Sidney Fall Festival

On Saturday, September 26, 2026, the Richland County Farmers Market left its usual Saturday spot in the Old Shopko parking lot on South Central Avenue and moved downtown for the Sidney Fall Festival. Its growers, bakers and makers joined a street market that the Sidney Area Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture said filled more than 60 booth spaces: local makers, boutiques, small businesses and food trucks. The festival ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Merchants along the streets held in-store specials and sidewalk sales. Shoppers carried a Fall Festival Passport, had it stamped at each business where they bought something, and turned it in at the Chamber booth for a drawing. Fifteen stamps earned ten entries, and the grand prize was $500 in Sidney Chamber Bucks.

Cake pops, potholders and Rhett’s Acre

Some of the booths belonged to children. Under the Business by Kids banner, young sellers set out handmade goods and treats. Emma of Emma Pearls Bakery sold homemade cake pops. Rosie and Daisy of Nesper Knots brought woven potholders, bead animals and paracord key fobs. Rhett of Rhett’s Acre sold produce he had planted, tended and harvested himself. The Chamber also holds a separate Business By Kids Fair each August.

The Chamber’s listings for the day ran long. There were face painting, inflatables, a petting zoo, and a Kids’ Fun Zone with games and crafts. Pumpkin bowling and a NASCAR RC racecar track were set up for children, and FFA students ran chicken bingo on Central Avenue. The Richland Ranger Alumni hosted a cornhole tournament at the Elks Lodge, and Business Bingo played out among the storefronts. The Chamber’s page of annual events also names a pumpkin patch and a chili cook-off.

The 2026 festival gave special attention to the farm and ranch country around Sidney. A Touch-a-Tractor display put farm equipment within reach. A sheepwagon stood as a display of regional agricultural history, and Fort Union Furs mounted a frontier history display. Sidney Livestock showcased its customers and the beef raised by local and area ranchers. Lisa Gorder, the Chamber’s project director, put the aim this way to the Sidney Herald and The Roundup: “We want this to be more than just a fall festival. We want it to be a celebration of our community and the people who grow, raise, create and provide the food and products we enjoy.”

Supper at the Moose Lodge

When the booths closed, the evening moved indoors. The Harvest Social ran from 5 to 6 p.m. and gave guests a chance to meet farmers, ranchers and producers and hear their stories. The Field to Fork Community Supper followed from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sidney Moose Lodge, 101 3rd St. SE. It was ticketed, seating was limited, and registration closed after the event. That morning the Chamber posted that “every seat has a name on it.” By early afternoon it reported tables dressed with fall flowers and orange plates.

Nearly everything on those plates came from nearby. Local ranchers and beef producers gave the meat, and Kraken smoked it. Mike and Laura Vines of Vines Farm Produce supplied pasture-raised chicken. Johren Carpenter of Jeanie’s on the Prairie baked challah, dinner rolls, wheat bread, and rhubarb and apple bars. She works partly from the recipes of her grandmother, Jeanie Leland, and the Chamber quoted her outlook: “How lucky are we to be surrounded by things that grow.” Mae Ann Steinbeisser helped prepare and cook a squash casserole. Other farms donated vegetables, potatoes, corn, honey, jams, butter and sour cream.

The Ladies of the Moose worked the kitchen and the hall. FFA students, with their advisor Nettie Denowh, served the guests and stayed to clean up. After dinner Ryan Olson played acoustic guitar while people sat and visited.

From 8 p.m. to midnight, a live band played a free street dance in the 3rd Street SE parking lot.

September on the calendar

The Chamber’s own page of annual events lists the Fall Festival under October and invites visitors to “Visit Sidney’s Fall Festival each October!” The 2026 edition was held in late September. The Downtown Boo Bash, with its Trunk or Treat and Trail of Treats, follows during Halloween week. The Chamber is headquartered at 909 South Central Avenue and describes itself as having served as “the gateway to the community of Sidney, Montana since 1916.”

A mercantile, a county seat and a beet factory

Settlers began arriving in this part of eastern Montana in the 1870s. One of them was Augustus Vaux, who started the Yellowstone Mercantile, a landmark store in Sidney. Whenever he opened a branch in Fairview, Savage or Lambert, he brought out one of his brothers to run it. He also started grocery stores, built the post office, and sat on the Sidney School Board and the Montana State Fair Board. Leann Pelvit of the MonDak Heritage Center told KULR in 2023 that families drew more families: “You’d got to be very careful about what you say because the person you’re talking to may be related to the person you’re talking about.”

Sidney was incorporated in 1911 as part of Dawson County. In 1914 it became the seat of the newly created Richland County. That same year the Woman’s Club opened Sidney’s first library in the basement of the Yellowstone Mercantile building on Central Avenue, and Mrs. Earl Verco checked out its first book.

Farming, ranching and oil have long carried the local economy, and sugar beets became the area’s main cash crop. The beet factory was built in 1925. In 2021 the town lost the MDU coal-fired generator that supplied its electricity. In mid-April 2023, after nearly 100 years, the beet factory closed. American Crystal, the parent company of Sidney Sugars, said farmers had lost interest in the crop and the haul was too small to keep the plant running. About 75 area farmers had signed up to grow beets that year.

The MonDak Heritage Center keeps the record of those years. It is run by the MonDak Historical & Art Society, which local residents formed in 1967. The society opened the J.K. Ralston Museum and Art Center in Sidney’s old hospital in 1972, and in 1984 it moved into a frontier-blockhouse-style building. Nikki Bailey of the center spoke of the first settlers that same winter of the closure: “They didn’t come here because it was ideal living conditions. They came and they survived and Sidney will continue to survive and thrive even after all the shutdowns.”