Since 1953, the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo has turned a patch of Southeast Missouri dirt into the biggest week of the year. Four nights of PRCA and WPRA sanctioned competition, four nights of live music, and more than 40,000 fans who make the trip to Sikeston every August.

Ranked among the top 40 rodeos in the country, the Bootheel Rodeo brings professional cowboys and cowgirls to the arena for bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. When the last bull bucks, the stage lights come up and the concert happens right there on the dirt. One ticket gets you both.

Rodeo week is bigger than the arena. The Cowboy Shuffle Fun Run, Mutton Bustin', the rodeo parade, the pageant, Stampede Week, and the annual crawfish boil fill the days leading up to the first go-round.

All of it is put on by the Sikeston Jaycees, an all-volunteer organization that pours proceeds back into Southeast Missouri through local charities and nonprofits. Every ticket sold supports that work.