Sky High Stampede organizers report attendance, praise new LED lights; council hears arena dedication plans

Brandon Rogers, president of the Sky High Stampede, and Sky High management provided a recap of the weekend festival and asked the council to approve a resolution dedicating the arena to Charlie Byrd.

Rogers said the committee surprised Charlie Byrd with a sign at the rodeo and requested the council’s formal blessing to rename the Sky High Arena the Charlie Byrd Arena. The council subsequently adopted a resolution to rename the facility (see votes roundup).

Asked to provide event metrics, Sky High staff (DJ) said AI-based geofenced counts showed approximately 20,500 unique individuals entered the Sky High property over the weekend and about 33,600 total visits across four days — figures slightly below 2024 metrics. The staff presentation said the concert day counted about 6,800 people on the property versus about 7,300 the prior year.

Stampede organizers also thanked the city for grant funding that supported a new LED lighting system at the complex. Staff and organizers said the system helped during a lightning event on Saturday night because the lights resumed quickly after a brief outage; organizers told council that old halogen lights would have taken longer to return and could have created a safety problem with animals in the arena.

Facility staff reported the Stampede team contracted cleaning and operations and that, for the first time in recent Stampede events, they received no calls about restroom supplies or major messes during the weekend. Sky High staff said they are booked for many events in 2025 and are preparing for upcoming fair activities.

Council and staff thanked organizers and volunteers and noted the newly announced Cobblestone Hotel development and other facility investments that city staff say will help capture more tourism spending in future years.