RodeoHouston 2020

Here is the deadline for requesting RodeoHouston ticket refunds

Garth Brooks opening night RodeoHouston full stage

Rodeo ticket holders must request a refund by April 3.

Photo by Steven Devadanam

The sudden closing of the cherished Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo sent shockwaves throughout the city, state, and nation, as performers, vendors, and exhibitors were forced to halt activities that were in many cases, years in the making.

Another casualty: the tens of thousands of ticket-holders who were suddenly inundating the rodeo with requests on how to receive refunds.

The rodeo quickly issued refund information, which includes an important milestone: The deadline for many refunds for concert, carnival, and even transportation tickets and passes is Friday, April 3.

Here are the refund options available for tickets/pass holders and those who purchased carnival tickets or shuttle passes.

Season ticket holders can:

Donate the balance of 2020 season tickets to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The rodeo will provide an acknowledgement of the donation.
Roll over the balance of the 2020 season ticket purchase for the March 11 – 22 performances to the 2021 season ticket purchase. There is no action needed if customers choose this option.
Request a refund of the balance of 2020 season tickets. (Refunds will be completed by April 30, 2020. An email will be sent to 2020 ticket buyers by early next week to choose an option. If customers do not respond by April 3, the balance will automatically rollover to their 2021 season ticket purchase.

Individual tickets holders can:

Donate the cost of 2020 tickets to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. (An acknowledgement of your donation will be provided.)
Request a refund of the cost of your 2020 tickets. (Refunds will be completed by April 30, 2020.) An email was sent to 2020 ticket buyers to choose an option. If you do not respond by April 3, your balance will be automatically refunded to your credit card.

For those who purchased tickets through RodeoHouston, AXS, or Flash Seats sites:
If you bought primary or secondary market tickets through rodeohouston.com or axs.com, see above for the individual ticket options.

Credits to your card will come from AXS.
If you purchased secondary market tickets through Flash Seats, your card will be credited automatically, and no action is required on your part. Credits to your card will come from AXS.

For those who purchased or sold tickets via VividSeats, StubHub, Seat Geek or Ticketmaster, or another secondary market provider:
If you purchased or sold tickets through a secondary ticket provider, such as VividSeats, StubHub, Seat Geek or Ticketmaster, contact those sites directly for information.

If you sold tickets through AXS/Flash Seats, AXS will refund the purchase price to the buyer
If you have not requested your funds, AXS will remove the funds from your account.
If you have requested and received the funds, the amount due to AXS will be reduced from any refund balance you may have from your March 11 – 22, 2020, tickets.
If the refund balance of your March 11 – 22, 2020, tickets will not cover the amount due to AXS, your credit card will be charged the remaining balance due.

Carnival ticket holders
Those who purchased Half-Price Carnival Ticket Packs will have the option to roll their remaining tickets to be used at the 2021 carnival or get a refund for unused ride and game tickets.

Regardless if you choose rollover or refund, everyone must upload their ticket packs to the Rodeo Carnival App.
All customers that have created an account in the Rodeo Carnival App will receive a push notification (text message) informing them that they will need to open the Rodeo Carnival app and, if prompted to do so, install an update that will enable them to rollover or request their refund. (The Rodeo Carnival App will walk you through the Rollover or Refund Process.)
Once you upload the Half-Price Carnival Packs to the app, you may choose your option of Rollover or Refund.
If you purchased full-price carnival tickets and want to request a refund, email info@rcsfun.com or call 602-935-4060. These are the tickets and packs bought on-site at the carnival.

The Woodlands rodeo shuttle
Customers who purchased tickets for the weekends of March 14-15 and March 21-22 will receive a refund within seven to 10 business days via their original form of payment. For more information people can contact, 281-590-8800.

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For more information, visit RodeoHouston.com.

houston-rodeo

Movie Review

Will Ferrell takes a road trip in new Netflix docu Will & Harper

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Harper Steele and Will Ferrell in Will & Harper.

As the rights and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community have expanded over the past 50 or so years, one part of that group, transgender people, has found it more difficult to be considered a normal part of society. Every new instance of putting the story of a transgender person on screen, whether fictional or real, increases their exposure to those who might never have encountered them before.

That makes a documentary like Will & Harper (a title which seems to take inspiration from the groundbreaking TV series Will & Grace) valuable. The fact that the “Will” in the title is comedian/actor Will Ferrell helps, as he and longtime friend, Harper Steele, embark on a road trip across the United States soon after Harper reveals her transition from a man to a woman.

Harper, who met Will while they were both at Saturday Night Live in the late '90s/early 2000s, decided at the relatively older age of 59 that she could no longer pretend to be someone she wasn’t. The idea of the road trip – and of filming it – came about so that the friends could reconnect, learn more about each other given the momentous change, and do a lot of the things that Harper enjoyed doing by herself prior to her transition.

Director Josh Greenbaum and his crew attach a camera to the hood of Harper’s old Jeep Wagoneer to record her and Will's conversations as they traverse many states, starting in New York and heading west. Their connection to SNL means that many of the show’s current and former stars show up in one form or another along the way, including Tina Fey, Seth Meyers, Tim Meadows, Lorne Michaels, Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, and Will Forte, among others.

While their love and respect for Harper is obvious, Harper has trepidation over how strangers in middle America will react to her. The presence of Will (and the cameras) gives her perhaps easier acceptance than someone not traveling with a famous person, but there are still more than a few uncomfortable stops, particularly when they get to the South (Texas does not come off well, but surprisingly Oklahoma does).

Those scenes with everyday Americans are interesting (if occasionally a bit contrived), but the heart of the film is the friendship between Will and Harper. Their conversations range from silly to heartfelt, but there is a genuineness to them that can’t be faked. Harper invites Will to ask her any questions he has about her transition, resulting in insightful – and, often, funny – answers. Their friendship was clearly already strong, but it gets palpably stronger during the 17-day journey.

There are a lot of messages one could get from a film like this, but it’s notable for how apolitical it is. Will and Harper have encounters with Eric Holcomb, the Republican governor of Indiana, as well as a few people wearing MAGA hats, but their positions on transgender people goes unremarked upon. The friends gently correct people who mis-gender Harper, but they never express any animosity towards them. It’s a movie about exploration, with education as a side benefit.

While it might be too strong to say that Will & Harper is a world-changing film, it adds another layer to the story of transgender people as a whole. It also shows the unconditional love between two friends, a lesson that is heartening in divided times.

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Will & Harper is now playing in select theaters; it will debut on Netflix on September 27.

movies film