Custer Days

The 2026 Custer Days fell on Saturday, August 8. The parade formed at Custer Elementary School and stepped off at 11 a.m. No one has to register to march; anyone who turns up that morning can join. In 2025 the line included local businesses, kids on dirt bikes and tractors. At its head was Steve Russell, a lifelong resident who keeps the Custer Historical Museum in the town’s old post office and whom the Cascadia Daily News calls Custer’s unofficial ambassador. Custer is a farming and logging hamlet established in 1886, population 518. The 2025 festival was held at Fourth and Main streets.

Booths, a beer garden, and bands until eleven

After the parade the street fills with about 40 vendor booths. The Northern Light’s preview of the 2025 festival listed goods ranging from home goods to power tools and animal items, with booths from organizations representing veterans and motorcyclists. That preview also named food trucks: Doug’s Burgers, Paso del Norte, Clutch Coffee and Dirties Soda Pop Stop. The Ferndale Record’s preview of the 2026 festival described food trucks as new that year.

Karaoke and a silent auction follow the parade. A cornhole tournament runs in the afternoon; in 2025 it was held from 1 to 3 p.m. The beer garden, for those 21 and over, stood outside Tony’s Tavern in 2025 and stayed open from 10 a.m. to midnight. Live music and street dancing run from 5 to 11 p.m. Three bands played in 2025, the Jaded Lovers, Category 5 and Whiplash Rodeo, and a cover charge for the evening went toward the festival. In 2026 the organizers thanked Wired and Tired for “kicking off Custer Days live music!”

The wagon jail and Sheriff Tiny

The Ferndale Record called the Custer Jail a fan favorite. It is a small covered wagon. A so-called sheriff arrests hooligans, or anyone at all, for a small fee, and the prisoner stays inside until someone pays another small fee to bail them out. Jeremy Nolan, owner of the Wings motorcycle shop in Custer, ran it in 2025.

“It was a lot of work last year, but it was so much fun,” Nolan told the Ferndale Record. “It was a blast.”

Nolan said 2025 was the most successful year the jail had seen. It raised enough to give a scholarship to a graduating senior who had attended Custer Elementary. It also paid for a covered area with a stand for a drum set, where bands can play during events such as Custer Days. For 2026 he hoped the festival would cover its own costs and fund another scholarship. If there was enough left over, he said, the Custer Heritage Society would like to buy a “Welcome to Custer” sign.

On the afternoon of the 2026 festival, the society posted that Sheriff Tiny was “out on his trusty steed.” Two days later it passed along his verdict: “Thank you everyone for a very successful Custer Days!! To make next year better, please leave your rowdy friends at home.” A later post asked after a detour sign and barricade that had gone missing from Valley View and Birch Bay Lynden. The society said it “would love to not have to replace it out of our budget.”

Car shows and lawn mower races

Custer Days began in August 1991. By 2016 the Lynden Tribune called it a town staple, though that year it nearly did not happen. Former president Nicole Perry had found herself with too much on her plate, and no one had taken the reins after the 2015 event. In the second week of July, Mellisa Williamson and her fellow new officers learned that there would be no Custer Days unless somebody acted. Permits must be sought at least 45 days before an event, so the celebration moved from mid-August to Saturday, September 3.

That day opened at 8 a.m. with the annual car show. Its categories included pre-1949, 1949–1960, 1961–1979, muscle car, modern car, hick truck and unfinished. The Blackouts played the street dance, Outlaws BBQ cooked, and Kid Rick Karaoke ran the microphone.

“It’s definitely been trial and error,” Williamson said. “We’re just lucky that the previous president took really good notes and kept really good information. It was pretty much, ‘We either do it, or it doesn’t happen,’ and we couldn’t let that happen. But it kind of snuck up on us.”

The 2017 festival returned to August, on the 12th. Its listing claimed hundreds of visitors every year and described vendors offering crafts and food “from all over Washington.” It also announced the return of lawn mower races. Sunset Superman, which the listing called “a huge favorite of all of Whatcom Co.,” played the street dance. The Ferndale Record says the festival fizzled out around 2017 for lack of volunteer engagement. The Northern Light and the Cascadia Daily News each describe the 2025 return as coming after seven years away.

Nicole McDonald, who grew up helping her mother with Custer Days, explained the collapse this way: everyone wanted to come, but nobody wanted to put in the work. “It’s a lot of work,” she said. “It takes a village.”

Meetings at Wings and Tony’s Tavern

Nolan brought his motorcycle shop to Custer in 2024. “The buzz was everybody wanted to get it going again,” he said. He gathered likeminded people, McDonald among them, now owner of Tony’s Tavern. At the very end of 2024 they formed the Custer Heritage Society, which the Northern Light calls the Custer Heritage Board. Sam Sherman served as lead organizer. The Northern Light counted nine volunteers, up from the three or four who had carried the festival in its last years.

“It used to be an important part of the community that everyone looked forward to,” Sherman said. “Now, we’re excited to bring it back and strengthen the community bond.”

On August 9, 2025, hundreds lined the streets. The day ran on donations, the silent auction, the band cover and the jail. “We were surprised we got that many,” Nolan said of the vendors. “We had to turn people away.” McDonald called the year “a starting point.”

The society met through the following winter and spring, usually at Wings at 6 p.m. and once at Tony’s Tavern, and in May it announced “our comeback year 2.” Nolan said he would close Wings permanently at the end of August 2026, and on festival day the whole shop was half off. Afterward the society posted that anyone who had lost a cup could pick it up at Wings Motorcycle after Tuesday.