Billings Stunned As PBR’s Unleash the Beast Ends Historic Run

The roar hits you before the chute gate even swings open. The lights drop inside First Interstate Arena, heart-pumping music rattles the seats, and thousands of people in boots and hats rise to their feet as another rider nods for the gate. For more than three decades, that sound and that feeling have been part of spring in Billings.

Now, for the first time in 31 years, something big is changing.

Billings Is Losing PBR’s Biggest Event

After 31 straight years, PBR’s premier “Unleash The Beast” series will not return to Billings in 2027. The organization’s vice president of strategic communications confirmed to KULR that the PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour will instead come to MetraPark.

That may not sound like a huge deal to someone outside the rodeo world. But if you’ve lived in Montana long enough, you know this event is more than just another weekend on the calendar.

PBR first rolled into Billings in 1996. Since then, the city has hosted the longest-running premier series stop in PBR history. Generations grew up with it. Families planned around it. Downtown bars filled up. Restaurants buzzed. Hotel parking lots overflowed with people coming in from out of town just to attend.

And now, many fans are trying to process what feels like the end of an era.

One Lifelong Fan Said He Never Missed A Year

I spoke with one Billings resident who said the news completely blindsided him.

He told me that he was only a year old when he attended his very first PBR event in Billings. Since then, no matter what life threw at him, school, work, relationships, family obligations, he's always cleared his schedule for Unleash The Beast weekend.

He described it less like a sporting event and more like a tradition. I could hear the disappointment in his voice. Not anger. More like heartbreak mixed with disbelief.

The Velocity Tour Still Brings Big Energy To Billings

Before you assume PBR is disappearing completely, that’s not what’s happening. Billings will still host professional bull riding in April 2027 through the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour.

The Velocity Tour is considered PBR’s top expansion series and serves as a pipeline for riders trying to earn their way onto the elite Unleash The Beast circuit. Some of the sport’s rising stars compete there alongside veteran riders fighting to climb back to the top.

The events are still loud, intense, and packed with pyrotechnics, music, and edge-of-your-seat moments. In 2025 alone, the Velocity Tour attracted more than 370,000 fans across dozens of cities.

For many riders, it’s also a career launching pad. The top competitors can earn opportunities to move up to the sport’s biggest stage and even qualify for the PBR World Finals.

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Fans Are Left Wondering What Comes Next

Still, for longtime Billings fans, this shift feels emotional.

There’s something about knowing your city held onto a major tradition longer than anywhere else in the country. Thirty-one years is a remarkable run. In a world where events move, disappear, or get replaced overnight, Unleash the Beast in Billings felt permanent.

Maybe the Velocity Tour will create its own legacy here. Maybe a new generation of fans will fall in love with it the same way their parents did with Unleash The Beast.

But if you’ve ever sat in that arena with dirt flying through the air and the crowd roaring around you, you know why this one stings.