Teton Valley Fair

The 2026 Teton Valley Fair opened at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, with the 4-H Horse Show in the Pavilion, a 25,000-square-foot indoor riding hall that the fair board lists as the largest public one in Teton Valley. For the next eight days the county fairgrounds at Driggs, Idaho, ran on a schedule printed hour by hour. The Animal Barn opened at 6 a.m. and closed at 9 p.m. The Exhibit Hall kept its doors open from 10 to 6. The nights belonged to the outdoor arena. The board’s theme for the year was “stars, stripes, & summer nights.” The event goes by two names on its own pages, Teton Valley Fair and Teton County Fair.

The season had started three weeks earlier. On Thursday, July 2, the gates opened at 5 p.m. for a free concert billed “Rally Up & Get Down! Glow & a Show.” The Teton High School student band played first, then Paige & the People’s Band from Montana. There were food trucks, face painting, and a beer garden, and hot air balloons were to be inflated on the grounds, weather permitting.

Pigs, stock dogs, and a raffled car

Monday evening of fair week brought Pig Wranglin’ to the outdoor arena, with teams in four divisions that ran from Peewee, ages 4 to 8, up to Coed/Men’s 15 and over. The team list the board posted on July 20 included the Bacon Bellyfloppers, Hog Huggers, Squeal Team 6, the Tetonia Squealers, Operation Pork Chop, and the Princess Piglets. On Tuesday night the Steve Wight family and friends put on the Working Dog Showcase, working stock dogs bred and trained to handle cattle and sheep, in what the board called “an educational and humorous showcase.”

On Wednesday, University of Idaho Extension specialists Dr. Ryer Becker and Dr. Randy Brooks taught forestry and chainsaw basics at the picnic shelter. That evening the Hispanic Resource Center held a dance party under the Big Top Tent, with a $5 entry. Silent auction items were set out in the Fair Building alongside the season’s entries and awards. Raffle tickets were sold there too, for a chance to drive the Fair Board car in Saturday’s Figure 8 race.

Thursday was the big livestock day. The 4-H and FFA swine, sheep, goat, and beef show began at 8 a.m., followed by the poultry and rabbit shows later in the day. The Valley of the Tetons Library read to children under the Big Top, and a Living History Encampment filled Lewis-Parish Park. Venessa Carpenter played a free set at 5. At 6 came the 21st Annual Horse Pull, sponsored by Teton Ridge Ranch, which the board called “one of Teton Valley’s favorite events.” The FFA Round Robin Grand Champion Drive followed at 7.

Friday began with a farm tour leaving from the Big Top. FFA Poultry Poop Bingo ran from noon to 2. A livestock appreciation picnic at 3 led into the 4-H/FFA Livestock Auction at 5 in the Pavilion. At 8 the market animals were released, and in the same hour the Fair Rodeo began in the outdoor arena, at $15 for adults and $10 for kids. Saturday held a 4-H cat show, a dog show, FFA storytime with animals, and an ATV Rodeo, which the board’s Facebook page billed as the first annual. The Figure 8 and Lawn Mower Races closed the week at 7 p.m. From Tuesday through Saturday the Teton Valley Museum admitted visitors free, with the Fair Board paying.

Forty acres between Victor and Tetonia

The fairgrounds sit on nearly 40 acres, about 20 of them open space, at the geographic center of the valley’s three towns, Victor, Driggs, and Tetonia. Lewis-Parish Park takes up four acres of mowed field, with a sand volleyball court, a horseshoe pit, and a lighted picnic shelter holding 16 large tables. The outdoor arena is the valley’s largest public one. Riders may use the Pavilion free, year-round, on set evenings.

Outside fair week the grounds host the balloon rally, skijoring, grass drags, horse clinics, weddings, quinceañeras, family reunions, and memorials. The board’s 2024 master plan looks toward RV camping sites, a bigger outdoor arena with covered grandstands, a new indoor arena, and offices for the fairgrounds and 4-H.

Seven local citizens sit on the Fair Board. They volunteer their time, report to the county commissioners, and meet on the second Wednesday of each month at the courthouse, in sessions open to the public. John Smaellie chaired the board in 2022 and still did by the 2026 listing. Lane Hillman, the groundskeeper, and Hallie Poirier, the administrator, appear as staff in both years. In August 2026 the board advertised for a new member and invited fairgoers to say at public comment what they would keep or change. Its thank-you post after the fair read, “For over a century, our fair has been built on community, tradition, and the people who continue to show up year after year!”

Black powder and butter churns

The 2022 fair ran August 6 through 13 under the theme “Trails and Tails of Teton Valley.” The newspaper headline spelled it “Tales.” The board brought in the Wagons and Tales Living History Group, which set up camp north of the Teton Valley History Museum. The group demonstrated candlemaking, blacksmithing, trapping, and butter churning, along with music and games of the past.

Cowboy Mounted Shooting was added that year, an event the board called “the fastest growing equine sport in the nation.” Riders fired a .45-caliber single-action revolver at 10 balloons. The certified black powder ammunition carried 10 to 15 feet at most, and the balloons were popped by heat and gas. The 2022 program also listed district farm tours, a pet costume contest, and an old time music concert. The following summer, according to the Teton Valley News, the board hosted the 100th year of the fair, with judged exhibits, pig wrestling, and the rodeo.

Six weeks and $1000

The organizers of the first Teton County Fair had six weeks and $1000 to work with, the Teton Valley News recounted in 2023, and community members had to push past opposition. The fair opened at Driggs on September 19, 1923, and ran two days. The 1923 Idaho Annual Report counted more than 2,700 people in attendance and more than 500 exhibits.

“People came from all parts of the county, merely to satisfy their curiousity,” the report went on, and they saw “the greatest collection of beef cattle, dairy cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, poultry, farm products and home economics, that was ever seen in County on display. Dozens of people thought the exhibits were imported until they saw their neighbor wearing the blue or red ribbons, indicating that they had won premiums.”