Navajo County Fair & Rodeo

The Navajo County Fairgrounds lie on East Hopi Drive in Holbrook, the county seat, a town on historic Route 66. For four days in September the grounds hold a carnival midway, show barns, a 4-H pavilion, a cantina, a concert stage, and an arena that serves in turn for horse events, a demolition derby, and rodeo. Navajo County Fair, Inc. runs it. During fair week in 2026 its manager was DJ Betty, whom the fair’s own podcast described as recently promoted to the post. The 2026 fair, held September 16 through 19, was billed as the 95th annual. The Painted Desert Tribune wrote that it “lit up Holbrook with four days of laughter, dust, music, and the unmistakable buzz of community coming together.”

Rain, a jackrabbit, and Big Foot

The 2026 fair began on a wet Wednesday morning with 4-H horse speed events in the arena. The first five places in each event went on to represent Navajo County at the State Fair. Because of the rain, the fair cut its gate price to $5 for that day only. Gates opened at 4 p.m., opening ceremonies followed at 5:30, and the Navajo County Fair Royalty welcomed the evening crowd.

That year also marked the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and the Jack Rabbit Trading Post helped set up a Jack Rabbit on the midway. The Tribune photographed Marcus Todacheenie, Fredericka Yazzie, Jordynn Yazzie, Malaya Todacheenie, and Maverick Todacheenie, the last in a stroller, posing with “Mr. Rabbit.” The fair’s posts also reported a Big Foot loose on the grounds all week. By the fair’s account he was stealing golf carts, listening to music at the stage, browsing the food at the cantina, visiting the county sheriffs, and “riding peaches through the show barns.”

Derby, sale ring, and the Saturday rodeo

Thursday opened under what the fair called “only a light sprinkle.” The second annual golf tournament teed off at 9 a.m., with a Sheridan buckle going to the winning team. On the grounds were junior livestock shows, talent shows, and a mechanical bull, where the Tribune photographed Akkeem Foster Jr. The same paper photographed Taylor and Austin Young petting a live alligator and noted that the fair was “most likely the only opportunity” to do so. Vendors served what the Tribune called “fair-favorites and regional treats,” and the cantina sold Jose’s green chili.

The derby gates opened at 5 p.m. and the cars started at 7, in an arena the rain had turned to mud. “Muddy arena? WE DON’T CARE,” the fair posted. The Tribune says the derby’s modified vehicles draw visitors from throughout the region to pack the stands. At 9:30 The Spazmatics, a band that plays ‘80s hits, took the stage. A general admission ticket covered each evening’s concert. The derby and the rodeos required separate passes.

Friday brought team roping slack and the Junior Livestock Round Robin. In the 4-H pavilion the young exhibitors’ animals went to auction, and the fair reported “the bids are coming in hot.” Among the entries the Tribune recorded was Cookies and Cream, shown by Calvin Overbay of Snowflake. After dark came rodeo pre-shows, a crate race, and the first rodeo of the week, a GCPRA rodeo under the stars. Tyler Halverson played afterward. The Cowboy Lifestyle Network says his country music draws on a life spent around livestock shows, skate parks, rodeo beer gardens, and the road.

On Saturday the arena opened at 10 a.m. for the Little Buckaroo Rodeo for young competitors. Rodeo slack and the junior livestock dairy shows ran the same day. The week’s last rodeo followed, and Southall, a country-rock group from Oklahoma, closed the fair. In 2026, contestants who placed at the county rodeo also earned a spot at the Las Vegas West Regional Semi-Finals of The American Rodeo, where a million-dollar prize is at stake. Volunteers and workers kept the grounds running, among them Lori Kishbaugh and Hailey Lerma, whom the Tribune photographed on duty.

Rocking B’s horses

The 2026 stock contractor was Rocking B Rodeo Company, owned and managed by Brady Burningham. According to the fair’s rodeo page, Burningham was a high school graduate from Mapleton, Utah, when he set out in 2006 as a first-generation stock contractor with four bucking horses bought from Nebraska. The company now gives its herd as more than a hundred ranch-raised horses and works rodeos in 19 states. It also keeps two one-ton Brahman bulls, Geronimo and Opie, which give fans a bull-riding experience of their own.

Four years earlier the stock came from Honeycutt Rodeo Company, a PRCA contractor. The Navajo-Hopi Observer’s 2022 preview listed Jody Carper as PRCA announcer, Wesley Engelkes, known as “The Hippie,” as rodeo barrel man, and an act called The Bull Jumper. A live video scoreboard showed instant replays. The 2022 theme was “Country Fans and Cattle Brands.” That year the Mark Miller Band and Last Train to Juarez played after the rodeo, and the grounds also hosted comedy hypnotists Misty and the Sandman, ventriloquist Joe Gandelman, balloon artist Poppin Penelope, a Jr. Miss Pageant, a 4-H horse show, and a small stock show.

From Taylor to Hopi Drive

The exhibits come from an old system of judging. An earlier version of the fair’s website, dated 2019, organized its fair book in departments running from A, Agriculture, through Native American Crafts & Food, Baked Goods, Food Preservation, Small Stock, and Open Pee Wee Horse, to U, 4-H Livestock.

The fair began in Taylor, in the southern part of the county. On September 12, 1926, the Nogales International ran a column of state briefs that included news of mines shipping ore, Salt River cantaloupe shipments, and a new pumper engine in Winslow. Among them was a single line from Taylor: “Navajo county fair to be held here latter part of September.”

In 1931 the County Supervisors moved the fair to Holbrook because it was the county seat and central to the county. The fairgrounds and other buildings were put up there as a permanent home for the fair and for other events.

The fair’s anniversaries have been counted in more than one way. The 2019-era website called that fair the 88th anniversary. The Observer called the 2022 fair the 91st. The fair itself called 2026 the 95th annual. The 2019 site also stated that since the move there had never been a year without a fair. The Observer’s 2022 account adds what came next: the fair was cancelled in 2020 because of COVID-19, but a livestock show for the kids was still held.