PBR to produce, promote Helldorado event
The PBR, the Professional Bull Riders, will produce and promote a rodeo and a headline bull riding event as part of Las Vegas Helldorado Days in May, joining forces with local groups to celebrate the city’s Western roots.
But there’s a catch to the bull riding and rodeo location — it won’t be in downtown or in the city.
PBR’s Last Cowboy Standing bull riding event that will headline Helldorado Days will be at the MGM Resorts International festival site across from the Luxor on the south Strip in Clark County May 13-15.
“There might be a feeling that the city needs to have Helldorado Days in the city, but as I said in my state of the city speech, we are all still one,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said after a press conference in the City Hall lobby Monday morning.
“We hope to have it one day in the heart of the city,” said Goodman, wearing her husband’s black cowboy hat.
Goodman did say she wants some bulls in downtown for residents and tourists to check out during Helldorado Days, and she drew that commitment from Casey Lane, PBR senior vice president for partnerships and marketing.
PBR will partner with Las Vegas Centennial and the Las Vegas Elks for Helldorado Days, a local-flavored Western roots celebration that has been stopped and revived in past years. Helldorado Days began in Las Vegas in 1934 to provide entertainment for the Hoover Dam workers and visitors.
The Elks will continue handling Helldorado events such as the golf tournament, art show and the mustache-and beard whiskerino contest, while the city will handle the logistics behind the parade that will be in downtown.
The Elks held the rodeo in Symphony Park, but the logistics and resources it took to stage the rodeo there grew to be a challenge, said Beverly Salhanick, a Las Vegas attorney who helps with the Helldorado efforts.
“It’s not an easy venue to work with. It necessitated bringing in grandstands,” Salhanick said.
Besides staging its own major bull-riding event in May, one of 26 on PBR’s circuit, the Pueblo, Colo.-based bull riding organization will also put on a Helldorado rodeo that will be sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. At one time, the bull riding organization and PRCA were not on the best terms, but the two cowboy-themed organizations now get along.
The PBR also holds its circuit-ending world finals in Las Vegas. This year, the five-day event will be at the new T-Mobile Arena Nov. 2-6 after it was held at Thomas & Mack Center for years. PBR is also having a minor-league developmental bull riding event for three days before the world finals, so PBR is spending eight days in Las Vegas this fall.
The Last Cowboy Standing event will feature the world’s top 35 bull riders from the U.S. and around the world. The world finals has been held in Las Vegas for 23 years.
Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel