Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo dates announced for next year as show gets March start

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is looking ahead to 2025, and on Tuesday, the next dates for the annual event were released.

The rodeo, which lasts for three weeks and features a popular concert series every night, typically starts at the end of February.

But come 2025, rodeogoers will be boot scootin' down to the NRG Stadium grounds Tuesday, March 4 - Sunday, March 23.

The World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest precedes the start of the rodeo every year and will kick off a few days before, Feb. 27 - March 1.

The announcement comes only a few weeks after 2024's rodeo wrapped.

This year, the rodeo said it welcomed more than 2.5 million people over the course of 23 days. During that time, the Jonas Brothers hit an all-time paid concert attendance record with 75,600. Los Tigres del Norte earned the second highest paid concert attendance record with 75,595.

Rodeo fans should prepare to see another change when it comes to fan favorite rodeo clown Leon Coffee.

The famed Coffee has spent the last 31 years as a barrel man for RODEOHOUSTON, entertaining crowds as he ducks bucking bulls.

But come 2025, he'll start a new chapter.

Though he'll be retired from bullfighting, "I'm not retiring from clowning," he said.

He'll also have to find someone to fill his shoes, or better yet, barrel. That successor is expeced to be named this spring.

The rodeo dates are just the beginning in a string of announcements surrounding the event.

Still to come, fans will learn the genre calendar for the RODEHOUSTON concerts.

Performers' names are usually released in January.