Cowtown Rodeo
Ranch · Pilesgrove, New Jersey
A professional rodeo in Salem County, southwestern New Jersey, that has run EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH THE SUMMER SINCE 1955 — which makes it THE OLDEST WEEKLY RODEO IN THE UNITED STATES. The rodeo itself dates to 1929 and the Harris family have run it for generations, breeding their own bucking stock on the surrounding ranch. It is sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the riders are competing for real money and standings, and it is forty minutes from Philadelphia in a state nobody associates with any of this. The enormous Cowtown Farmers Market runs on the same ground.
780 Route 40, Pilesgrove, New Jersey, 08098, United States
THE RODEO RUNS SATURDAY NIGHTS ONLY, FROM LATE MAY TO LATE SEPTEMBER — roughly nineteen or twenty performances a year and none at any other time. Gates open late afternoon with the performance in the early evening, running about two hours. Pay at the gate, roughly $20-$30 adults and less for children; NO ADVANCE BOOKING and general admission bleacher seating, first come. Free parking. The arena is open to the sky and performances are CANCELLED FOR SEVERE WEATHER. THE COWTOWN FARMERS MARKET IS A SEPARATE THING on the same ground, free, running Tuesdays and Saturdays year round — visitors arrive on market Tuesdays expecting a rodeo and there is not one. Season dates shift slightly each year.