The Clovis Rodeo has run each spring since 1914, when the Clovis Women's Club sponsored a single-day festival of parades, games, and horse races that grew into a full professional rodeo. Held the last full weekend of April in Old Town Clovis, the modern event draws roughly 50,000 fans, 600 cowboys, and 90 cowgirls, plus a signature mutton-busting competition for children.
Its history and regional Western identity make it a solid California festival row.
Unusually for a professional rodeo, the Clovis Rodeo traces its founding to a women's civic organization: the Clovis Women's Club sponsored the first Clovis Festival in spring 1914, a single-day gathering with a parade, games, horse races, and picnic in a vacant lot ringed by wagons serving as informal grandstands
The event grew out of local ranchers' informal cattle-driving contests staged after herding livestock to nearby rail lines, tying the rodeo to the Central Valley's ranching economy
Today it draws around 750 animal athletes and 700 volunteers, and its mutton-busting competition, in which roughly 50 children ride sheep, is a popular family attraction
The tri-tip barbecue tradition is notable too, with organizers reporting roughly 9,000 pounds served each weekend
Founded in 1914 by the Clovis Women's Club as a single-day community festival
the rodeo grew out of local ranchers' informal cattle-driving contests near the town's rail-shipping points and preserves that Central Valley ranching heritage today through professional rodeo competition
a family-oriented mutton-busting event
and a large-scale community tri-tip barbecue tradition
Dates TBA · Usually April
Clovis is near Fresno airport.
Western wear, including jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat, is standard among both competitors and spectators at the rodeo. Late April weather in Clovis tends to be mild, so light layers work...
Clovis Rodeo is easier when spectators give competitors, vehicles and staff room to work.
Clovis or Fresno
Check official or local sources for ticketed areas, paid stands, and same-year access rules.
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Clovis Rodeo is listed for Past edition: 22–26 April 2026. Always re-check the official or local source close to travel.
The festival is listed in Clovis, United States. The map coordinate is a planning reference, not a guarantee of a ticket gate or exact venue.
5 days is the listed festival span. Add time for arrival, local transport, queues, and any route changes during the event.
Official source linked. Eventisimus separates source confidence from travel suggestions, so check final details before booking.
Clovis, CA
Medium: 50000
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