MontanaFair

At 12:30 on Saturday, August 15, the last day of the 2026 MontanaFair, the Patrick K. Goggins Junior Livestock Sale opened in the Expo Center at MetraPark. The sale closes out the year’s projects for 4-H and FFA exhibitors. It followed a week of judging in the same building. Tuesday brought the market steer and heifer show and the sheep show. Goats and swine showmanship came on Wednesday, and a costume parade of animals that evening. Thursday had market and breeding swine, llamas and alpacas, and Friday a beef fitting contest.

The rest of that closing day, billed as the Grand Fair-Nale, ran on a tight clock. From noon to three, every ride on the Mighty Thomas Carnival midway cost four credits. At four the mullet contest convened at the TDS Tent, with Ruthless Barbershop on site for last-minute cleanup and tickets to Rodeo Billings for the winner in each age group. At seven the rodeo began its third and final night in the Outdoor Arena, and the fair stayed open until midnight.

Curd flights and duck races

The fair fills MetraPark, 189 acres on 6th Avenue North in Billings. The complex holds an arena, the Expo Center, the Montana Pavilion, an equestrian barn, stalls, spaces for recreational vehicles, and a pond. By the fair’s count it draws nearly 250,000 guests over its nine days. The 2027 fair is set for August 13–21.

Gate entertainment fills the hours between the shows. In 2026 The Junebugs and Catherine Loyer & Strawberry Roan traded sets twice a day on the Montana Lottery’s Winners Circle Stage, with Magician Jeff Martin between them. The Great American Duck Races ran three times a day in Montana Park, and The Rocketman performed on the carnival lot at four and nine. Paz the Sports Guy and the Fritters strolled the grounds. By the fair’s own account, the Fritters hijacked one of the carts a sponsor had lent the staff for the nine days. In Heritage Park, children could dig through a box of corn for small things to take home.

On the last day the fair’s own list of necessities ran to “one more corn dog, funnel cake or basket of cheese curds.” In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Montana Pavilion, B-Town Snack Shack sold a cheese curd flight: four of five flavors, chosen from salt and vinegar, dill pickle, Hatch green chili, garlic, and white cheddar. The inside window closed at nine and the outside window at eleven. Fairgoers voted daily on the food in a contest called the Battle of the Bites.

Darcie Tempel, the fair’s marketing manager, counts the corn dog and the Ferris wheel among the fair’s staples. She counts fried Oreos and the Crazy Coaster among the newer additions; the coaster arrived for the first time in the fair’s 111th year. The Billings Gazette has reported that Vikings on a stick still draw a crowd at the Sons of Norway booth. Its account begins with Brenda Weston, whose children once brought her down to the 4-H show and whose grandchildren bring her now.

Rodeo Billings and the arena

Rodeo Billings returned in 2026 for its second year as a PRCA pro rodeo. It is produced by NILE, which the fair calls “the longtime organizer behind Billings’ historic rodeo tradition.” It draws PRCA cowboys and cowgirls chasing winnings toward a place at the National Finals Rodeo, along with bucking horses and bulls. A rodeo ticket includes gate admission. Spectators enter through the Main Gates and walk around the Expo Center to the arena entrance. The rodeo grounds open at six and the performance begins at seven, and food bought on the grounds may be carried into the arena.

The concerts play in First Interstate Arena, which seats 10,000. On the opening Friday of 2019 the country groups BlackHawk and Shenandoah played the “Triple Threat Tour” there, while the midway held its Sneak-a-Peek night. That night a Gazette photographer caught Jordan Lewis, 8, and Caysin Lewis, 7, screaming on the Moby Dick ride. Earlier that day the same photographer had found Danessa Stevens showing her pet snake at the 4-H Pocket Pet Show and Justyce Bickle, 10, petting her chicken. Another Gazette photograph shows the rapper Flo Rida spraying a bottle of champagne into the crowd on a Friday, Aug. 8. That weekend the Pepsi Concert Series went on with comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and with Russell Dickerson and Niko Moon.

A train from the depot, 1916

Rodeo came early to these grounds. The first Midland Empire Fair, in 1916, promised the finest agricultural, livestock, and industrial exhibits ever seen. The fair board arranged with the Northern Pacific Railroad to run a train from the depot to the fairgrounds, at special rates for riders going back and forth from home. Communities came from all over Montana and northern Wyoming. Exhibitors showed a year’s work in hopes of a blue ribbon and traded advice on what had worked for them and what had not.

By 1919, the fourth annual fair, several counties of northern Wyoming were showing exhibits and livestock, and Wyoming had come to regard the fair as an advertising tool in the Northwest. The fair’s history credits its livestock with making Montana known as a state where purebred livestock was a specialty. The annual horse race drew thousands, and the rodeo brought cowboys from all over the nation to compete for the largest purses.

The name Midland Empire Fair held for nearly 60 years. Then the board, reasoning that people were not sure what or where the Midland Empire was, renamed the fair the Yellowstone Exhibition. It chose “exhibition” because Great Falls already used “exposition.” The Yellowstone Exhibition lasted about 14 years before it became MontanaFair, and the Midland Empire Fairgrounds became MetraPark.

The auditorium fire and the Metra

In 1969 the original Midland Empire Auditorium burned down. The board used the loss to build a facility that could be used year round and host more than the annual fair. It was named the Metra, for Montana Entertainment Trade and Recreation Arena. The fair’s history places its construction seven years after the fire. A MetraPark organizational review gives 1975 as the year the arena was completed. The Gazette dates its opening to Dec. 10, 1975, with Holiday on Ice as the first show; Chuck Berry played there on Valentine’s Day, 1976. Naming rights were sold in 2007 in a 10-year agreement, and the building is now First Interstate Arena.

On June 20, 2010, the Father’s Day tornado struck. The organizational review records major damage to the arena. The Gazette, which called the building the Rimrock Auto Arena at the time, wrote that the storm destroyed it. MetraPark manager Bill Dutcher later remembered it as the tornado that took the roof off the arena. Afterward, Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Deputy John Smith and Taylor Brown unfolded a flag found near the arena’s upper parking lot. A truck known as “Twister” came through the storm. The arena was remodeled with improved acoustics, more restrooms and concession areas, and easier access from the parking areas. Elton John played the first concert there after the tornado, in 2011.

The storm also destroyed much of MetraPark’s records. In 2015 Tempel was assigned to compile them again. “By doing that project that definitely made me the quote unofficial history expert for the fair,” she said. “Fair is about tradition. If it started and it worked, it’s stayed with us.”

Ten cents at the gate

Admission at the first fair was 10 cents, when gas cost 18 cents a gallon and milk 9 cents. In 2026 an adult paid $12. “That’s why we try to do as many promotions to try and make it affordable for families,” Tempel said.

One of those promotions dates to the First World War. Tempel said a veterans’ deal began after that war and has run every year since, later widened to first responders. In 2026 it took the form of Service to America Day on the final Friday, with free gate admission all day for veterans, active military, first responders, and frontline workers with ID. The same week also had Wendy’s Kids Day and a Teen Day, when 13- to 18-year-olds got in free from noon to five. The Little Fairgoers Fund began with the 2026 fair and gave out 1,085 complimentary tickets through six community organizations. Every ticket available was distributed.

In May 2020, with COVID-19 restrictions in force, MetraPark and the county commissioners committed to holding the fair on its usual dates, August 7–15. Dutcher’s staff had already planned for a fair without the grandstands, slated for removal that year. It would be the first time in many decades the fair went without them. A MetraPark survey found that the two things fairgoers cared about most were being outside and having plenty of hand sanitizer, and the crew ordered it in 55-gallon drums from Trailhead Spirits. John Hanschen of Thomas Carnival promised to arrive on three weeks’ notice. Meanwhile he kept some 40 employees cleaning, painting, and refurbishing equipment. “We aren’t alone,” Dutcher said.

After a shooting at the fair in 2022, the organizers stepped up security. The Yellowstone County Sheriff’s department and AMR are now on the grounds all nine days, and camera systems and cell reception have been improved. In the fair’s 111th year a PA system went up across the fairgrounds to announce emergencies. “Historically,” Tempel said, “we would just drive around on the golf carts to let people know.”