By Olivia Turner | Arts & Life Editor
The gates to the Extraco Events Center opened at 6 p.m. Thursday, giving the public their first taste of the 2025 Waco Heart O’ Texas Fair.
While the rodeo events and live music performances won’t begin until Friday, the grounds were open for attendees to enjoy food trucks, local vendors, carnival rides, a petting zoo and even mutton busting.
Trey Warren, a member of the Board of Directors and chair of the calf scramble program, said a sponsor event would be taking place in the rodeo arena tonight to prepare for the week of rodeo events ahead.
“We call it a rodeo draft,” Warren said. “They pick teams and they all have a friendly competition about whose cowboy gets to win at the end of the week.”
Dustin Coufal, the new president and CEO of the Extraco Events Center, said he is excited for attendees to be able to experience the first fair events at a discounted price — five dollars for gate entry and two dollars per carnival ride.
“Tonight’s one of the most affordable nights of the fair that we have,” Coufal said. “The last four or five years, we’ve been really blessed to have over 200,000 people here, and we expect to have that or even better this year.”
Coufal said the Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo provides over $70 million of economic impact. Between the competitive events and academic scholarship program, the event raises almost half a million dollars in scholarship funds for Texas youth pursuing higher education every year.
Rodeo participants can also receive prize money through their competitions, in addition to working their way up in the world standings for their events, Warren said.
“It’s all the best cowboys in Texas,” Warren said. “The last Saturday, we’ll have a shootout final between all of those people to see who wins the big prize.”
Professional cowboys from across Texas will be competing for the Texas Prorodeo Circuit in the second part of the rodeo, and the winners will have the opportunity to use their prize toward a trip to Las Vegas for one final competition, Warren said.
Children are also able to join in the fun with events like the calf scramble, Warren said.
“I like the rodeo,” Warren said. “It’s part of who I am, but the calf scramble is kind of my sweet spot. So we’ll have kids out here chasing wild calves, and when they do, then they earn money to buy a show animal.”
Warren said participants are then required to bring their animal back the following year to enter in the livestock show, which started on Sept. 24 and will resume tomorrow, along with the other fair festivities.
Payton Roberts, who serves on the Heart O’ Texas Fair NextGen committee, a leadership program for volunteers aged 16-20, said she is most excited for people to get to see and experience the animals and learn more about them.
“I think one of my favorite things is seeing people who aren’t traditionally from agricultural backgrounds get to experience and learn more about it,” Roberts said.
Tonight, Roberts was stationed in the petting zoo among the goats, sheep and even camels, but her next shift will have her working amongst mutton busting, and the next, the swine show.
A fair-goer from Waco named Amber said she can’t wait to try the fair foods from this year’s vendors, such as The Quesadilla Factory and Beverly Ann’s cookie truck. She said she looks forward to seeing what new vendors and rides will pop up each year, and hopes that others do too.
“I wish more people would come to the fair,” Amber said. “It’s not as packed as it used to be, and I feel like more kids should be out here. Because when I was young, first day at the fair, and I was asking my mom for a season pass.”
Warren said it’s worth it to come out, even if just for a day.
“It gets better every year,” he said. “We’re always trying to raise the standard and do better than we did the year before. … Can’t beat a good corn dog when it’s the right time.”
