Roosevelt County Fair

The Roosevelt County Fair takes over the grounds at 512 8th Street East in Culbertson, two blocks east of the Roosevelt Medical Center and next to Big Sky Field, the town’s airport. No one pays at the gate. Admission, parking, the stage acts and the exhibit buildings are free. The fair’s own advice to a visitor is to bring a lawn chair for the stage, walk through the livestock barns, and test their agriculture knowledge in the AgTivities building.

The fair describes its dates as the second week of August, and its Instagram page gives August 9 to 13. The published calendars ran a little earlier. The 2025 fair ran from Tuesday, August 5, through Friday, August 8. The State of Montana listed the 2026 fair for August 4 through 7. Late that August the fair posted a notice of a date change for 2027.

The grounds beside Big Sky Field

Buildings C and D hold the open-class exhibits and the concessions. They are open from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. The 4-H concession stand sometimes starts serving before the buildings open. Guest Services is the little red barn behind Building A. Wristbands are picked up there, and lost people and lost property are kept there. The barn is air-conditioned and has a small couch for nursing mothers. Fair staff carry radios and use the What Three Words app to direct law officers and emergency crews.

Visitors may bring their own food and drink but no alcohol of their own. Beer is sold to patrons 21 and older on Thursday and Friday afternoons and evenings. Pets are not allowed on the grounds. The exceptions are certified service animals and dogs entered in the Little Legs Dog Race. Show animals stay off the main lawn, north of Building E. Most evening events end by 11 p.m., which is also the town curfew, and the fair asks parents to meet their children in the parking lot. On weather, the fair says: “A little rain doesn’t shut us down!” The grounds also have RV sites at $25 a night and tent sites at $10 from May to October, weather permitting.

The fair’s FAQ says it has no traditional carnival. It brings in its own attractions instead: inflatables, a zip-line and a rock wall. One attraction is free, and the rest take a wristband at $15 a day or $40 for the run of the fair. The State of Montana’s 2026 listing mentions carnival rides, and during the 2026 fair the fair posted, “We have a couple of rides this year! Plus the zipline and rockwall everyone loves!”

Kids Day, Cooperative Day, auction day

The 2025 program, published by The Roundup of Sidney and the Northern Plains Independent under the theme “Fun For The Whole Herd,” shows how the week runs. The fair opened Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. with a Flag Ceremony at the Culbertson Saddle Club, and a youth horse show followed at 9.

Wednesday was Kids Day. The gates opened at noon with a flag salute and a kids’ farmers market. The Farmer Sam Ag Show played at 2 and 7 p.m. At 5 p.m. children dug for coins in Money in the Straw, sponsored by Opportunity Bank of Culbertson and Froid. A small animal show in the arena followed at 5:30, and a youth dance, tournaments, games and contests filled the lawn from 7:45 to 10.

Thursday was Cooperative Day. A flag salute at 8 a.m. preceded 4-H conference judging for 4-H, FFA and Scouts at 8:30. Goats and sheep went into the ring at 4 p.m. From 4 to 7 a vintage car and antique tractor show filled part of the parking lot, with chuckwagons, stagecoaches, buggies and wagons alongside. At 5:30 came the free corn feed and the FFA Alumni scholarship barbecue at $15 a plate. Dog races, a stick-horse rodeo and an inflatable rodeo started at 6. The Roundup listed the Magic of Circus stage show at 7 p.m., and the Independent listed it at 3 and 7. Mars Daniel played at 8. The Independent described him as an American singer who blends country grit with outlaw spirit and named his influences as Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Bo Diddley and UGK.

Friday began with the swine and cattle show at 8:30 a.m., followed by a peewee show. At 2:30 came what the papers called the traditional Parade of Exhibits to the Roosevelt Medical Center patio, and round robin showmanship followed at 4. The Culbertson Chamber of Commerce served a free meal at 5. At 6 the 4-H and FFA livestock and small animal auction began, and Chad Bushnell closed the night. Before that fair, the Independent ran a photograph by Bill Vander Weele of Payton Labatte of Culbertson, who was getting ready to show her steer.

Old boots, barbed wire and fair ribbons

The 2026 fair book lists the open classes anyone from Roosevelt County and the neighboring counties may enter. The minimum age is 4. Crafts include classes for barbed wire, old boots, retired rope, antler, horn or skull, and items “Made with old fair ribbons.” Photographers may enter under MT/ND Prairie, Roadside Flowers, Night Scene/Astro/Northern Lights, or Stormchaser, which carries the note “(Exercise caution!).” Children ages 3 to 5 who attended story hour at the Roosevelt County Library in Culbertson show their crafts month by month, from October through April.

A blue ribbon pays $6 and a red pays $4. Each county commissioner gives a special rosette and $25 to the exhibit that best portrays “the true spirit of the Roosevelt County Fair.” Breed associations add their own prizes. The Montana Red Angus Association gives a Montana Silversmith belt buckle for a grand or reserve champion Red Angus steer, and the Montana Hereford Association gives a windbreaker jacket to a Hereford grand champion steer.

The fair board is chaired by Scott Savelkoul of McCabe. Its other members are Marilyn Olson of Froid, Jackie Olson of Bainville, Karli McGowan of Wolf Point and Sabrina Labatte of Culbertson. Chelsie Flinn is the fair manager.

Foam, flowers and lefse in 2026

The 2026 fair was Flinn’s first in charge. On Wednesday evening, Montana Premiere Entertainment staged a UV foam party at about dark, with foam, lights and music, which the fair announced as “somthing new to Roosevelt County Fair.” Two more were held on Thursday. Afterward the fair posted that all three had been “a hit” and would be repeated. Kent Messmer performed magic at 3 and 7. Thursday also brought farm hand olympics at 11:30, followed by the corn feed, the barbecue, the dog races and what the fair called its “annual inflateable rodeo.”

The vendors that year included Buckaroo Bubbles, Michelle’s Lefse, Moore Lemonaide, Mini Brewsters, Keith Nordlund, and Emma Mapes’s Rooted in Joy, which came in a fresh flower trailer. “In all of my fair experiences I have never seen a fresh flower vendor,” the fair’s post said. A reel showed the manager on the zip-line.

On Friday night, Ashlee Anderson and the Richland County Playboys played to what the fair called a huge crowd. The power went out the next morning. When it came back, the fair posted: “Thats a wrap on the 2026 Roosevelt County Fair! … My first official fair in charge is definitly one for the books and I am looking forward to serving many more years as Roosevelt County Fair Manager!”

A fair once held at Poplar

Culbertson sits on the Hi-Line, U.S. Highway 2, 23 miles west of the North Dakota line and 60 miles south of the Canadian border. The historian Carroll Van West writes that it is the first place of more than 500 people a westbound traveler reaches. It was established in the 1880s and named for Alexander Culbertson, once the factor of the Fort Union fur post where the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers meet.

The fair was not always in Culbertson. Montana, Its Story and Biography, published in 1921, records that the Roosevelt County Fair Association kept its fairgrounds at Poplar. Sheridan County had held its fairs on those grounds before Roosevelt County was created. The book describes the annual fairs as largely agricultural in character and names Chris Jensen as president of the association.