Cheyenne Frontier Days: "The Slack"

The 2017 Cheyenne Frontier Days begins on Friday, 21 July 2017. From Monday through Thursday, the Slack Rodeo is taking place which is free to all comers.  Entrance is through Portal 1.

You've missed it for the 2017 Frontier Days - but it happens every year in the four week days leading up to the Friday on which the CFD starts.

Before Cheyenne Frontier Days officially starts - which it does on the Friday before the last full week of July, several rodeo events are held and the public can attend these for free.

These events are called "The Slack."

They are held from Monday through Thursday, starting at 10 am,

The name comes from the fact that there are dozens of cowboys (and a few cowgirls doing barrel racing) and not always time for them during the afternoon rodeo. So to "take up the slack," many events are held in the morning. (Another origin for the name is that the week before the "main" rodeo begins is a "slack" time, with rodeo contestants arriving but not having anything to do, so this event was created.

If you'd like to see "The Slack," go to Frontier Park and park in the main parking lot. (The gates to the parking lot will be open).

You won't see a sign pointing you to "The Slack," but simply get to the sidewalk (weaving past any CFD volunteers putting up display stands) and head to your right until you get to Portal 1.

Entrance to CFD Carnival Midway.

From the parking lot, you'll see the building in the photo above on your LEFT. To the right of this building will be the Ticket Office.

CFD Ticket Office

Again, from the parking lot, these two buildings will be on your LEFT. You will walk to the right, following a brown fence, for a couple hundred yards, passing Portal 2, until you get to Portal 1, which you will follow down behind the grandstands for the rodeo.

Portal 1, with a volunteer seated there to answer people's questions

Rodeo participants awaiting their turn for the calf roping competition