Hudson Westbrook brings Hits Me Tour 26 to Rio Rancho in October

Rio Rancho Events Center will host Hudson Westbrook and his Hits Me Tour ’26 on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m., bringing the 22-year-old Texas country singer-songwriter to Sandoval County with special guests Kenny Whitmire and Ethan Burdick. The show lands as another check on whether the city can keep its arena in the touring mix and draw acts that are still climbing but already carrying enough momentum to merit a regional stop.

The venue will hold a pre-sale Thursday, July 16, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., before tickets go on sale to the public Friday, July 17, at 10 a.m. Westbrook’s official tour calendar also lists Rio Rancho as one stop on a broader 2026 routing that moves through arenas, amphitheaters and fairs, putting the New Mexico date inside a larger national push rather than a stand-alone booking.

Westbrook, from Stephenville, Texas, broke through in 2024 with his first release, Take It Slow, while he was enrolled at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The song gained traction on TikTok, and he later left college to focus on music full time. He followed with more singles and released his debut album, Texas Forever, in July 2025. By the time he reached the Rio Rancho booking, Rolling Stone had described him as “on the cusp of bona fide country music stardom.”

His Hits Me Tour ’26 is a 24-date fall headlining run that opens Sept. 18-19 in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Rio Rancho date arrives as part of that larger stretch. For Rio Rancho and Sandoval County, the value of a show like this is not just ticket sales. It is the chance to pull fans into local restaurants, hotel rooms and the Events Center itself while proving the venue can still land artists with enough upward momentum to justify a stop in New Mexico. If those bookings keep coming, the city has a stronger case that the arena is bringing touring business, and the spending that comes with it, into Rio Rancho.