Final weekend of RodeoHouston

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - It's the last weekend of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with NRG Park packed full of people enjoying the festive atmosphere.

"This is actually my third time this week," says Brittany Walking Elk. "It's obviously with a school program, but my family loves to come and watch all of the competitors during all the rough events and the timed events and everything." 

Some people out and about on the complex included students with the Lone Star College Vet Tech Program.

"We are going into that field where we can choose if we want to do large animals or we can choose if we want to do small animals, so this is a great experience so we can kind of see if we want to venture in that area, in that direction", says Ballie Hyman.

So far in 2017, there have been several nights that set attendance records.

"We had a grounds attendance on Saturday March 18 when Willie Nelson was here of over 185,000 on the grounds," says Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo vice president Pat Mann Phillips.

On Go Tejano Day, paid single day rodeo concert attendance exceeded 75,000 people. Overall this time last year, more than 1,900,000 people had been counted, an amount that has already been broken this season.

"So far i think we have over 2 million people on grounds attendance and I think we are going to have another record year", says Mann Phillips.

Visitors like Hyman say that the events and concerts are fun, but that part of the allure of it all is that it's a big Houston tradition.

"I've been coming to the rodeo since I was 6 months old and I've lived in Houston my whole life, so we come at least six times in the whole twenty days, if not more, if we get free tickets like that, we are always here," explains Hyman.