HOUSTON — The 2019 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo may have wrapped, but we'll always have our photos!
From the food to the concerts and the auctions, this year's rodeo was one for the record books.
RodeoHouston reports 2,506,263 people visited NRG during cookoff weekend, Feb. 21 to Feb. 23, and during the HLSR, which ran from Feb. 25 to March 17.
The total attendance is bigger than the population of the City of Houston, and while 2019's attendance didn't beat the record set in 2017, records were set.
Los Tigres del Norte set a record for top paid rodeo/concert individual performance with 78,586 people in attendance on Go Tejano Day. The norteno band beat out Cardi B, who performed on Black Heritage day, by 6 fans.
Zedd will go down in history at the Rodeo's first EDM night performer.
The late Tejano singer Selena was honored by a number of performers.
Eleven junior auction Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion lots set world or Rodeo records, including a steer which sold for a whopping $625,000 and a colored drawing auctioned for $240,000.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo reports it raised more than $14 million which will fund more than 800 scholarships that will be awarded to Texas students who will attend Texas public colleges or universities.
George Strait, who's performed at the rodeo 30 times in 22 years, set a record for NRG Stadium total attendance for any event. 80,108 people watched the "King of Country" close out the annual event that draws in families from across the state.
More than 2.5 million rides were taken at the carnival. The Rodeo debuted the Titan, the tallest portable thrill ride in the U.S.
More than 700,000 riders climbed aboard the La Grande XL, the ferris wheel in the middle of the midway.
More than 600,000 prizes were won at the games. The most popular prizes were basketballs, llamas and alpacas.
Approximately 376,000 fried Oreos were sold. One orchard of apples was used for candy or caramel apples. Approximately 6,000 pounds of kettle corn was sold.
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