MARSHALL, N.C. (828newsNOW) — 

Madison County visitors looking for some horseplay next week should giddy-up to Marshall for the longest running rodeo in North Carolina. 

The 59th annual Marshall Rodeo & Fireworks is riding back to town at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 3, and Tuesday, July 4 at the Madison County Fairgrounds, 330 Carolina Lane, Marshall. The gates for both events will open at 6 p.m. 

July 3 is Family Night at the rodeo, while July 4 brings on the fireworks after dark.

Both nights will feature events including: 

  • Bareback riding 
  • Saddle bronc riding 
  • Cowboy calf roping 
  • Cowgirls’ barrel racing  
  • Girls’ breakaway roping 
  • Steer wrestling 
  • Wild brahman bull riding

Family Night will feature a kid’s dance contest during the intermission, where children under 12 are invited down in the pen to dance their hearts out for a $50 prize. The crowd will decide two winners, one boy and one girl, by measure of how loud they cheer.  

“We just think the kids oughta be able to come out in the middle of the arena and experience everything,” event organizer Kenny Treadway said. “It’s kinda like if you went to a football game and they brought all the kids out on the field. Wouldn’t they love that?” 

Treadway is a third-generation organizer for the Marshall Rodeo. His family started the event 59 years ago in collaboration with the Marshall Fire Department. The goal was to raise enough money to get the department a new fire truck. The event was so successful, they finished the night with enough for two. 

The event’s popularity has endured, although the cowboys and firefighters have gone their separate ways in subsequent years. That popularity might be due to the special quality of its fireworks show, according to Treadway. 

“It’s a premier show. It’s just like you’d see in downtown Asheville or anywhere else like that,” said Treadway, except that the Marshall Rodeo audience “gets to see some entertainment along with fireworks, and you get to see something that was started in the West a long time ago that’s been a tradition this long and still carries on today.” 

The Marshall Rodeo is sanctioned by both the Southern Rodeo Association, a Southeastern professional cowboy organization, and the International Pro Rodeo Association, which expands across the West. Cowboys come from all over the country to participate in the annual event. 

“We have some come as far as Oklahoma, Texas, that far West. We’ll have some as far North as Pennsylvania, Ohio, some from Michigan, they come from all over in this area,” Treadway said. “That’s why we have it sanctioned, ‘cause it’s a whole deal.” 

Local cowboys will be featured at the event too, but most locals compete in a recurring summer rodeo series at the fairgrounds. 

“Every other weekend on Saturday nights, it’s local cowboys,” Treadway said. “It ain’t exclusively local, but most times that’s what we get. Most people are from 200 miles around.” 

No matter if you have been a longtime rodeo fan or a newcomer to the arena, the Marshall Rodeo invites all to come out for the show. 

“If you like the cowboy life and wanna understand it a little more, come out to the rodeo. That’s a good place to start,” Treadway said. 

Adults will have to pony up $20 for entry. Kids are $10, but five years old and younger are free. More information can be found on the rodeo Facebook page, www.facebook.com/madisoncountychampionshiprodeo.