainment, world-class competition and meaningful educational experiences,” Chris Boleman, president and CEO of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Rodeo politics and getup policies<\/p>\n

It’s a significant turnout for one of the largest events of the year in Houston, even with several controversies at the rodeo, including one from Harris County’s executive, Lina Hidalgo.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Hidalgo and four other guests attempted to access the chute area \u2014 a premium seating area in NRG Stadium closest to the concert stage \u2014 without proper credentials. Hidalgo claimed she was threatened with arrest, shoved by security personnel and escorted out of a rodeo concert.<\/p>\n

Rodeo officials disputed her claims<\/a> and said they were “very disappointed” in Hidalgo’s actions. The event’s board of directors also voted to strip Hidalgo of her role on the board, which was tied to her elected position as county judge.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the controversy with Hidalgo, the Houston rodeo saw controversies regarding security and dress code. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, March 15, the rodeo closed down earlier than anticipated because of a fight in the carnival area<\/a>, which caused guests to \u201crun and create confusion,” according to rodeo officials.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo increased its security enforcement for the remainder of the rodeo. Soon after, rodeo officials updated the event\u2019s dress code policy.<\/a> Following the policy change, a rodeo spokesperson told Houston Public Media in a statement that the changes were meant to improve safety and promote a \u201cfamily-friendly\u201d environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That included prohibitions on clothing that showed “excessive portions of the skin,\u201d “objectionable material,” or gang affiliations.<\/p>\n

Record-breaking auctions<\/p>\n

On Saturday’s Junior Market Steer Auction, the grand champion steer sold for a record $1.5 million, raised by Mason Grady of Johnson County, surpassing the previous record by half a million dollars.<\/p>\n

“You can have a lot of fourth-and-ones in your career, but you only have a few of these,” Grady said.<\/p>\n

RELATED: In a clown\u2019s shoes: How bull fighters and barrelmen protect cowboys at the Houston rodeo.<\/a><\/p>\n

In total, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo said a total of $35 million was paid in the junior auction sales across the duration of the rodeo, more than any other rodeo. Fourteen Grand Champion and Reserve Champion records were set this year.<\/p>\n

Several other rodeo auction records<\/a> were previously broken, including for a $1 million lamb and a $525,000 painting.<\/p>\n

Rodeo champions<\/p>\n

Here are each of the champions at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo:<\/p>\n

Tie-Down Roping Champion: Riley Webb of Denton, TX
\nBareback Riding Champion: Rocker Steiner of Weatherford, TX
\nTeam Roping Champions: Korbin Rice of Lipan, TX; Cooper Freeman of Carthage, MO
\nSaddle Bronc Champion: Stetson Wright of Beaver, UT
\nSteer Wrestling Champion: Holden Myers of Van, TX
\nBarrel Racing Champion: Kassie Mowry of Dublin, TX
\nBreakaway Roping Champion: Hali Williams of Comanche, TX
\nBull Riding Champion: Jake Gardner of Wheatland County, AB<\/p>\n

Sarah Grunau and Kyle McClenagan contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Champion bull rider Jake Gardner of Wheatland County, AB at the Houston Livestock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[84745,56,58,28002,57,30496,84746,66,223,80897],"class_list":["post-217202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-county-judge-lina-hidalgo","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-livestock-show-and-rodeo","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-rodeo","tag-houston-rodeo-attendance","tag-local","tag-news","tag-rodeo-records"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}