Big Sky PBR: 12 Time Event of the Year. Nobody Else Is Close.
On May 14, at the PBR World Finals in Dallas, Outlaw Partners and Big Sky PBR were awarded Professional Bull Riders’ Event of the Year for the 12th consecutive time. Out of more than 50 PBR events held annually across the United States, the cowboys keep voting for Big Sky. Twelve years in a row. That doesn’t happen by accident.
“The bar keeps raising up,” said Cord McCoy, PBR bull stock contractor. “To think this is Event of the Year and it keeps gettin’ better. I look down that roster of cowboys and bulls that are here this week, this stuff you gotta go to Vegas or New York to see.”
Vegas and New York. In Big Sky, Montana. Under Lone Mountain. For three nights every July.
How it started
The Big Sky PBR was the brainchild of several groups throughout the Big Sky community. In 2011, machines pulled sagebrush out of tough dirt to create a makeshift arena. Gates, chutes, dirt, and grandstands went up. Bleachers came over from the local softball field. People sat on hay bales. The local raft company brought their buses down for people to stand on and look over the bleachers.
That’s not mythology. That’s what the first year actually looked like. “The first year, I would kind of compare it to when they built the Field of Dreams in that movie,” said Eric Ladd, CEO of Outlaw Partners. “It was literally the community coming together.”
Fifteen years later, Big Sky PBR draws over thousands of attendees across the week and brings the best bull riders in the world to southwest Montana.
What it means for Big Sky
The award is one story. The economic one is another. Big Sky’s Biggest Week generates a $3.4 million economic impact on the community, including $1.1 million in spin-off benefits as dollars circulate through the local economy. Every hotel room, every restaurant seat, every guided fishing trip, and bike rental during that week is connected to what we built in that sagebrush field in 2011.
The Big Sky PBR generates hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity every year, on top of the direct economic impact. Across all Outlaw Partners events, the organization has given back over $5 million to local charities and nonprofits since its inception. For longtime Big Sky residents and supporters, the annual Big Sky PBR is about far more than championship bull riding. It’s about bringing the community together. From locals and seasonal homeowners to first-time visitors, the event has become a gathering place where you’re not meeting strangers, you’re meeting neighbors.
That line lands differently when you’ve been here long enough to watch it happen.
This year
The 15th annual Big Sky PBR runs July 16, 17, and 18, 2026, at the Big Sky Events Arena. The full week surrounding it includes Montana’s Premier Horse Sale, the Big Sky Community Rodeo, the Running of the Bulls trail race, Community Day, Mutton Bustin’, Dick Allgood Bingo Night, and the PBR Golf Tournament. Three nights of Challenger Series Professional Bull Riding close it out.
What Outlaw Realty has to do with all of this
Outlaw Realty is the real estate arm of Outlaw Partners, the company that produces the PBR, Wildlands, Explore Big Sky, and Mountain Outlaw. We’re not sponsors of this event. We built it, and we’ve been building it for 15 years.
The people who come to PBR week and fall in love with Big Sky are the same people who call us in the fall asking about property. The lifestyle this event represents, western, outdoor, community-driven, and genuinely one of a kind, is the same lifestyle that has made Big Sky one of the most compelling real estate markets in the country. We are your passport to it.
If you’re coming to Big Sky this July, welcome. If you’ve been thinking about what it would mean to be here year-round, that’s a conversation we’re ready to have.
Outlaw Realty | Big Sky & Bozeman
