Jiselle Santos/The Cougar
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will be closing for the rest of the 2020 season and cancel its remaining shows and dates as a result of growing concerns about the new coronavirus, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Wednesday.
This announcement comes roughly an hour after the World Health Organization announced COVID-19 is officially classified as a global pandemic and former UH student and musician Lizzo was set to perform on Friday.
All events produced by or co-sponsored by the City of Houston will be rescheduled or canceled for the remainder of the month. In addition to the rodeo, the Tour de Houston will be rescheduled and potentially cancelled.
Despite the cancellation, the rodeo’s scholarship program will continue. UH ranks No. 3 on the rodeo’s top five colleges for scholarship list.
As the Houston Rodeo shuts down, the University of Houston themed day, planned for March 12, will no longer take place.
Frontier Fiesta, which is set to run March 19-21, did not wish to comment about the potential impact the coronavirus may have on their event.
“As painful as these things are, I want to remind everyone we are doing this to save lives,” said Health Authority for the Houston Health Department Dr. David Persse.
