The Pikes Peak region is rodeo country.

The Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo has been a community staple since 1936, only missing three years during WWII and one year during the pandemic. Not only does it entertain 30,000 fans, but net proceeds are donated to help support quality of life initiatives for active duty military families in the area.

“The whole purpose of the rodeo is to continue to promote and advance and celebrate Western culture and the Western way of life,” said rodeo board president Chris Whitney. “We’re all about active duty military families while reminding everyone this is not Connecticut and we are the West and we love doing things that are the West.”

And a few years ago, when the rodeo partnered with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and became NFR (National Finals Rodeo) Open at Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo, our homegrown event became even more sparkly in the eyes of cowboys and cowgirls across North America.

Instead of doing five performances over four days, there are now seven performances over five days. Champions from the dozen professional rodeo circuits around the country, along with champions from Mexico and Canada, all land in Colorado Springs.

“We’re playing on a larger stage now,” Whitney said. “It became a destination rodeo, one of the biggest rodeos in the country. Contestants are vying for a million dollars in prize money. There’s a nice international flavor. We get top-notch people from all over.”

The rodeo starts Tuesday and runs through July 13 at the Norris Penrose Event Center.

But first, a parade to properly kick off the festivities. The Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo Parade ambled along Tejon Street from St. Vrain Street to Vermijo Avenue on Saturday morning.

PHOTOS: Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo Parade

Way back in the day the parade stemmed from what used to be the Blossom Festival. In 1937 the name was changed to its current title and traditionally used to honor the Girls of the West, young rodeo ambassadors who help promote the Western way of life. Makena Norton will serve once again as Girl of the West and host this year’s event, in addition to grand marshal Col. David Hanson, the commander of Space Base Delta 1 at Peterson Space Force Base.

“Although Colorado Springs is not technically a mining town — it’s always been a tourism and development town — Western heritage has been part of what made people come,” said parade organizer Kayleigh O’Donnell of O’Donnell & O’Donnell.

“Whether that’s the 1859 gold rush, which gave birth to the moniker Pikes Peak or Bust, or that we have a shrine dedicated to Will Rogers and we’re technically home to the Marlboro Man.”

The rodeo will feature 200 two-legged contestants and an equal number of four-legged contestants competing in bareback riding, breakaway roping, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding.

Bryce Redo, a welder from Texas, will drop his regular life and head to the Springs for his second year as a bullfighter. He’ll be one of the two guys adorned with clown makeup, baggy pants and a protective vest who distract the bulls from their riders during the bull riding event. Their job is strictly cowboy protection.

“When a rider falls or gets ready to get off, as soon as he hits the ground we sneak in and draw the bull away from him at all costs,” Redo said. “If we have to stand there and let the bull hook us for a minute to let the cowboy get up, that’s part of the territory.”

His list of injuries isn’t short: broken tailbone, torn Achilles tendon, bruised ribs, jammed fingers, a kick in the face. But he takes his duties seriously.

“If I see a bull I’ve seen before and I know he likes to play rodeo a little bit,” Redo said, “you keep in the back of your mind what could possibly happen, like setting a game plan, but you’re dealing with an animal with a mind of its own. Whatever he did last week he might not do this week. If you anticipate what he did last week you might get yourself in a bind.”