Giddy up! The yaks are back.

The National Western Stock Show announced Wednesday the “best 16 days in January” will return for 2022 from Jan. 8-23.

After the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions foiled the 2021 show – the first time that’s happened in 106 years – organizers are planning the 2022 show to be “biggest and best comeback in history.”

The show draws more than 700,000 visitors from 42 states and 35 countries. It generates almost 90% of the National Western’s $24 million in annual revenue.

The complex also hosted some 240 events per year, pre-pandemic. It was closed more than a year since March 2020 and just reopened in June. It had a 100% capacity event July 1, and an MLB All-Star Game event called the Card Show last weekend, according to a spokeswoman via email.

“It’s the most prestigious livestock show in the word,” National Western CEO Paul Andrews told the Denver Gazette in January. “It was sad to lose that economic impact to Denver, but it was obviously necessary” with the existing crowd restrictions due to the pandemic.

The 2022 show will bring back all the favorite events, organizers said. It’s also unveiling the newly-built Cille and Ron Williams Yards.

“Embodying the unique and iconic traditions of the Denver stockyards, these Yards now stretch across 20 acres of the historic site,” according to a press release. “The Yards will be back to business hosting the Super Bowl of livestock shows with more than 25 breeds of cattle, bison, yaks, longhorns and others.”

Also new for 2022 is the 46,000-square-foot HW Hutchison Family Stockyards Event Center.

Officials describe it as “a centerpiece on the iconic site of the new and improved yards, with state-of-the-art auction and show arenas,” adding, “this new Stockyards Event Center will be the talk of the livestock town”

Both are part of the growing National Western Center, for which donors have raised more than $60 million towards a $100 million goal to make “a global destination for agricultural heritage and innovation, one that promises a unique confluence of urban revitalization, economic development, tourism, education, research and Western art and culture,” according to a 2019 annual report from the show.

Economic impact studies have shown that the show generates some $120 million of economic activity to the metro Denver area.

Officials are looking for National Anthem singers as it brings back the National Anthem Contest. Vocalists can submit a video here.