For ten nights every December, Las Vegas turns into a cow town with better lighting. The National Finals Rodeo runs at the Thomas and Mack Center from Thursday December 3 to Saturday December 12, 2026, and the resorts build their calendars around it. Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean all play town that week, Texas bands take over the rooms off the Strip, and the casino lounges run live country every night. Here's what's on, night by night, starting with the shows you can book now.
Thursday, December 3: opening night
The National Finals Rodeo is the reason the whole week exists: the top fifteen contestants of the season in each event, ten performances on ten straight nights. Money won in every round counts toward the world titles, so every night in the arena counts. The rest of what to know about the rodeo itself is in our National Finals Rodeo guide.
Marcus King opens the concert week at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and he's the booking that isn't straight country. He's a guitar player from Greenville, South Carolina, who mixes blues, Southern rock and soul, and Darling Blue, the 2025 album with his band, leans toward country. With King the guitar solos are the main event, not the gap between verses.
Across town the same night, Dwight Yoakam plays Resorts World Theatre, and after the rodeo Ned LeDoux plays a free show at the Silverton's Veil Pavilion on the 3rd and again on the 4th.
Friday, December 4: the first weekend starts
The opening weekend is the busiest stretch of the run for ticketed shows, and Friday spreads them across four resorts and downtown.
Dierks Bentley has the first weekend at BleauLive Theater in Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th. He's been a Grand Ole Opry member since 2005, and the set runs from "What Was I Thinkin'" and "Drunk on a Plane" to songs from Broken Branches, his 2024 album. Two nights means he fits around a rodeo ticket on either one.
Gary Allan plays Resorts World Theatre on Friday only. He's the rougher voice of the weekend, a California-born singer with five number one country singles and a sound built on electric guitar. He's the choice if you like your country with some gravel in it.
The Eagles play Sphere on both NFR weekends: the 4th, 5th, 11th and 12th. They aren't a country act, but the band that formed in Los Angeles in 1971 and recorded "Take It Easy" is where plenty of country fans started, and Sphere's wraparound screen makes it unlike anything else this week. More in our Eagles at Sphere guide.
Check Eagles at Sphere tickets
Alice Cooper and Criss Angel are the left turn. Welcome to Our Nightmare runs at the Criss Angel Theater in Planet Hollywood from the 4th through the 6th, with Cooper's shock-rock songs and Angel's illusions in one production. Our Welcome to Our Nightmare preview covers how the two halves fit.
Check Alice Cooper and Criss Angel tickets
Chase Brown's Vegas Country is the downtown pick, a Friday night show on the third floor of Neonopolis on Fremont Street. Brown sings country hits from several decades and leaves room on the floor for line dancing. It's 21 and over, and he plays it on both NFR Fridays, the 4th and the 11th.
Saturday, December 5: three headliners at once
Saturday stacks three country headliners on one evening, on top of Bentley's second night and the Eagles.
Clay Walker brings the nineties to the Venetian Theatre. "What's It to You" went to number one in 1993, the year of his first album, and "Live Until I Die" and "If I Could Make a Living" followed. The Venetian Theatre is a mid-size room, and the listing sets the minimum age at sixteen.
Chris Young takes Resorts World Theatre the night after Gary Allan. He's a Tennessee native with one of the deepest baritones on country radio, and he joined the Grand Ole Opry in 2017. Expect "Gettin' You Home" and "Tomorrow" to get the loudest response.
Bailey Zimmerman plays PH Live at Planet Hollywood, and his crowd will be the youngest of the three. The Illinois singer broke through with "Rock and a Hard Place," and his second album, Different Night Same Rodeo, came out in August 2025, which makes this the right week for that title.
Check Bailey Zimmerman tickets
Also on Saturday: Rascal Flatts play the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and The Red Clay Strays play MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Sunday to Tuesday, December 6 to 8: the middle stretch
The middle of the run has fewer big tickets, not less music. Riley Green plays Resorts World Theatre on the 6th, and downtown the Golden Nugget Showroom books a country name nearly every night of the rodeo, with Ray Wylie Hubbard on the 6th, Neal McCoy on the 7th and Mark Chesnutt on the 8th. Chase Brown also plays Gilley's Saloon at Treasure Island on the 8th and 9th, and the Alice Cooper and Criss Angel run ends Sunday.
Atomic Saloon Show is the western-themed pick for a night off from the arena. It's a variety show set in a Wild West saloon inside the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian, made by Spiegelworld, the company behind Absinthe, with acrobats, bawdy comedy and a madam named Boozy Skunkton running the bar. It's for adults only, eighteen and over, and our Atomic Saloon Show review has the rest.
Check Atomic Saloon Show tickets
Wednesday, December 9: Texas night at Virgin
Casey Donahew and Josh Abbott Band split one stage at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and it's the booking Texas country fans circle first. Donahew grew up in Burleson, south of Fort Worth, and "Stockyards" is the one that gets shouted back; Josh Abbott Band formed at Texas Tech in Lubbock in 2006, and "She's Like Texas" is the song the whole room knows.
The Bellamy Brothers have the Golden Nugget Showroom on the 9th and 10th.
Thursday, December 10: Rhett or Adcock
Thursday is the one real clash of the week, two of the biggest names in different buildings on the same night.
Thomas Rhett plays the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Thursday and again on Saturday the 12th, the rodeo's last night. "Die a Happy Man," "Marry Me" and "Life Changes" all topped the country airplay chart, so four thousand people know most of the set before it starts. He's second-generation Nashville; his father is the songwriter Rhett Akins.
Gavin Adcock is back at Virgin the same night, and it's the loudest room of the week. He played nose tackle at Georgia Southern until a knee injury ended football for him in 2021, and "A Cigarette" has since gone platinum. Anyone after both should take Adcock on Thursday and Rhett on Saturday.
Riley Green plays his second Resorts World night, Wyatt Flores has Brooklyn Bowl, and Josh Ward plays free at the Veil Pavilion on the 10th and 11th.
Friday, December 11: stadium night
Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean bring the Double Down Tour to Allegiant Stadium, the only stadium show of NFR week and the biggest crowd in town that night. Two full headline sets, Aldean's harder-edged hits and Bryan's party songs, with a stadium singing along to both. Our Aldean and Bryan preview has more on the pairing.
Check Aldean and Bryan tickets
Creed turn the last weekend into Creedmas at BleauLive Theater in Fontainebleau, Friday and Saturday. All four original members are back, Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti in front, with "Higher" and "With Arms Wide Open" in the set and Tim Montana as special guest. It's the rock option for anyone who's had enough fiddle for one week.
Chase Brown plays his second NFR Friday downtown, Koe Wetzel has PH Live, and Turnpike Troubadours play Brooklyn Bowl.
Saturday, December 12: the final round
The last night of the rodeo has Thomas Rhett's second Colosseum show, Creed's second Creedmas and the Eagles' last NFR weekend date.
Sam Barber closes the week at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The Missouri singer-songwriter writes slow, heavy story songs built around a deep voice, and "Straight and Narrow" is the one that made his name. Broken View, his second album, came out in April 2026, so expect the new songs to carry much of the night.
Tracy Lawrence plays the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio, and Jamey Johnson closes the Golden Nugget Showroom series.
Rodeo night or concert night
Every rodeo performance starts in the early evening, and most of the concerts above start later that same evening at resorts a rideshare away, so doing both on one night is a squeeze. The easier plan is to split the week: arena on some nights, a headliner on the others. On the nights you do both, the free after-rodeo shows are the ones built for it, and the Westgate's International Bar and the Rio run live country from rodeo week's first night to its last. Of the concert rooms here, Virgin Hotels on Paradise Road is the closest to the arena. Stand-up fills the gaps too, with Mark Normand and Kathleen Madigan at the Palazzo Theatre on the 4th and 5th and Steve Trevino at MGM Grand from the 10th to the 12th.
