COVINGTON, Ga. — With thousands in attendance this past weekend, it did not seem like it was Georgia FFA-FCCLA Center’s first rodeo. But it was. 

On each night, 2,000 people were in attendance. Over 80 local businesses sponsored the inaugural event, too.

Once the dust settled, Isaac Nations, the ​​Agricultural Program Specialist, was blown away from the turnout.

“I cannot speak highly enough for the community coming out and showing their support,” Nations said. “It’s amazing to me that we have over 80 businesses step up to the plate and be like, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of this event and I want to sponsor what y’all have going on there.’” 

The Newton County Rodeo — held at T.M. “Mort” Ewing Newton County Agricultural Center — was a two-day event across Sept. 22-23, with both days being sold out. There were so many people present that they had to “turn people away.” 

Based on this year’s response, Nations emphatically said that this will “definitely” become an annual event. They also plan to schedule future rodeos to line up with this past weekend’s timeline. 

The full-rodeo event included: bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling, calf roping, team roping, breakaway roping, bull riding and calf scramble. 

In addition to being the first rodeo, it was also the agricultural center’s first public event that the community was invited to be spectators. 

Knowing that made the rodeo much more special for Nations and the entire center. 

“For us, this event was like an open house,” Nations said. “So, we had the pressure of making sure we produced a really nice event for the community, but we also wanted to make sure everything went well so that people can come out and enjoy and see the facility for the first time.” 

Looking forward to the future already, the Newton County Agricultural Center is excited to grow and expand the Newton County Rodeo. 

Not only do they want to continue hosting the event, but to make it bigger and better for years to come. 

Nations believes the sky’s the limit for the Newton County Rodeo. 

“We want this to be one of the staple events for Newton County where everybody knows about it, all the businesses around are involved and the people that make up Newton County get to come out and participate,” Nations said. “In years to come, it will be more than just a rodeo. It’ll be an all-day event with different things going on throughout the day that is like a festival.”