Belton Fourth of July Parade also celebrating 100 years of Belton Rodeo this year

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - This year, the Belton 4th of July Parade will be celebrating 100 years of Belton Rodeo, and some floats and organizations in the procession will go all out to honor the tradition.

“The very first rodeo in Belton for the Fourth of July was in 1924,” President and CEO of the Belton Area Chamber of Commerce, Randy Pittenger, said. “It’s been 100 years, and this year, we get to celebrate that in a big way. Not only with our rodeo, but that’s the theme for our parade this year.”

Pittenger said the rodeo has been a cherished tradition for Belton residents over the past century.

“They continued it every year without fail for 100 years, that’s a tradition that people have grown up with throughout their lives,” he said. “We talk to people all the time...’I went to the rodeo as a child. Then I started taking my children. Now I take my grandchildren to the rodeo,’ and people for generations do that.”

The first Belton Rodeo on Independence Day was at Penelope Street Hill. It jumped around the city of Belton and eventually made its way to the Cadence Bank Center, formerly known as the Bell County Expo Center.

“We were able to move to the air-conditioned, comfortable indoor arena for the Belton Fourth of July Rodeo,” he said. “That’s a big deal. A hundred years ago, they were out in the heat. We’re Texans. We know in Central Texas, in July, it’s going to be hot, but we have the advantage of after the parade, after the festival, we can head on to the air-conditioned arena and still enjoy something that they did a hundred years ago.”

To celebrate, the Belton Area Chamber of Commerce has announced Charlie Throckmorton, who has been the voice of the Belton Rodeo for years and was inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame, as the Grand Marshal this year.

Pittenger also expects to see floats and people in the procession to be wearing rodeo-inspired costumes and decorations.

“We give prizes to the trophy to the best use of theme for both the for-profit and nonprofit categories,” he said. “We know, we’ve been told, many entries, many of the floats, many of the folks who are entering the parade are using that as their theme something along with rodeo. But we’re going to see all kinds of interpretations of what does 100 years of rodeo mean to you?”

The parade starts rolling at 9 a.m. in Belton. For more information, click here. The parade begins at Main Street (FM317) from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor south to the Bell County Courthouse, then east on Central Avenue and north on Birdwell to the Belton Police Memorial. KWTX will be streaming the parade live Thursday morning.

The festival will follow the parade at Liberty Park. Pittenger said the 36th Mechanized Brigade out of Fort Cavazos will be installing a temporary bridge over Nolan Creek to provide more accessibility to the park.

The Belton Rodeo at the Cadence Bank Center kicks off at 7 p.m. July 4 and runs through July 6. Tickets start at $17.

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