San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Bar-B-Que Cook-Off begins, launching the city’s 2026 rodeo season

A major pre-rodeo tradition returns on the East Side

The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Bar-B-Que Cook-Off is now underway at 1723 Creekview Drive on the Frost Bank Center grounds, marking one of the first large-scale public events of the 2026 rodeo season. The cook-off runs Jan. 29–31, 2026, and is sanctioned by the International Barbeque Cookers Association (IBCA), positioning it as both a public festival and a judged competition for teams cooking under standardized rules.

The cook-off is closely tied to the broader San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo calendar, which is scheduled to run Feb. 12 through March 1, 2026. In recent years, the barbecue weekend has served as a bridge between winter community traditions and the multi-week run of rodeo performances, concerts, livestock shows, and fairgrounds activity that follow.

How the competition is structured

Competition turn-ins are centered on traditional Texas barbecue categories. The primary judged meats include chicken, pork spare ribs, and brisket, with scheduled submission times on-site during the event. The contest also includes ancillary categories that broaden participation beyond the core meats and reflect the social nature of cook-off culture, where teams often treat their spaces as gathering spots while still cooking for official judging.

• Main meat categories: chicken, pork spare ribs, brisket
• Additional judged categories listed for this event include: margaritas, dessert, ribeye steak, “in the pot,” and “you pick it”

What it signals for the weeks ahead

The cook-off weekend lands as rodeo season activity ramps up across the city, following established kickoff events such as the annual Cowboy Breakfast. Together, these early-season gatherings help set expectations for the larger Stock Show & Rodeo period, when crowds shift from the cook-off grounds to livestock barns, carnival rides, shopping areas, and arena events.

Rodeo organizers have already scheduled extended daily fairgrounds hours during the Feb. 12–March 1 run, a timeline that typically draws a mix of families, students, exhibitors, and visitors attending both daytime fairgrounds programming and evening arena events.

Public access and event footprint

Ticketing for the cook-off is being offered for the Jan. 30 and Jan. 31 public days, reflecting a structure common to large barbecue competitions: teams compete throughout the weekend while public admission is focused on set days and times. On-site logistics—such as judging operations, team move-in and set-up, and the volume of tents and cooking rigs—make the cook-off one of the most visible early demonstrations of the rodeo’s overall operational scale.

The Bar-B-Que Cook-Off functions as an early-season test run for crowd flow, public safety coordination, and fairgrounds readiness ahead of the full Stock Show & Rodeo schedule.

With the cook-off underway, the rodeo season’s timeline is now firmly in motion, leading into the main event window beginning Feb. 12.