Kersey Days

On the Friday evening of Kersey Days, the gates of the Kersey Dirt Track, at the corner of Latham and 9th streets, open at 5 p.m. An hour later the racing begins. The field is go-karts and lawn mowers. The town’s race page says the mowers are fitted with “powerful engines and custom modifications” and that they come around “kicking up dirt and battling for the top spot.” The entry form lists the kart divisions: 2 Stroke Open, 4 Stroke Stock/Gas, 4 Stroke Methanol, Lo 206 Class, Yard Karts, and Mini Modified. Each kart carries its number on the right side, and so does the driver’s helmet.

The dirt track at Ninth and Latham

The pits open at 3 p.m., and racers sign up there on the day. A pit meeting is called at 5:30. For the 2026 races on Friday, August 7, general admission was $5, children five and under got in free, and a pit pass cost $10. Food trucks served from 5:30 to 8. A beer garden sponsored by Wagon Wheel Liquor opened with the gates. The races are offered by the Kersey Days Planning Committee for the Town of Kersey, which runs the festival. Kaylee Damrell at Kersey Town Hall answers questions about the races, the parade, and the vendor fair.

Saturday from pancakes to fireworks

The 2026 Saturday, August 8, began at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast at Kersey Community Church. At 7:30 came the Bronco 5K, a fun run organized by Platte Valley Cross-Country and hosted by Platte Valley High School at 901 Campbell Street.

The Kersey Heritage Parade stepped off at 10, presented by Rush Truck Centers. The town describes the parade as a tribute to the area’s farming and ranching history and to the founding of the town. Entrants decorate floats, vehicles, bicycles, and costumes. Streets crossing the route close about half an hour before the start. Parking is on streets around town and in the lot at Kersey Town Hall. Spectators set up chairs or stand along the sidewalks, and the town asks them not to cross the street during the procession, “even if there is a gap between entries.”

From 10:30 the festival moved to Centennial Park at 301 1st Street. The vendor fair there is free and is limited to sixty booths. The town’s page names handmade crafts, artisanal goods, and local treats among the wares, with face painting and balloon animals for children. Kids’ activities cost nothing but need a waiver signed by a parent or guardian. Food trucks served from 11 to 8, and the beer garden reopened at 1. The Kersey Area Chamber of Commerce held a silent auction from 11 to 4; the Chamber’s own calendar dated it Saturday, August 1, and the town’s schedule placed it on August 8.

Basketball and volleyball tournaments began at 11, organized by the Platte Valley High School Broncos teams in each sport. The basketball is played on the Derek Prescott Court in Centennial Park. Proceeds from both tournaments go to the Derek Prescott Foundation, which the town says funds projects in Kersey and in the Platte Valley RE-7 school district. Cornhole followed at 1:30, on boards carrying sponsors’ logo decals.

The stage held the Kersey Community Church Praise Band at 11:30, a Dance Factory performance at 3, Junction 34 at 6, and Carson Jeffrey at 8. Fireworks closed the night at 9:30. The concert and fireworks are free. The town says Kersey Days receives no dedicated public funding for the event itself, and sponsors pay for the entertainment.

A car show for Blayd Fox

The 2026 festival added the First Annual Blayd Fox Memorial Car Show, held in Centennial Park from 10:30 to 2:30. Its divisions were Rat Rod, Pre-50s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Imports, and Trucks. Division winners are chosen by the community. An engine-rev tribute takes place before the awards. Registration fees, donations, and the takings of a silent auction and merchandise store go toward a mechanic scholarship in Blayd’s memory at Aims Community College, and Amy Fox takes inquiries from sponsors. The town’s page invites visitors to honor “Blayd’s passion for cars” and closes: “Let’s ride in remembrance.”

Orr, the railroad, and 1908

Before there was a town, Elbridge Gerry kept a trading post called Fort Gerry on the South Platte River near the present site of Kersey, in the 1830s. His two Native American wives helped him run it. In 1840 he abandoned the site and built a post on the river’s south bank. Gerry is said to be the first white man to settle in what is now Weld County.

The Kersey Historical Museum dates the town’s start to a railroad stop called Orr, on 12/20/1894. A post office called Kersey has operated since 1894. A railroad official named the place for his mother’s maiden name. The town’s own account says the name Orr lasted only a few years, and that many relatives of the Orrs still live in the area. Kersey was incorporated as a town on December 3, 1908. It stands on U.S. Highway 34 east of Greeley, at the eastern edge of irrigated land, where the landscape gives way to the Eastern Plains. The museum calls the Latham Ditch the agricultural lifeline of Kersey and lists beef, dairy, corn, hay, sugar beets, beans, and grains as the area’s mainstays. The 2020 census counted 1,495 residents; the town puts the figure at around 1,600.

The museum, at 413 1st Street, holds farm implements, an early telephone, and the Hardin Store. It also keeps photographs taken in the Kuner and Orchard areas during the filming of Centennial, made from the James A. Michener book.

Fourth Street, under the trees

In May 2008 the Kersey Area Chamber announced in The Fence Post a “Kersey Days 100 year anniversary” for August 15, 16, and 17, a century after the town’s incorporation. It promised “the biggest hometown celebration in years.” The program listed street dances, a beer garden, a fun run, a pancake breakfast, a parade, a tractor pull, and fireworks, with a non-denominational church service on Sunday to close. Perry Buck took the calls from sponsors and volunteers.

On the parade Saturday in 2014, P.J. Reynolds sat with her mother, Donna Reedy, in the shade of the trees along 4th Street, the Greeley Tribune reported. Reynolds had lived in Kersey since 1970 and had watched the parade every year since 1974, and her mother had seen it as many times. “I like the whole parade. It’s really fun to see everybody,” Reedy said. Their neighbor Anna Baur, waiting for her 12-year-old granddaughter to pass on a float, said, “It’s gotten a lot bigger and better.”

That year’s festival filled Centennial Park and Kohler Park and drew more than 500 people on the Saturday. It had a car show, a motorcycle show, a horseshoe tournament, a tug-of-war, an inflatable obstacle course, and tours of the Kersey Museum. Thirteen-year-old Alberto Perez held on to a mechanical bull. In Kohler Park, Andrew Carney of the Suicidal Lifestyle Stunt team balanced on his bike before a performance. The parade brought a line of police cars and a marching band. Riders on the floats threw candy to the crowd, and children ran to collect it. Ron Rose was there with his family for the first time. “It’s really great for the kids,” he said. “I know they will get to collect a lot of candy.”