HOUSTON – When the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is open, there are as many people on the grounds as there are residents in the entire City of Pearland.
Kind of a crazy fact, huh?
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What will really blow your mind is the daunting task of planning and building the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every single year.
We’re talking about everything from turning the floor of NRG Stadium into a rodeo arena, building food and vendor booths, carnival rides, telecommunications, tents, and on and on and on.
Simply put: there’s A LOT that goes into the rodeo.
“It’s a controlled chaos,” said Kyle Olsen, the director of Operations of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. “We are building one of the largest cities in Texas on an annual basis.”
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest and longest-running rodeo in the country.
More than 2.5 million people visit every single year.
To put it all together, Kyle and the 35,000 volunteers only have two weeks from start to finish.
Olsen took KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding on a behind-the-scenes look at how they turn NRG Park from a baren concrete parking lot to a lively rodeo and carnival.
For starters, we stopped inside NRG Stadium as 500 dump trucks were moving in the dirt for the rodeo. It’s a day affectionately known as “Dirt Day.”
Gage Goulding: “This is an exciting day for the rodeo.”
Kyle Olsen: “This is it man. This is when it all starts to happen.”
Gage Goulding: “You kind of get chills standing here.”
Kyle Olsen: “Yeah, having the opportunity to stand right here where Reba is going to be performing on Tuesday night. It’s pretty fantastic.”
While they’re getting down and dirty inside, there’s another Kyle working outside.
“It’s exciting. Everything is kind of buzzing right now,” said Kyle Sandoval, the Chairman of Rodeo Operations. “The folks behind us here lifting 200-pound horse panels.”
The two Kyles don’t just share a name, but a passion. It’s something everyone here at the Rodeo, volunteer or not, has in common.
“I started 19 almost 20 years ago, started out just slinging steel and just fell in love with it,” Sandoval said. “My oldest daughter was born, I think we came out here [when she was] around 12 weeks old. The wife and I were blowing and going. And so one of the ladies was holding our oldest, you know, taking care of her.”
The Rodeo sits on a large plot of land, but you can quickly get around when you’re zipping around on one of their 800 golf carts.
Equally as impressive is a much smaller number: 3.
“Well, we build bridges,” Olsen said. “We have three pedestrian bridges. They’re they’re constructed every year just to help with traffic flow.”
Behind the scenes, where the public eye never gets to see, there’s a while different kind of rodeo. They have a full-service feed store, a workshop and even a giant warehouse.
“This is the backbone of what we do,” Olsen said.
In NRG Park, gone are the days of those portable toilets. The rodeo is going high-tech with a design that flys high above.
“We’re using vacuum technology like an airplane for timeliness and hygiene,” Olsen said.
On the midway, the Grand Wheel is spinning after roughly 4-5 weeks to build.
While it’s a mainstay at the Rodeo, there’s also a chairlift that they build and tear down every year.
“I think it’s six brand new rides that have never been on our grounds before this year,” said Olsen.
All of this, the attractions, the first, the little things are being done by 35,000 volunteers.
Gage Goulding: “Is it still surprising to you that you guys can pull this off year after year?”
Kyle Sandoval: “You know, we’ve got a certain time that the show has to start and we’ll be there.”
That showtime is on Tuesday when the Rodeo opens up for their first day.
