Wray Daze

Friday on Main Street

The weekend opens in Plaza Park, at 213 South Main Street, where The People’s Market sets up from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. The Wray Chamber of Commerce describes it as a “farmers market meets artisan market.” In 2026 that was Friday, July 24, and the stores along Main Street ran blow-out deals the same day.

The Chamber calls Wray Daze the town’s fair weekend. It fills all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the last full weekend of July, and the Chamber stages it with the City of Wray. By the afternoon of July 24, 2026, the Chamber was asking drivers to move their cars off Main Street, Fourth, and Adams to make room for Family Fun Night. That evening the cleared streets held booths for games, food, retail, and promotions. Janelle Irwin and Next Tüezday played from a stage made of a trailer lent by Tri Corners Trailer Sales & Service. Food vendors may sell through the whole weekend, from Fun Night to the Beer Keg Fights and from the Car Show to the mud volleyball.

A parade and three acts on trailers

The Wray Daze Parade steps off Saturday at 10 in the morning. Its entries gather at the Wray Shopping Center from 7, and judges look them over at 9. The route runs south on Blake Street, turns east on 5th Street, and comes north up Main. Community members, organizations, and businesses build the floats, and cash prizes go to the best in three classes: Kids, Adult, and Commercial. The 2026 theme was “Stars, Stripes, and Summer Nights.”

Saturday night belongs to the Battle of the Bands. In 2026 the gates opened at 6 PM, with a beer garden, food trucks, and bouncy houses for children, and the music ran from 7 to 9. NOAA normals for Wray put the average July high near 91 degrees. On the afternoon of the show the Chamber warned of “a warm evening” and told people to bring canopies, lawn chairs, or umbrellas for shade. Three acts took the trailer stage that night: Kaysi & Kathi, Lisa Selle, and The Bandcats. Matt Brown of KRDZ 1440 AM was the emcee. The audience chose the winner, and after more than 1,100 votes Lisa Selle took the title and a $500 prize. The Chamber’s website billed the contest as a first-year event. Its post afterward called it the first Wray Daze Battle of the Bands “since the 70’s.”

Thirty-two teams behind Bohall Accounting

On Sunday the weekend ends in mud at Second and Ash Street, behind Bohall Accounting. Teams register at 11 and play starts at 11:30. The tournament is co-ed and double-elimination. Each side must have three men and three women in the water, and the field is firmly capped at 32 teams. The Chamber’s own billing is “The dirtiest way to have some good clean fun!” The 2026 field filled all 32 places. The Wray High School Volleyball Team ran the tournament, cash prizes went to the top three teams, and the winners, “The BBB,” went home in hats made by Beckfurd Creative Co.

The Chamber and a cattleman’s town

The Wray Chamber of Commerce was established in 1970. It is a not-for-profit member organization with about 130 member businesses, and it takes no government funding. Besides Wray Daze it runs Quilts of the Plains and the Greater Prairie Chicken Tours, and by its own account these events draw thousands of people from around the world. The Chamber gives no first year for Wray Daze. Its post on the 2026 Battle of the Bands, though, points back to a Wray Daze stage in the 1970s.

The town is the county seat of Yuma County. It lies nine miles west of the Nebraska line, near the meeting of U.S. Highways 34 and 385, at 3,563 feet. The Chamber calls it “a small oasis” on the northeastern Colorado prairie, “Hidden In the Beautiful Bluffs.” A post office named Wray has operated since 1882, and the name comes from John Wray, a cattleman. The town was incorporated on June 22, 1906, and the 2020 census counted 2,358 residents. In 1993 the National Civic League named Wray an All-America City.

When the 2026 weekend closed, the Chamber posted its notice for the next one: “If you missed it, we will see you next year during the last full weekend of July!”