Calamity's Classic Rodeo

Gates at the Park County Fairgrounds, 46 View Vista Drive in Livingston, open at 5:30 in the evening, ninety minutes before the rodeo begins. Local vendors and charitable organizations sell food and drink, and a table sells Calamity’s merchandise. General admission is $15 for a seat in the bleachers, and children five and under sit there free. A reserved seat in the covered grandstand costs $20. Strollers and coolers stay outside. The posted rules ask the crowd to stay off the fences and to bring no fireworks, beach balls or cap guns. The arena, chutes and stock pens are closed to the general public.

The 2026 rodeo ran on Friday and Saturday, August 14 and 15, with the show starting at 7:00 each night. Friday was Military Night and Saturday was First Responders Night.

Sheep, broncs and break-away

The first riders are children. At 6:30 the mutton busters come out: boys and girls between four and seven years old and under 45 pounds, wearing helmets and vests supplied by Calamity’s. Each takes hold of the wool and tries to stay on a sheep for six seconds. A child may ride with one hand or two, and a one-hand ride scores more points. One helper goes into the chute area with each rider. Both must wear western dress, meaning a long-sleeved shirt, boots and a hat, and no spurs are allowed. Ten children ride each day.

The rodeo itself has two halves. The rough stock events are bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding. In these the rider uses one hand and must stay aboard at least eight seconds to receive a score, and the animal’s performance counts equally with the rider’s. The timed events are team roping, tie-down calf roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing and ladies break-away roping, plus junior barrels and junior break-away. Break-away is a variation of calf roping in which the calf is roped but not thrown down and tied.

In 2026 the stock came from Big Circle Rodeo, the contractor for the fourth year in a row. The company belongs to Sparky Dreesen and Paul Eiker. In 2025 Barney Sheridan announced, “Dangerous Dave” Whitmoyer worked as clown-barrel man, and Mark LaRowe took the official photographs. The Park County Community Journal wrote that year that cowboys and cowgirls from all over Montana, the surrounding states and the Canadian provinces would compete. It also reported that the Northern Rodeo Association expected more than $500,000 in payouts that season at more than 40 rodeos. On the association’s 2026 schedule, Calamity’s shares its weekend with the Tri-County Fair Rodeo at Deer Lodge.

When the last event ends, the crowd moves on to the Owl Lounge, a bar at 110 North Second Street that serves as the official after-party. The rodeo’s vendor page lists the party for both Friday and Saturday nights. Its schedule page says “Saturday night only.”

Tickets are sold at the booth at the fairgrounds, at Murdoch’s, at the Spur Line, at the Chamber of Commerce, and on the rodeo’s website. In the week before the 2026 rodeo, the organizers warned on Instagram that fraudulent tickets were being sold online through unauthorized sources.

Eight founders and a rough-stock plan

Windy City Outlaws Inc., a nonprofit, puts on the rodeo. Its president, Mike Klasing, told the Livingston Enterprise in 2024 that he started it with seven other people in 2023. “We needed a rodeo for the locals, one where there are available tickets and locals can attend,” he said.

The Enterprise first reported the plan in March 2023, when the event was called the Calamity Rough Stock Classic Rodeo. The officers were Klasing as president, Wacey Stuart as vice president, Stacy Sunvison as secretary, and Elena Klasing as treasurer. Klasing described the mission as promoting Montana’s agricultural customs and traditions and supporting the local community. He said the group planned to give a major portion of net proceeds to agricultural scholarships for future ranchers and farmers in Park County and nearby counties. “We’re trying to keep the ag traditions alive,” he said. Tickets were to go on sale in April through local businesses, so that area residents would have the first chance to buy them. A press release explained the choice of stock contractor: “With nationally-known, high quality stock competing regularly at many popular rodeos, Mr. Dreesen and Eiker were our first choice.” In April the rodeo appeared among ten new members of the Livingston Chamber of Commerce, with Mike Klasing as its contact.

The organizers’ own account of how the event changed is on their website:

“Our initial concept was rough stock (bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding) only. We set everything in motion based on that plan. However, fate took over. Long story short, we joined the Northern Rodeo Association, changed performance dates, and expanded our format to ALL events.” They conclude: “No glitz and glamour. Instead, a rodeo for the locals.”

By the March 2023 announcement the full program was already in place. It included steer wrestling, tie-down and team roping, and ladies and junior events, and the rodeo was sanctioned by both the Northern Rodeo Association and the Northern Women’s Rodeo Association.

The first rodeo was held on August 19 and 20, 2023. The show started at 7 p.m. on the first night and 6 p.m. on the second, and a free slack rodeo was scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday. Tate Rhodes, a local rodeo clown, worked the arena, and Barney Sheridan announced. The Owl Lounge, one of the sponsors, held a Sunday after-party with live music. Children three and under got in free. Tickets were sold in Livingston at Town & Country Foods, the Spur Line, Yellowstone Sporting Goods, the Chamber and Murdoch’s, and also at Murdoch’s stores in Belgrade, Bozeman and Four Corners. “We think it’s going over well,” Klasing told the Enterprise that August. “Given the community wants a local rodeo, it’s geared towards the local folks.” That year its 296 contestants voted it the 2023 Platinum Rodeo of the Year. The Enterprise credits the award to the “National Rodeo Association.”

The second year and the Ansotegui scholarship

On August 13, 2024, an Enterprise photographer found Klasing, then 64, setting up with Paul Sunvision for the second annual Calamity’s Classic Hometown Rodeo. That year’s shows were set for Saturday, August 17 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, August 18 at 5 p.m. Reserved tickets were selling quickly. Klasing estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 people would attend an arena that holds roughly 4,500. He said Calamity’s was the largest added-money rodeo sanctioned by the association in the country for the second year running. He also expected 350 to 375 contestants and credited the added money for the growth. Members of the board had spent August 8 to 10 volunteering at the Bozeman Stampede Rodeo.

The dates have moved forward since then. The 2025 rodeo was held on August 16 and 17, and the 2026 rodeo on a Friday and Saturday in mid-August.

“We are keeping rodeos alive, and helping youth through scholarships,” Klasing said in 2024. The year before, the rodeo had given six $250 scholarships to the Wilsall Wranglers FFA for their projects. The scholarship is given in memory of Dr. Raymond P. “Ray” Ansotegui, a Livingston resident and a member of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.