Rodeo a gift to the city

Jun. 28—Muskogee will bring in the bulls, the broncs and barrels this July as the city's 150th birthday celebration continues.

The city will host the Frontier Days & Rodeo at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Hatbox Field. Admission is free.

"This is a way we can give back to the community in honor of Muskogee's 150th birthday," said City of Muskogee media relations manager Tera Shows. "On January 1, we had the birthday party at Hatbox Event Center. This is our follow-up gift to our city."

The city chose a rodeo because of how much interest is generated by local bull-riding events, Shows said.

"We felt this was an event our community would enjoy," she said.

More than 300 professional contestants could compete, said Baredown Pro Rodeo producer Blake Burns.

"That week of the 4th of July and the week after is considered a Cowboy Christmas because guys can get to more rodeos in 14 days than they can any other time on the calendar, plus the added money," Burns said. "Muskogee's got the largest added money in Oklahoma that weekend."

The rodeo is sanctioned by the American Cowboy Rodeo Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association, and the Bull Riders Inc. Muskogee will host the week's largest ACRA and IPRA sanctioned events, Burns said.

The rodeo will include barrel racing, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, team roping, calf roping and bull riding.

"An added event to pro rodeo in the past couple of years has been the girls breakaway roping," Burns said. All of these are professionally organized events.

There also will be an American freestyle bullfighting competition involving the two bullfighters who work the bull-riding event, Burns said.

"The fighters will get 90 seconds each, and they'll be matched up against a Mexican fighting bull that's raised with that bullfighter instinct," he said.

The rodeo is not just for professionals however. Children can ride sheep in the mutton busting and catch a calf in a calf scramble.

A fireworks show will follow each rodeo.

Muskogee's sesquicentennial celebration will continue through the end of 2022.

"We plan to end the year with a gala on New Year's Eve," Shows said.

If you go

WHAT: Frontier Days & Rodeo.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

WHERE: Hatbox Field, 600 S. 40th St.

ADMISSION: Free.