August 15, 2025
FORT WORTH, TX - Make your plans now to come to Fort Worth's Historic Stockyards this December for the 2025 AWA Member Conference and Awards Ceremonies, with appearances by Red Steagall and Michael Martin Murphey!
On Monday, Dec. 1, we'll gather with Academy members at the Courtyard Fort Worth Historic Stockyards, our headquarters hotel and conference location, for panel discussions, networking, and a 6 PM meet & greet. The conference is included with your Academy membership. Please register by November 15, 2025 so we can host you appropriately.
On Tuesday, Dec. 2, we'll have two awards ceremonies. At 1 PM, we'll give the Awards for Authors, Artists, Artisans, Media, Industry, and Chuckwagons, and at 7 PM, the Awards for Musicians, Poets, & Lifetime Achievement, with appearances by honorees Red Steagall and Michael Martin Murphey. Academy members get 50% off 2 tickets per show.
Award applications will be accepted until Aug. 30. Professional members who join before the application deadline are eligible to apply for one or more of the seventy-one awards in seven categories:
There is no application fee for an award. Descriptions of each award and what is required to enter are on the awards page.
The Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District celebrates Western spirit and culture. You'll find Western shopping, live music, authentic country dancing, a twice-daily cattle drive of the Fort Worth Herd, rodeos, fiestas, museums, saloons, and more. Compact and walkable, you can rediscover your Wild West spirit in just a few fascinating blocks.
Billy Bob's 81 Club, the private event space next door to Billy Bob's Texas, is the setting for our 2025 Awards Ceremonies. As "The World's Largest Honky-Tonk," housed in an historic 1910 building, Billy Bob's Texas invites everyone to "come experience our Honky Tonk attitude, friendly Fort Worth hospitality, and truly unique atmosphere."
Our headquarters hotel and conference location, Courtyard Fort Worth Historic Stockyards, is across Main Street from the 81 Club. We have a group rate available at the hotel from Sunday night, Nov. 30 through Tuesday night, Dec. 2 for $175 per night. Reservations must be made by Friday, Oct. 31 to hold your room at this rate. Parking is $20 per day (valet only). Members, watch your email for the reservation link.
You can travel to the Stockyards by car, by TRE train from Dallas (via a connecting Orange Line bus to the Stockyards), or from downtown Fort Worth by the free Orange Line bus to the Courtyard Fort Worth Historic Stockyards (10 minute ride). If arriving by air at the DFW Airport, you can take the twice-hourly TEXRail train from the Terminal B station to North Side TEXRail Station ($3 per person). Then you can take the free Orange Line bus to the Courtyard Fort Worth Historic Stockyards (10 minute ride). Services run from 5 AM to 11:40 PM. Or you can use a rideshare app as a shuttle from the passenger pickup area at your terminal. It's about a 30-minute ride, depending on traffic, and may cost about $55.