Alivia Sherrer, 6, practices her roping skills in April 2023 at the the Longview PRCA Rodeo at Longview Rodeo Arena. (Michael Cavazos/Longview News-Journal File Photo)

Fans of bull riding, calf roping and other cowboy skills can look forward to the 33rd Longview PRCA Rodeo on April 19 and 20.

Again sponsored by the Longview Greggton Rotary Club, festivities begin at 7:30 p.m. those days at the Longview Rodeo Arena. Gates open at 6 p.m.

The rodeo schedule is packed with events for all ages along with food and apparel vendors, a petting zoo, real bulls ridden by real riders and mechanical bulls ridden by anyone brave enough to saddle up.

Cash prizes are on the line for the professionals competing in various events.

This past year, the Longview rodeo was voted the No. 2 rodeo in Texas for its size by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, said Donna Sharp, this year’s rodeo chair.

“We were just tickled pink about that,” she said.

But hold your horses, there’s more. This year’s rodeo could be the biggest yet.

“We’re happy to say that every single one of our contestant entries are full this year. To my knowledge, that hasn’t happened before,” Sharp said. “And if advanced ticket sales are any indication, we’re going to have a packed house.”

In another first, the rodeo’s kickoff party will be open to the public and is moving to a larger space: the swine barn at the rodeo arena. The kickoff party is set 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. April 18.

“We’ll have affordable food and adult beverages for folks that want to come to the party,” Sharp said. “We encourage people to bring a lawn chair to enjoy the music.”

The Powell Brothers, a country duo from Kingwood, will supply the tunes.

Sharp said a bounce house for children will be added to the mix this year. Children can also get a back number signed by a bull fighter. The bull fighter’s job is to extract riders from the ring after they’ve been tossed to the ground.

April 19 and 20 each will have a theme reflecting the event’s sponsors. April 19 is “Red, White and Blue night,” sponsored by Peters auto dealership in Longview, while April 20 is “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” sponsored by Texas Oncology.

Sharp invites attendees to join Rotary Club staff by wearing blue on April 19 and pink on April 20.

The Longview PRCA Rodeo is a fundraiser for the Longview Greggton Rotary Club. All net proceeds from the event are funneled back into nonprofit organizations supporting the community, Sharp said.

“We don’t make any money off the rodeo,” she said. “We just pay our expenses and then return everything back to the community because the Rotary motto is service over self.”

The rodeo brought in more $100,000 for area nonprofit groups in the past two years, Sharp said.

More information and tickets are available at longviewprcarodeo.com .