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GATES – Every Mother’s Day weekend since 1998, the population of Gates County increases by approximately 3,000. And they’re packed into just one tiny area of the county.

Over the course of nearly 30 years, the Gates County Championship Rodeo has transformed into one of the biggest events in northeastern North Carolina and southside Virginia. It attracts people from both states, the majority of which attend year after year.

The 2025 event is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 9-10. Gates open at 4 p.m. both days and the action gets underway at 7 p.m.

Admission is $20 in advance or $25 at the gate. Parking is free.

The event – which features bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, team roping, cowgirls’ barrel racing, breakaway roping and wild bull riding – is sanctioned by the Southern Rodeo Association (SRA) with competitors coming from throughout the United States and Canada.

Concessions will be sold on-site.

Advance tickets are available at Starr Motors in Suffolk, Brinkley Hardware in Gates, T&W Hardware in Sunbury, My Deer Watson in Ahoskie, Farm City in Elizabeth City, South Point Saddllery in Suffolk, and Old Dominion Hay in Smithfield, VA.

The rodeo arena is located on Paige Riddick Road just off US 13 near the North Carolina-Virginia state line. Signs will point the way.

For more information, call 252-357-2412 or 252-209-1473 or log onto www.gatescountyrodeo.com.