Cheyenne Frontier Days
Cheyenne Frontier Days is an outdoor rodeo and western celebration in the United States, held annually since 1897 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It bills itself as the "World's Largest Outdoor Rodeo and Western Celebration." The event, claimed to be one of the largest of its kind in the world, draws nearly 200,000 annually. Lodging fills up quickly during the peak tourist season throughout southern and eastern Wyoming, into northern Colorado and western Nebraska. The celebration is held during the ten days centered about the last full week of July. In 2008, Cheyenne Frontier Days was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Background
The rodeo draws visitors from different parts of the United States as well as internationally. These visitors generally stay in hotels, motels, or in recreational vehicles. High temperatures around and fair weather are normal for the time of year when this event is held; the elevation is approximately above sea level.Cowboy style bars and country and western themed establishments scattered throughout the city of Cheyenne are popular with many rodeo fans and participants, and they file in with large numbers after the night shows.
Overview
Prior to the annual kickoff of Cheyenne Frontier Days on a Friday, the annual Cattle Drive is held on the preceding Sunday morning. This event, which attracts considerable attention, is inspired by the cattle drives of the Old West. In 2013, 447 steers, herded by mounted cowboys, walked three miles from Hynds Boulevard into Frontier Park. In 2015, 550 steers walked this route. It starts from a pasture north of the city and runs along Interstate 25, south and then through the city streets aforementioned into the park.Cheyenne Frontier Days has a full-time staff of 18 people year round, and an estimated 3,000 volunteers, of whom a small number are paid. There is preparation before the event and cleanup after the event as well as all of the work that needs performed during the actual event.
Rodeo
PRCA ProRodeo
In 2014, Cheyenne Frontier Days received the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year award for the 16th total and 11th consecutive time. Frontier Days runs nine days with more sections of bull riding, saddle and bareback bronc riding than any other rodeo. The rodeo is also known for its large number of participants. All events are performed each day. The rodeo draws many of the sport's top competitors due to its more than $1 million in cash and prizes available.Frontier Days delivers three types of competition: roughstock events, timed events, and racing on the track. Roughstock events include bull riding, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, rookie saddle bronc riding, and women's ranch bronc riding. Timed events include steer wrestling, team roping, tie-down roping, and women's breakaway roping & barrel racing. Tie-down roping includes calf roping, steer roping, and senior steer roping. Some of the timed events are shown during slack. After all of the events are concluded, there is an all-around champion winner.
There are also a few other select events which include saddle bronc futurity, trick riding, the wild horse race, and the dinner bell derby.
Timed-event slack
Slack events are events that do not fit into the normal rodeo hours in the afternoon. Slack rodeo events are open to the public at no charge and usually take place in the early to mid-morning hours. Slack events include tie-down roping, team roping, steer roping, barrel racing, breakaway roping and steer wrestling.PRCA Xtreme Bulls
Since 2001, Cheyenne Frontier Days has hosted a two-day all-bull riding event as part of its Frontier Nights activities. Said event has been sanctioned by different organizations throughout the years.Since 2025, the event has been sanctioned by the PRCA as part of its Xtreme Bulls tour. It is a Division I event; the top level that the Xtreme Bulls tour has to offer.
Previous tours
Cinch Rodeo Shootout
From 2014 through 2017, the opening rodeo performance at Cheyenne Frontier Days was the Cinch Rodeo Shootout. The Cinch Jeans company was the event's title sponsor. It featured 40 contestants competing in five different rodeo events for one afternoon. The five events were bareback bronc riding, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing, and bull riding. Participation by the contestants was by invitation. At the end, there was one winner for each event. There was also a team format. In 2014 and 2015, teams were composed of the previous year's champions of the eight largest regular-season rodeos in North America, including Cheyenne Frontier Days. In 2016 and 2017, teams represented a local business and winnings were donated to charity. Both the individual and team format was an elimination style contest.PBR Challenger Tour / Touring Pro Division
The first minor league tour of the Professional Bull Riders, the Challenger Tour, had an event at Cheyenne Frontier Days for several years. It started in 2001 and ran through 2010, until returning in 2018. The tour made its debut in 1995 as the Touring Pro Division, was renamed the Challenger Tour in 2001, and was changed back to its original title of the Touring Pro Division in 2010.Championship Bull Riding
In 2011, the all-bull riding event at Cheyenne Frontier Days became a regular-season event for Championship Bull Riding. Then from 2012 through 2018, it was the World Finals event for said organization. In 2018, the annual bull-riding event at Cheyenne Frontier Days was sanctioned by two different organizations; the first day was the PBR Touring Pro Division event, and the second day was the 2018 CBR World Finals. The latter competition, though a CBR event, was produced by the PBR, and CBR went out of business after its 2018 World Finals event had concluded.PBR Premier Series
In 2019, the PBR brought the Unleash the Beast Series Last Cowboy Standing event to Cheyenne. The event would have taken place in 2020, but was cancelled, along with the entire Cheyenne Frontier Days festival because of COVID-19 restrictions. However, it all returned in 2021.PBR Team Series
In 2022 and 2023, Cheyenne was the first stop of the PBR's Team Series, where teams of bull riders representing different regions of the United States ride against each other throughout the summer and autumn to culminate at the Team Series Championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. While most of the regular season events take place in the teams' home cities, two "neutral site" events are included on the schedule. Cheyenne was one of them.PBR Challenger Series
The Challenger Series is the only PBR tour in the United States since 2022 that takes place during the PBR Team Series season where riders compete as individuals. The Last Cowboy Standing, which was previously held at Cheyenne as a stop on the PBR's elite Unleash the Beast Series was held as a Challenger Series event in 2024.Events
Cheyenne Frontier Days features nightly concerts by popular music and comedy acts, a midway, a fair with rides, games, and food vendors, wild west shows featuring Western riding, an Indian village, and a large PRCA nationally-sanctioned rodeo. A common moniker for the event is "The Daddy of 'em All®", based on its long history and the fact that the rodeo is billed as the largest such event in the world. The rodeo and the majority of the events are centered on the property of Frontier Park, but some of the events such as the pancake breakfasts are held in a different part of the city.Pancake Breakfasts
Three free pancake breakfasts are served each year which are sponsored by the local Kiwanis chapter. They are held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with close to 40,000 people taking advantage of this every year. The record for a daily breakfast is 39,111 people set in 1996. In one week, over 100,000 pancakes are served, along with over 3,000 pounds of ham. This event was started in 1952 by the Cheyenne Frontier Committee. The food is cooked on military ranges. The event takes place at the historic Cheyenne Depot Square.There were none served in 2020.