Event organizers announced Friday the cancellation of the 2021 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo — an annual event that brings over one million visitors to Fort Worth.
The stock show’s president and general manager, Brad Barnes, called the decision “heartbreaking,” and said it “was not made lightly.” The stock show and rodeo has only been canceled once before, he said, at the height of WWII.
“Then, as now, the stock show was canceled to overcome an enemy common to all Americans,” Barnes said. “With more than 1.2 million stock show guests, exhibitors, visitors and competitors converging into the various buildings on the Will Rogers complex during our 23-day show, the chances to harbor and spread coronavirus well beyond the North Texas region, especially in the midst of flu season, is too great a risk to take for the public good.”
The festival was originally scheduled for Jan. 15 through