The Big Apple has gone country.
On Friday, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) “Unleash the Beast” arrives at Madison Square Garden for a three-day run. The New York City audience will be bigger than ever.
When the bonanza first came to MSG 17 years ago, they handed out tickets for free on Seventh Avenue.
Last year, the event sold some 39,000 tickets, and ticket sales are pacing 15% ahead, according to PBR.
Flint Rasmussen, PBR’s Senior Vice President of Fan Engagement, calls it the “Yellowstone Effect.”
“It’s a real thing as far as generating revenue in our business,” he told The Post.
The popularity of PBR comes as New Yorkers are increasingly embracing cowboy culture, celebrating Beyonce’s country western turn with her latest album, donning Stetsons and boots to hit up a growing number of honky tonks in the city and catching Bella Hadid in the saddle on the streets of the Meatpacking District.
The 28-year-old supermodel and her cowboy boyfriend, Adan Bañuelos, 35, did a cutting horse demonstration last September to close out Fashion Week.
“Now every model wants a cowboy for a boyfriend,” quipped Chris Reda, the co-owner of Common Country, a new bar in Kips Bay infused with southern flair.
The 3,400-square-foot venue features deer taxidermy, farmhouse beams imported from Kentucky, live bands, line dancing and a soundtrack of country and country-house music .
Reda, a 40-something native New Yorker who worked at some of NYC’s biggest nightclubs of the 1990s — Palladium, Tunnel, the Limelight — and his business partner Noah Aussems, 27, first got the idea to open a country nightclub in early 2020.
The pandemic pushed back their plans, but Reda says the timing has ended up being right on the money.
At the club’s opening weekend in early December, hundreds of well-heeled partygoers in their 20s and 30s — finance bros, models, influencers, media mavens and the like — lined up for over two hours to get in.
“I feel like we hit it at the right time,” Reda said. “It [hasn’t] reached the pinnacle yet. It’s getting to that point.
Malu Marzarotto, a 27-year-old who lives in Williamsburg and has her own design studio, was one of those in attendance at the Common Country opening.
Dressed in cowgirl garb — including a Marlboro leather jacket from the 1970s — she had a blast.
“It’s like an escape from the city. When you’re there, you definitely don’t feel like you’re in New York City,” Marzarotto told The Post.
A native of a small Ohio town with a country vibe, she’s found her groove line dancing at bars in Queens or at Common Country.
“It just simplifies things that people like the most. Being together with friends [and] enjoying life, music.”
Common Country joins longtime yee-haw New York institutions such as Flaming Saddles and Coyote Ugly, along with new spots such as Daisy Dukes, which just hitched up in the Financial District.
The coming weeks will see the opening of Cowboy Tom on the Lower East Side.
Thomas Viola, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who studied fashion design, is the cowboy behind the new cocktail lounge.
Viola traded his usual Burberry sneakers and punkish Alexander McQueen kicks for boots during the Covid lockdowns when he returned to his childhood passion for horseback riding.
Last summer, he was first toying with the idea of opening the bar when he saw about 20 downtown women walk by in cowboy boots in a span of 10 minutes.
“I believe in signs,” he said. “I was like ‘wait … maybe this is meant to be.’”
Fashion labels and retailers are saying giddy-up.
Last January, Pharrell Williams sent cowboys sashaying down the runway at the Louis Vuitton show in Paris, following in the boot steps of the Celine spring/summer 2024 presentation the year prior
At Boot Barn, the national western clothing giant, net sales increased 13.7% from September 2023 to September 2024.
The company has expanded its coverage in the Northeast and just opened its first store in Bergen County — in Paramus, New Jersey.
At Little Ranch Western Wear in Westchester, sales of cowboy hats, especially the Stetson brand, increased 80% last year. Store manager Hilda Silva credits the “Yellowstone effect.”
Ariat, one of the world’s top riding boot brands and a sponsor of PBR, has also seen “double-digit growth” in the last year, especially in areas, like New York City, beyond their usual strongholds in the south and southwest.
“Cowboy is cool right now,” said Shane Holman, Vice President of Western Footwear Merchandising for Ariat. “It’s trending. It’s on fire!”
