Coolidge Cotton Days Festival

San Carlos Park sits at 300 W. Central Avenue in Coolidge, and for three days in early March the Coolidge Chamber of Commerce fills it with a midway. The 2026 edition, the 44th, ran March 6 through 8. Admission and parking were free; the rides were not. A wristband bought in advance at the chamber office or online cost $35, and $45 bought the same thing at the gate. Single rides took four to seven tickets apiece. Kastl Amusements, out of Wildomar, California, brought the Zipper, the Super Shot, Ali Baba, Starship, Ghost Pirate’s, the Puppy Roll, the Super Slide and the Jungle Twist Coaster, among others; on many of the kiddy rides a child had to measure 36 inches to ride alone. The carnival opened at 5 p.m. Friday, ran 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and closed Sunday at 5.

The chamber’s own listing gives the festival wider hours than the midway — noon to 10 Friday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 Sunday — because food booths, retail and city booths, arts and crafts, and the main stage account for the rest. In 2023 the count was about 14 or 15 food booths and 16 to 18 retail, informational and city booths. Texas Twister returned that year selling its lemonade in a large cup or a plastic cowboy boot. United Dance and Reach USA sold green and red chili fry bread burritos and popovers, which the chamber considers staples of the event.

Saturday, from the 5K to the bale rolling

Friday evening in 2026 belonged to Teen Night, which started at 7 p.m. in the park, with the Coolidge-based United Dance Crew back for its “King of the Ring” dance battles. The studio has performed on NBC’s “World of Dance” and has won World of Hip Hop competitions around the country. Across town at the Woman’s Club on Pinkley Avenue, the quilt show opened at 10 a.m. and ran to 4, and did the same on each of the three days.

Saturday begins early. Registration for the 5K Run/Walk opened at 7 a.m. In 2023 a pancake breakfast was served at that same hour, for anyone who preferred a plate of pancakes to a good stretch. There was no Gem & Mineral Show in 2026; another similar showcase was held elsewhere at about the same time.

The parade steps off at 10 a.m. Families line Coolidge and Central Avenues and Fourth and Main Streets. In 2023, thirty entries worked the weekend’s theme, “Dirt Roads Take Me Home.” In 2025 the Horseplay Hooligans placed first with Cypress the horse pulling a wagon. In 2026, Mayor Jon Thompson took the main stage after the parade to announce the winners.

At 11 a.m. came the Tractor Show, led by M&S Equipment president Tom Scott, who planned to bring in some older tractors alongside the newer equipment. A tractor event at Cotton Days has produced at least one unusual race: in 2007 guests got a good laugh out of a “slowest tractor” contest.

Registration for the Jake Moore Memorial Cotton Bale Rolling Contest also opened at 11 a.m., sponsored by River Cooperative Gin. Competitors come from the local high school’s Marine Corps Junior ROTC program and from returning teams of former and current residents; at the 2022 contest, Cameron Bechtel and Taylor Randall put muscle and technique into it. Executive Director Lynn Parsons has called the contest a “staple” she does not think could ever be removed from the schedule, since it works cotton itself into the event.

Cornhole registration followed at 12:30 p.m. It had been absent the previous year. “We have some local guys that really want to bring cornhole back,” Parsons said. The main stage ran through the afternoon: The Dance Spot from San Tan Valley at 11:30 a.m., Tucson comedian and hypnotist Dave Membrila at 12:30, the band Maña Norteña at 3, and the Florence-based Fred Cap Band at 6.

The water districts take the lead

Each year the chamber singles out a part of Coolidge’s agricultural history as a theme. For 2026 it was irrigation. “We are celebrating the water districts this year ... without water, we wouldn’t have cotton,” Parsons said. Three local irrigation districts — San Carlos Irrigation, Hohokam Irrigation and Central Arizona Irrigation — were named grand marshals of the parade.

Sunday, March 8, brought a new event that restored an old one: the first Car Show by Coolidge Custom Classics. Cotton Days had a Sunday car show years ago, back when Parsons sat on the chamber board. When the earlier group of car enthusiasts tried to move it to Saturday, it collided with other events and did not return. “[Coolidge Custom Classics] want to get more involved ... and they wanted to do it on Sunday,” Parsons said. “Years ago [the original car show] was big, it was a big deal, so this is just working out, and I expect it to grow tremendously.”

1981, and a bale handed to a guest speaker

The chamber started Cotton Days in 1981 and has carried it on nearly every year since, with the exception of 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled it. It is the organization’s longest-running and largest event, generating 30 to 40 percent of its yearly revenue. “It’s our biggest event of the year,” Parsons said in 2023. “We work really hard on it. Our vendors come back year after year.” More than 6,000 people attended over the three-day weekend as of 2023; Parsons put the 2025 figure at around 7,000.

A grand marshal can be anyone in the community, living or dead, who has made a notable impact on the city. The 2023 marshal was the late Jack Moore, former owner and operator of Coolidge Engine & Pump, who died in June 2021 and whose name the bale rolling contest now carries. His wife, Eva, said Moore and others believed “he made water happen.” He had taken over the company after his father, Wendell, died in 2004, having worked alongside him for five years. “He has worked with all the farmers in Pinal County and in fact in Pima County, Maricopa County, he’s been all over,” she said. “But, there wasn’t anything he would not do for any of the farmers that needed help with any of their pumps.” She described him as a very giving man who supported local 4-H fundraisers: “I mean, this man was an angel.”

Paul John Prechel, who farmed cotton, wheat, barley and alfalfa near Coolidge for nearly 55 years and served almost 23 years on the city council as its acknowledged water expert, was Cotton Days grand marshal twice. He died May 25, 2020, at 91.

October to February is the best and busiest stretch for Coolidge cotton farmers, unlike Texas or Oklahoma, where the largest harvests run March to June; by November, large modules of cotton dot the farms along State Route 87 at both ends of town. Fewer fields than there once were, Parsons noted in 2023: “Water’s a big issue so farmers are limited, but as you know, cotton is a huge staple for the economy. So, how that is going to pan out, I don’t know.” She added, “but if you just go out, you don’t see as many fields as you used to see.” Of the festival itself: “It’s history, you know, and it’s something to be celebrated. I wouldn’t want our community to forget where our roots came from.”

The 2026 festival was her last at the helm; she retired in May, after working the event alongside her successor, Renee Wood. One chamber habit she inherited is older than Cotton Days: visiting guest speakers are given small cotton bales, a reminder that since the city’s founding in 1925 Coolidge has been a cotton-farming town. J.F. Robinson, chamber president in 1981, put it this way: “Without cotton there wouldn’t be Coolidge.”