Beef 'N Bean Day

At ten in the morning on Saturday, August 8, 2026, the Beef ‘N Bean Day Grand Parade stepped off through downtown Milliken. The entries were schools and bands, sports teams, businesses, floats and decorated vehicles, horse groups, families, and individuals. The theme was “250 Years of Celebrating America: Honoring the Past • Celebrating Our Freedom • Building Our Future,” and the Milliken Festival Committee asked spectators to bring lawn chairs and flags. The committee billed it as the 102nd annual Beef ‘N Bean Day.

The festival falls on the second Saturday in August and runs rain or shine. In 2026 events ran from 6:00 a.m. to dusk on two grounds: downtown for the parade, and the Milliken Athletic Complex on South Centennial Drive, which the town calls the MAC, for everything after. The town’s vendor page reckons the crowd in thousands. The committee is a town body, headquartered at the town offices at 1101 Broad Street. In 2022 the Greeley Tribune described its predecessor, the Milliken Events Committee, as an all-volunteer group of citizens, business owners, and leaders.

Pancakes, a foam pit, and fireworks at the MAC

The day opens with a pancake breakfast. In 2015 it was the Fireman’s Pancake Breakfast at the Milliken Fire Station, $4 for children and $5 for adults. In 2022 it was held at Front Range Fire House, 101 S. Irene Ave. That year the Tribune also reported an earlier start, the Beef n’ Bean Day Siren Call at 5:30 a.m. Two teenagers rode with the Milliken Police Department around town, announcing the day with flashing lights, sirens, and cheers over the loudspeaker.

After the parade the crowd moves to the MAC. In 2026 Steve & the Cruisers played songs from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Food trucks, artisan and craft vendors, and a beer garden filled the grounds. The free KidzArea had bounce houses, and a foam pit ran from 1:00 to 4:00. Across the way, the car show in the Civica School parking lot took all builds from 12:30 to 3:30: drag cars, drift cars, classics, new cars, domestics, and imports. The committee’s notices also called for hot rods, trucks, Jeeps, and motorcycles.

The free community barbecue dinner began at 5:00 p.m. and was served while supplies lasted. In 2022 the Milliken Dinner had been a ticketed meal of pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, and coleslaw, at $12 for those 13 and older and $8 for children. After the 2026 supper came awards, a glow party, and a DJ dance. At sundown the committee posted “DON’T GO HOME YET!” and the fireworks went up over the MAC at 9:15 p.m.

On Sunday the festival closes more quietly. In 2026, Love Thy Neighbor and Milliken Presbyterian Church held Worship in the Park and a community potluck at Lola Park at 10:00 a.m. Those who came brought a dish, lawn chairs, and blankets. Lola Park sits on Forest Street between Irene and Josephine avenues. In 2015 nearly the whole Saturday program was held there, from the Rambling Rose 5K and the Pet and Doll Parade to a farmers market and a street dance with the Kenny Brent Band.

Beans, burgers, and sourdough

The 2026 contests were the Hometown Bean Contest, a Sourdough Bread Contest, a karaoke contest, and the Kidz-Q, a burger competition for children. The Tribune’s 2022 account explains how the Kidz-Q works: the town supplies the hamburger and the gear, and the young cooks bring their own recipes. That year six junior chefs entered, four from Milliken and two from Johnstown, for prizes of $100, $75, and $50. The bean contest paid $200 for first.

The 2022 adult events were larger. A Backyard Barbecue Competition gave each team two pork butts and asked for three money cuts in return. A new Steak Competition asked each griller for two steaks. Both paid $1,000 for first place, and there were horseshoe and cornhole tournaments besides. The 2015 program had a jalapeño eating contest, tractor wagon rides at Milliken Middle School at $1 a ride, and Blind Man Tractor Races at the Burn Out Grill on Broad Street.

“There are food competitions, a lot of small business that will be vendors there and lots of activities for the kids,” committee member Stephanie Baudhuin told the Tribune in 2022. “That’s a huge focus of ours — making sure the kids are going to have fun.”

Honored citizens, three generations deep

Each year the festival names a grand marshal, an honored citizen, an honored organization, and a business of the year, and recognizes them in the parade. In 2026 the honored citizen was Ashley Hartig. The honored organization was VFW Post 2585, and the business of the year, chosen by public nomination, was Paradice Cream Milliken.

The Milliken Historical Society records that in the 1986 parade the honored citizens were Clyde and Rose Bejarano. Clyde ran Clyde’s Barber Shop for 63 years. Rose kept a clothing bank in the back of the shop for families in need.

The 2022 honored citizen, Peggy Wakeman, was born and raised in the Milliken area, and her grandfather and parents had been honored at earlier celebrations. “The first population sign I remember said it was a population of 250 people and I think we are around 9,000 now,” she told the Tribune. “This is really a special time to honor the traditions and values that I’ve grown up with.”

A pot of pinto beans

Milliken was platted in 1909 along the Denver, Laramie & Northwestern Railway and named for Judge John D. Milliken, a lawyer for the railroad. It absorbed the older farm settlement of Hillsboro on its western edge. The country around it raised beets, potatoes, cattle, and beans. Carl Vetter came from Germany in 1893 and bought 240 acres east of Jack Rabbit Trail in 1905. The Historical Society records that he was given the title “Bean King of Weld County.” Elmer Stroh, who wrote a town history with his wife, Helen, recalled ranchers driving fat cattle through the business district to the train station. “Everyone would be out in their yards watching,” he told the Tribune in 2002.

How the festival began depends on who tells it. The Johnstown Breeze, in 2025, gave it as local lore. In 1924 a Presbyterian minister cooked a pot of pinto beans, one of the area’s crops, for people who were hungry. In 1926 the first official event was held as a town picnic. A few years later a rancher donated a side of beef.

The Tribune’s 2015 account dates the start to 1924 but says the festival then stopped. By that account it returned in 1972, after residents were seen roasting beef on a Milliken corner, and was called “Bean Day” until 1984, when a local farmer donated beef. The timeline the Tribune drew from the Strohs’ book in 2002 lists 1971 as the year “the first annual Beef and Bean Day” was held. The town’s own pages say the festival has celebrated Milliken’s agricultural heritage since 1923.

The numbering follows the 1924 date. The Historical Society marked 2024 as the festival’s 100th anniversary and honored families who had lived in the community a century or more. It displayed their stories at Town Hall and at the Heritage House Museum. The Breeze called the 2025 festival the 101st.

The town’s own centennial fell in 2010, and that year’s Beef and Bean Day, on August 14, carried it. The Firemen’s Breakfast, parade, barbecue, street dance, and fireworks went on as usual, and a Centennial mural was unveiled on the Milliken Grain Elevator. Sunday brought an old-fashioned baseball tournament and an ice cream social.

The grand marshal in 2026 was Pastor Mark of Milliken Presbyterian Church. The congregation began as Hillsboro Presbyterian Church and was moved into the new railroad town.