Celebrate Blackfoot

On the last Saturday morning of June, the basketball court and lawns at Jensen Grove fill with craft booths, city displays and food trucks. Mexican Crazy Corn is a regular among them. Celebrate Blackfoot is a summer festival of entertainment, family activities and community competitions, held at Jensen Grove Park and the Eastern Idaho State Fairgrounds. Its Facebook page calls it “a multi day event to enjoy Independence Day and celebrate our great community.” The Greater Blackfoot Area Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1952, puts it on with its sponsors. Jaime Popejoy, the chamber’s executive director, said the event drew “approximately 10,000 people last year.”

Two days at Jensen Grove

The 2026 festival ran Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27. It marked Blackfoot’s 125th birthday. “We’ve been celebrating America250 all year long — and for Celebrate Blackfoot, we’re going to focus on Blackfoot 125 in conjunction with America’s birthday,” Popejoy said.

Friday began at the airport. The Smoke and Wings Barbecue Competition ran there from noon to 5 p.m. The regional tourism office describes the barbecue event as a grilling cook-off and scholarship auction fundraiser. At 8 that evening a Zumba party took over the basketball court at Jensen Grove. The festival’s page reported afterward, “We had an amazing group for the ZUMBA PARTY tonight!!!” At 8 the next morning, Shauntel Marotz led yoga and Pilates at the Blackfoot Rec Center.

On Saturday, Popejoy said, “all vendors and activities will start at 10 a.m. and go until the evening.” New food vendors in 2026 included East Meets West, Knots and Nibbles, and Cindy Lou’s Kitchen. Bingham Healthcare sponsored the Kid’s Fun Zone, with bounce houses, a barrel train and a candy cannon, which fired at 3 p.m. by the swings. Children ran their own stalls at the Kids Business Fair, selling handmade goods. There was a cornhole tournament open to the public, and the Southeast Idaho High Country tourism office lists free outdoor concerts by local and regional bands.

The fireworks began at 10 p.m. The festival’s page told people to bring lawn chairs and blankets for the Liberty Fireworks Show. The tourism office describes it as a fireworks and drone display synchronized at dusk.

Smoke, chrome and horses

The burnout competition was new in 2026. It was sponsored by Tadd Jenkins and held at Tadd Jenkins at 5 p.m. Friday, where drivers competed to raise the largest clouds of tire smoke. The car show filled Jensen Grove from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday with classic cars, hot rods, muscle cars, trucks and custom builds. Popejoy called it usually the most popular part of the festival. She said it had more than 100 cars entered the year before: “It’s growing like crazy every year.” The tourism office’s listing gives the count as over 200 classic and custom cars and trucks.

The same listing names other events. Radio-controlled cars race on a custom-built track; in 2026 the festival brought them in with Metz R/C Raceway and Hobbies. It also lists a ranch rodeo for team competitors and Indian relay races with tribal riders. The tourism office notes that events vary from year to year.

Washboards and the potato museum

The Pioneer Settlement opened at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 27, 2026, its first year. Popejoy described it to two newspapers. To the Idaho State Journal she said, “We’re going to have old-fashioned ice cream. Kids are going to learn to scrub laundry on the old washboard. We’ll be gathering eggs.” To EastIdahoNews.com she said, “Families can come and do things that pioneers did, like churning butter, gathering fresh chicken eggs and scrubbing laundry on a washboard.”

The same afternoon, free 40-minute tours of historic Blackfoot left the Idaho Potato Museum every hour on the hour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The city asked riders to tip the driver and tour guide. The festival thanked Teton Stage Lines, Rupes Burgers, the Idaho Potato Museum and the Bingham County Historical Society for the tours.

Pride Days and Maurine Hill

The festival began as Blackfoot Pride Days, a weeklong event, in the 1980s. Maurine Taylor, then Maurine Hill, led it from the start. “Pride” then meant community pride. She brought the idea to Mayor Dean Hill. “I got the OK from the city. He (the mayor) told me to go for it,” she told EastIdahoNews.com. She then spent months knocking on doors for sponsors and volunteers. “Starting early and lots of delegating were the keys,” she said.

The exact dates are uncertain. From the late 1980s through about 2014, Pride Days ranked among the town’s most anticipated events, second to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Residents painted storefront windows and wore Pride Days T-shirts printed with a giant black foot. The week held a light parade, a poker run, melodramas, car shows and mud volleyball. A free baked-potato feed helped inspire the Idaho Potato Museum’s “Free Taters for Out-of-Staters” campaign. For the ping-pong ball drop, a local pilot flew over Jensen Grove and released hundreds of numbered balls. Each number matched a prize donated by a local merchant. Snowmobile races across Jensen Grove Lake drew spectators from around the region, though they have not been part of the festival in recent years. Taylor remembered the first celebration: “I will never forget the feeling of looking around and seeing all the teenagers dancing at the street dance and people having fun.”

Around 2014, organizers renamed the event Celebrate Blackfoot. EastIdahoNews.com reported two explanations from residents. Some say the change avoided confusion as “pride” became more commonly linked with LGBTQ celebrations. Others say the festival needed a fresh identity as it shrank to a shorter run before Independence Day. Taylor said she understands and respects the decision. She also helped start the Blackfoot Community Players and helped open the Idaho Potato Museum. At 85 she still lives in Blackfoot. “I didn’t realize at the time that I was building a legacy,” she said. “It’s amazing to me that something I started is still happening.”