RAPID CITY, S.D. – Heading into the final days of the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo Rapid City, the Summit Arena is again being prepared for PRCA rodeo performances, the Boot & Beer Festival is on tap (pun intended) and vendors are restocked for what promises to be a barn-buster through February 7.
The Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo Rapid City is South Dakota’s second-largest event after the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, drawing more than 330,000 people from across the United States. The event features world-class PRCA rodeo performances with top athletes and elite livestock competition.
The annual event has earned multiple titles as the top PRCA Large Indoor Rodeo, beating out locations such as Houston and Pendleton and serves as one of the first stops on the way to the National Finals Rodeo.
This year, Sutton Rodeo that produces Rodeo Rapid City, is celebrating 100 years of rodeo. In conversations with Steve and Kim Sutton about what a century of broncs and wild rides and yes, show business, look like, Steve talked about his folks, Jim, Jr., and Julie. The beloved matriarch died in 2021. “They’re the ones who came to this town in ’77 and talked the city of Rapid City into filling a brand new (at that time) building with dirt. That’s visionary.” He adds, “When it came time to expand the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center to what is now called The Monument, and the new arena that came along with it, we didn’t have to ask.”
Ron Jeffries, General Manager of the Black Hills Stock Show and Central States Fair said in The Rapid Ciity Post, “At its core, the Stock Show is a driver of our regional economy. We are seeing strong financial signs in the beef and horse industries this winter, and that optimism is contagious. When the ag business does well, Rapid City does well.
“We often hear about economic impact in terms of ticket sales, but the real story is in the vendor traffic. From White Owl to Sturgis to New Underwood, our vendors and producers bring year-long revenue back to their hometowns. This event is an economic engine that fuels the entire state, not just the city limits.”
See schedules on line at Rodeo Rapid City / Sutton Rodeo and Black Hills Stock Show
