Hondo Rodeo Fest brings Angola Prison Rodeo to Superdome | Entertainment/Life

For a rodeo built around spectacle and scale, the idea that most captured the imagination of Hondo Rodeo Fest’s founders during their early planning for New Orleans came from a place few outsiders ever see: the dirt arena inside Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Last October, Hondo co-founders James Trawick and Blake Cody made their first visit to the Angola Prison Rodeo — the inmate-run spectacle long billed as “The Wildest Show in the South” — expecting little more than research. What they found instead was a six-decade-old institution that had become world-famous not only as entertainment, but as a behavioral incentive and rehabilitation program inside one of the country’s most notorious prisons.

That visit has now become the most unexpected and distinctly Louisiana element of Hondo Rodeo Fest’s inaugural New Orleans run, set for April 10—13 at the Caesars Superdome.

Organizers say a select group of top-performing Angola rodeo participants will be brought to New Orleans under state supervision to compete in their own rodeo segment on the Superdome floor — a rare and high-profile moment for a prison program that typically plays to crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 spectators in rural West Feliciana Parish.

“We went out there just curious and had no idea what we were walking into,” said Trawick, a former professional rodeo competitor who now serves as Hondo’s CEO. “Not just any inmate gets to compete. You earn your way there through behavior, and then you earn your way again through performance. It’s structured around accountability.”

A Superdome stage — and a purpose

Under the plan, eight Angola participants will compete in a standalone rodeo segment lasting roughly 30 minutes each night, staged after Hondo’s professional rodeo events and before the evening concerts. Organizers say the Angola competition will feature two to three disciplines per night, likely focused on rough-stock events such as bull riding and bronc riding.

Prize money earned during those competitions will be split evenly, with half going to Louisiana’s Victims Impact Fund and the remainder earmarked for the inmates, with the stated intention of supporting their families.

“There’s the victim, and then there are the families left behind — kids who had nothing to do with what happened,” said Cody, an Alabama native and former professional musician, in an interview Friday. “This is about creating purpose and dignity where it’s been earned, while still honoring responsibility.”

The logistics, Cody and Trawick say, have been vetted at the highest levels of state government, including the prison’s warden and Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration. Inmates would be transported under strict supervision and will not compete directly against Hondo’s professional athletes.

Landry spokesperson Kate Kelly said the governor planned a formal announcement on the initiative and declined to comment Friday.

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott confirmed via email that the department is in discussions with Hondo Rodeo officials to bring a part of the Angola Rodeo to Hondo. “The Department is excited about this opportunity to showcase the amazing Angola Rodeo to a larger audience,” he said, adding that more details would be forthcoming soon.

To prepare the Angola participants for the scale of a Superdome crowd — potentially exceeding 40,000 spectators — Hondo plans to send professional rodeo athletes to the facility in advance to walk them through the format and production demands of a major league event.

“We don’t want to throw anyone out there unprepared,” Trawick said. “This is about respect for the athletes and the moment.”

A hybrid built for scale

Hondo Rodeo Fest is not a legacy rodeo brand but a deliberately engineered entertainment product, launched in Phoenix in 2024 with the goal of pairing elite-level rodeo with arena-scale music production.

Trawick has described the concept as an attempt to solve what he sees as a longstanding problem in rodeo: inconsistent quality from event to event.

“In most professional sports, you know you’re seeing the best in the world every night,” he said. “We’re trying to create that same consistency — the same elite level of competition every single ride, every single run.”

Hondo’s professional roster features a cast of roughly 76 top-ranked competitors per city, designed to be recognizable and repeatable as the brand expands.

The concert lineup for New Orleans, now confirmed, underscores Hondo’s ambition to operate at the scale of a major touring festival. It will feature Jason Aldean and Lynyrd Skynyrd on Friday; Cody Johnson and Old Dominion on Saturday; and, Creed and Bailey Zimmerman on Sunday.

Cody, who spent years touring as a professional musician, said the booking strategy deliberately blends stadium-level headliners with regional and local acts that reflect each host city.

“We’re also going to feature local artists,” he said. “I’ve got long-standing relationships in places like New Orleans — including musicians like Trombone Shorty — and we want this to feel connected to the local music culture, not parachuted in.”

Local artists are expected to open each night’s show, creating what organizers describe as a bridge between the rodeo crowd and the city’s broader music scene.

Filling a spring gap — with state backing

While the Angola component provides a powerful local hook, Hondo Rodeo Fest is also a calculated bet by state and city officials seeking to plug a conspicuous hole in New Orleans’ spring 2026 tourism calendar.

The event was first announced last October after New Orleans unexpectedly lost WrestleMania, which had been slated for the same spring window and promised one of the decade’s biggest tourism spikes. In response, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and state tourism officials began searching for a multi-day replacement capable of delivering comparable hotel demand.

Hondo fit the profile: three days of professional rodeo, paired with nightly stadium concerts by major national acts, all inside the weatherproof Superdome.

The state has committed $2 million from Louisiana’s Major Events Fund to secure the event, with economic development officials viewing it as a platform not unlike Super Bowl LIX, which was used last year to court potential investors and business relocations.

Gov. Landry and his economic development chief, Susan Bourgeois, have both signaled hopes that Hondo could become an annual spring fixture, filling a gap between Carnival season and summer conventions.

“This is exactly the kind of event that drives tourism, supports local businesses, and gives us a national stage to showcase Louisiana,” Landry said when the event was announced.

Jay Cicero, president of GNOSF, said the governor has taken a personal interest in both the Angola and economic development aspects of the weekend.

“The governor understands how meaningful the Angola story is to Louisiana, and at the same time how important it is to bring in events that generate real economic impact,” Cicero said. “Hondo checks both boxes.”

For now, Hondo’s New Orleans debut is a one-year booking. But state officials and GNOSF have made clear that a successful 2026 run could lock in multiple future dates.

If that happens, the Angola Prison Rodeo partnership may become one of the defining features of the New Orleans stop.

New Orleans may have lost WrestleMania. But with bulls, broncs, stadium rock, and a prison rodeo that has quietly shaped lives for 60 years, officials are betting Hondo Rodeo Fest can fill the Superdome — and the spring tourism calendar — in a way few other cities could replicate.