National Western Stock Show — Attraction in Denver

I am hoping this review answers some questions those of you may have about the stock show. My husband and I wanted to spend some quality time with our adult children and grands and hosted them to an afternoon and evening at the stock show. Time and money we will not get back. Parking is as bad as all the previous reviews state. My advice is to park in lot F and take the shuttle! It will result in less headaches for all, plus they deliver and pick up in front of the Expo hall. If you go on the weekend, plan all day! We arrived at 1:45, spent too much time with parking zoo which delayed us by nearly an hour. Our grands are 4 and 6 so we wanted to take them to the animal nursery in the Event Center. Because of the poor display design and the masses of people, we had a hard time seeing any of the animals. The pony trails area was nice and we were able to enjoy some of the contestants warm up. We also got to see the "long horns" close up because we chose to take the back door out of the event center to go to the expo building. We wanted to take the grands on the pony ride. It was a 45 minute wait for about a 3 minute ride. After that we went to the petting area to find about a 1 hour wait. We elected not to wait the hour and let them ride on the children's train which they seemed to enjoy. To say that it was crowded does not touch the surface. Too many people in way too small of space. If there had been a fire, good luck! We wanted to find the grand champion livestock. Where were they? Too late anyway. Standing in line for 2 rides had taken up most of our time as we needed to head to the Wild West Show. I purchased the family deal with free hot dogs, chips and a pop. My advice is DON'T DO IT! The hot dogs were nasty, instead, enjoy the snack deal at the expo, 2 snack items for $5 and eat there. The worse part of the day was the Wild West Show. My husband said it wasn't even amateur level. I believe they had the same musicians that played there 50 years ago and I hate to say but were pretty bad. The clown or "Cooke" as he was portrayed was cute but they spent too much time on him. We wanted to see more horses, cattle, more action. We enjoyed watching the trick roping, Annie Oakley, the history of roping and cattle wrestling but in the end, that was a very small portion of the show, maybe 45 minutes. The show lasts about 1 hour and 40 minutes. 3 of our adult children entertained themselves on their smart phones, the youngest grand was bored. I am not a fussy person but I was pretty disappointed and will not be in any hurry to...

The Rodeo is GREAT!! No doubt about it! But my reason for the two stars is how expensive food is! and bottle of Pepsi was 7 dollars a bottle for like one person! lol🫨. Oh my Honestly I would take a backpack and pack something. They do not check bags so not true! I saw that it said the exception is for babies Lies! They dont check anything and I am pregnant so I wish I would of took a snack at least! We took waters thank God! Vendors are a lot of fun how ever something things are not worth the price somethings most definetly are. Also the 2 star is mostly becuase I could not belive that online ground admission is 37 per adult! When checking nothing about service fees or even taxes or ticket master fee???!!!? Then we get to the Window and they are 25!? I wish they would post that on the national western stock show website thats its cheaper there then online. We were really bummed over how much we payed online. If we would have know that its cheaper at the window then I would of bought them there! When I confronted them they did not belive me and I showed them at the window that its on THEIR Website and they were confused. Sure! 😑 The petting zoo was super fun however again they dont tell the deals they just sugar coat everything we went in and bought food for $5 becuase the other option was 5 foods for 20. Turns out they had one for 2 food for $8. I was like Oh my gosh I told lady why did you not tell us about the 2 for 8 her response "I am not aloud to" 🤔 um ok then. Be prepared a lot of walking lol But overall I would do again but now thats I know the tips and tricks I would go more prepared next time. Your aloud to bring water just to let you know someone told has NO not true you can bring water. Parking is a nightmare even at Coors. We took lfyt it was expensive but easier for sure you probly save your self over an hour driving around. Now if you have kids then yes take you own car. For a a family of 3 we spent a good 350-400dollars that day. Tickets, one food each and 2 sovineers and Lyft. Was going to buy popcorn but a small bag was $15 and Large $20. Lord...

This is one of the most Republican nerdy things that we do in this state. Which honestly makes it one of the more inviting events that you can come to. Is definitely full of a lot of rural Farmers and cowboys with a lot of backwards ideals and there hasn't been a single time that me and my family have gone and not experience some kind of racial prejudice. But at the same time you see agricultural scientists discussing and educating people on the benefits of genetic modification and green agricultural practices. And they're listening and taking the advice. I mostly contribute this to the influence of 4-H Even if their involvement does come off as a bit corporaty. On the entertainment side of things, think stuff also still seems to be about equal across the board. There are plenty of women doing rodeo against far more dangerous beasts than I would be willing to stare down (at least unarmed), And thankfully, a lot of importance does seem to be put onto the well-being of the animals who participate in the shows. I know we're about to eat some of them, but it's still good to know that they had a good life before that. And I think that's something we can all relate to, whether we're from the country or not. And whether or not we choose to eat meat. At the end of the day, we understand that the process doesn't need to be cruel or unjust to the creatures that we have chosen to care for up and to the end of their life. That being said, it wouldn't be one of my reviews if I didn't mention the impact that some of my neuroses have had on my enjoyment of the overall show and event. In the simplest of terms, everyone has their own tolerance level for cow poop, if it's not smelly it's noisy, I'd try to scout out places where you can refresh from these stimuli frequently as this is an endurance test like...