It’s the final weekend for Wichita’s 18-and-up Club Rodeo before it gets new owners, name
A longtime Wichita nightclub — one famous for catering to the 18 and over crowd — is changing hands and will be closed for a couple months during the transition.
Club Rodeo, which opened at 10001 E. Kellogg in 2007, will open for the last time with its current owners and current name on Friday and Saturday nights.
Then, on Feb. 1, Hong Zhang — one of the partners in Fever Night Life at 116 N. Mead in Old Town — and partner Alan Chu will take over the keys to the massive building and start a remodel of the space. They hope to reopen the club by mid-March or early April and will call it Midnight Rodeo.
The new owners don’t plan to change the place too much, they said. They’re getting bar furniture, a new sound system and new paint and carpet. But otherwise, they plan to continue to cater to an 18-and-over crowd and will have country music for dancing and a mechanical bull for riding.
They haven’t yet decided whether they’ll keep the live bull riding that’s been a staple at Club Rodeo since it first opened, Chu said.
While Club Rodeo is down, though, Fever Night Life is making some temporary changes that will give fans of country music a place to go. Starting on Friday, they’ll be offering live country music on Friday nights. Their first show, billed as a George Strait After Concert, will feature Tequila Ridge. Bands are scheduled every Friday through March 13, and doors for the shows will open at 9 p.m.
Midnight Rodeo will be open from 7 p.m. to midnight on Wednesdays and from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Eric and Tracy Ragain bought Club Rodeo seven years ago and were its most recent owners. They plan to donate 15 percent of each dollar spent during the club’s final two days to their employees, according to a Facebook post.
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 2:46 PM.
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