Before the Dodge City Days Festival there were two Community celebrations:
The Boot Hill Fiesta and Dodge City Roundup.
In 1960 that community leaders decided to combine the two and call it Dodge City Days. Looking back through old files, we find the celebration was a three day event. Rodeo tickets cost $.75 to $1.50.
Dodge City Days has now evolved into a 10 day celebration and is the second largest community festival in the state of Kansas and is a well known festival throughout the nation!
Overall, Dodge City Days is coordinated by the Dodge City Area Chamber of Commerce. It’s original intent was to celebrate Dodge City’s great western heritage, and it still accomplishes that 56 years later. Several committees work year round to help make Dodge City Days bigger and better every year.
Approximately 100,000 individuals attend at least one Dodge City Days event. The celebration generates approximately three million dollars, which has an economic impact of approximately nine million dollars on Dodge City.