Carter County Montana Fair Festival

Carter County’s fair does not introduce itself by the county’s name alone. In Ekalaka, the county seat, the annual fair and rodeo answers to the Carter County Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo, and under that name it is the county fair: four days of 4-H and open animal shows, a pet parade, a rodeo and a closing Sunday parade, running Thursday to Sunday in the second week of August. The Carter County Fair Board runs the week, and the county paper documents it year after year. Two limits of the record are worth stating at the start. Nothing in the fair’s published sources explains what the ’85 in the name commemorates, so no origin is offered here. And the fair prints no gate price, so none is quoted. What the record supports is a small, well-documented fair in one of Montana’s most remote county seats.

About the Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo

The fair travels under a small family of published names. The fullest form is Carter County Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo; shorter references call it the Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo, and the county’s fair book tradition simply says Carter County Fair. The forms are one fair, not three: the Carter County Fair wearing its festival name.

The Carter County Fair Board is the body behind it. The board is named in print as the presenter of the fair’s free concert and, together with Marshall Ranch, as co-sponsor of the pet parade, and a board member reports to the county commission on the state of the fairgrounds buildings. The rodeo carries a separate credit: it is produced by Ekalaka Track & Arena, Inc., a producer’s role, not the fair’s organiser.

One neighbour deserves a clear line drawn around it. The Carter County Museum takes part in fair week as an entrant in the parade and as the gathering point for the veterans float. That is the whole of its documented role. The museum does not run the fair in any source behind this article, and none of its own programmes forms part of the fair’s programme.

Carter County Fair Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Event	Carter County Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo (shorter published forms: Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo; Carter County Fair)
Town	Ekalaka, the county seat of Carter County, Montana
Grounds	Carter County Fairgrounds, Ekalaka (no street address published)
Organiser	Carter County Fair Board
Rodeo producer	Ekalaka Track & Arena, Inc.
Season	Mid-August, Thursday to Sunday in the second week of the month
Documented editions	August 8 to 11, 2024; August 7 to 10, 2025
2025 theme	Dancing with the Steers
Signature fixtures	Friday pet parade, weekend rodeo, free fair board concert, closing Sunday parade
Admission	No gate, pass or parking price published

What to Expect Across the Four Days

Shows From Thursday Morning

The fair’s working week begins in the show rings. 4-H and open animal shows open the programme on Thursday and continue through the following days, with exhibitors working to an entry deadline on the Monday of fair week, which fell on August 4 in the documented 2025 edition. The 2025 running order opened with the swine show at 8 a.m. on the Thursday, followed by the rabbit and poultry shows. For the families involved, judging is the point of a season of preparation, not a warm-up for the weekend crowds.

For a useful comparison, see the Carbon County Montana Fair Festival for another county festival.

A Pet Parade at Friday Noon

At noon on Friday the grounds hand the ring over to smaller animals and younger handlers. The pet parade is one of the fair’s signature fixtures, co-sponsored by the Carter County Fair Board and Marshall Ranch and held at the fairgrounds. In its documented year the parade was billed as the twenty-fourth annual running of the event; that count belongs to that edition and is not carried forward here as the current number. The 2024 programme also brought sheep dog trials to the track and arena.

The Rodeo and the Board’s Free Concert

The weekend belongs to the arena. The Days of ’85 rodeo runs across Saturday and Sunday in the documented editions, produced by Ekalaka Track & Arena, Inc., with ranch bronc riding among the events recorded in 2025. Alongside it sits the week’s most generous fixture: a concert presented free by the Carter County Fair Board. In an earlier edition it was staged at Ekalaka Elementary, where the Bald Mountain Rounders played. The word free attaches to that concert alone: it is the board’s gift within the programme, not a statement about the cost of entering the fair, and the two should never be merged.

A Sunday Parade and a Reunion Weekend

The fair closes as the documented years close: with a Sunday parade. Parade marshals are named for each edition — Jerry and Betty Cline carried the honour in 2025 — and the veterans float gathers at the Carter County Museum before the parade, which is the museum’s part in the day: a meeting point and a parade entrant, nothing more. Fair weekend also draws class reunions back to Ekalaka, so the crowd is part audience, part homecoming. During the week the fair spills gently into town venues, including a silent auction at the Ekalaka Public Library.

A Racing Past Beneath the Fairgrounds

The deepest history attached to this fair comes from the county paper’s heritage writing, drawn from the 1985 Carter County Fair Book and county history, and it is a racing history before it is a fair history. The first written mention of a fair at Ekalaka is a celebration notice from 1897, when a July gathering across the fifth and sixth of the month made horse racing its main attraction on a track described at the time as one of the best in the state. In 1912 the Ekalaka Fair and Racing Association was organised. Its grandstand, built in 1915, stood until 1974, when it was demolished as unsafe, and the track and grounds were sold to Carter County in 1930.

Those dates deserve care. They document celebrations, an association and a piece of ground; they do not make 1897 or 1912 the founding year of the present fair, and nothing supports a claim that the fair has run unbroken from either date to today. What they honestly show is that Ekalaka was gathering to race and show on this ground more than a century ago, and the county has owned the stage for most of the time since.

Planning Your Visit

Timing the Trip

Plan around the pattern rather than a fixed calendar date: Thursday to Sunday in the second week of August. The documented editions ran from August 8 to 11 in 2024 and from August 7 to 10 in 2025, with the rodeo on the Saturday and Sunday and the parade closing the Sunday. The fair is listed at Ekalaka for 2026 on the strength of that annual record, but no fair-side document for the 2026 edition sits behind this article, so confirm the exact days locally before setting out. Exhibitors work to an earlier clock: the 4-H entry deadline fell on the Monday of fair week in 2025.

The Admission Question, Answered Honestly

No gate, pass or parking price for this fair is published in the sources behind this article, so none is quoted here. The only free thing in the record is the concert the fair board presents, and a free concert is not free admission; never let one stand for the other. Camping sits in the same position: no fair-week offer, rule or rate is published, so this article neither promises a pitch nor prices one. Carry cash and confirm the current position in town before you travel.

Finding the Fair in Ekalaka

Aim for the Carter County Fairgrounds in Ekalaka. No street address for the grounds is published and none is invented here; in a county seat of this size, they are found by local direction and signage. Two landmarks should not be confused with the grounds themselves. The Ekalaka Public Library hosts the fair week’s silent auction, and the elementary school has hosted the board’s concert in an earlier edition; both are town venues used by single events. Bookings at the Carter County Events Center belong to that venue’s own calendar, not to the fair.

A Sample Fair Weekend

Treat this as a shape suggested by the documented rhythm, not a timetable. Arrive on Friday in time for the pet parade at noon, then spend the afternoon among the animal shows while the grounds are still in judging mode. Give Saturday to the rodeo, when the arena takes over the fair, and stay in town for the evening rather than driving through. Finish on Sunday with the closing parade, among a crowd that includes reunion groups who planned their year around the same weekend.

How the Days of ’85 Compares

Most county fairs announce themselves plainly, with the county’s name and little else. Ekalaka’s fair does the opposite: it leads with a festival name whose meaning the record leaves unexplained, and wears its county-fair identity underneath. Larger Montana fairs run on published price ladders, named headliners and day-by-day schedules. Carter County publishes none of that machinery. Its fair is documented the way small fairs actually live, in a county paper’s previews and results columns, edition by edition — and on those terms it offers something the big fairs cannot: a four-day fair small enough that the pet parade, the rodeo and the closing parade all belong to the same crowd.

A Short Checklist Before You Go

• Confirm the year’s exact days before travelling, because the fair follows a Thursday to Sunday pattern in the second week of August and the dates move.
• Do not budget from a published price, since the fair prints no gate, pass or parking figure.
• Remember that the free item in the programme is the fair board’s concert, not admission to the fair itself.
• Head for the Carter County Fairgrounds in Ekalaka and ask locally for directions, as no street address is published.
• Time a Friday arrival for noon if the pet parade is on your list.
• Keep Saturday and Sunday open for the rodeo and the closing parade.
• Exhibitors should note that the entry deadline falls on the Monday of fair week.
• When asking around town, remember that the museum joins the parade rather than organising the fair.

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Fair week in Ekalaka is not sealed inside the grounds fence. The silent auction takes the fair into the public library, the board’s concert has taken it into the elementary school, and the veterans float gathers at the Carter County Museum on parade day. The museum’s presence in that list is worth reading correctly: it is a participant and a neighbour whose own events run on its own calendar. Class reunions timed to fair weekend add a second, quieter festival around the official one, filling the town with returning families. For a visitor, Ekalaka itself is part of the programme.

Why the Days of ’85 Matter to Carter County

Carter County is ranch country at the far south-eastern edge of Montana, its county seat serving a wide, thinly settled landscape where a fair is one of the few occasions in the year when the whole county is in one place. The Days of ’85 hold that role with unusually deep roots in the ground itself: the county has owned the track and fairgrounds since 1930, on a site where Ekalaka was racing and gathering in the nineteenth century. The programme the fair board assembles — youth shows, a pet parade, a produced rodeo, a concert given away free — is modest in print and complete in person, and the fair’s survival as an annual, board-run county fair, still on its own ground and still in its August week, is the significance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Days of ’85 really the Carter County Fair?

Yes. The Carter County Days of ’85 Fair and Rodeo is the county fair itself, published under that name and shorter forms of it, with the county’s fair book tradition using the plain name Carter County Fair. The Carter County Fair Board runs it, and the county paper documents it year after year, from the animal shows through to the rodeo results and the Sunday parade.

In which week of August does the fair fall?

The fair runs from Thursday to Sunday in the second week of August in Ekalaka. Documented editions ran from August 8 to 11 in 2024 and from August 7 to 10 in 2025, the second of those themed Dancing with the Steers, with the rodeo on the Saturday and Sunday. The fair is listed at Ekalaka for 2026, but no fair-side document for that edition sits behind this article, so confirm the exact days locally before travelling.

What is known about the cost of getting in?

No admission price is published in the fair’s record, so this article quotes none. Do not read that silence as free entry. The single free item documented is the concert the Carter County Fair Board presents within the programme, and a free concert says nothing about a price at the gate. Parking and camping prices are likewise unpublished.

Who organises the fair — the fair board or the museum?

The Carter County Fair Board organises the fair: it presents the free concert, co-sponsors the pet parade with Marshall Ranch and answers to the county commission for the fairgrounds. The rodeo within the fair is produced by Ekalaka Track & Arena, Inc. The museum is not the organiser; during fair week it enters the parade and serves as the gathering point for the veterans float.

What to Expect From the Next Carter County Montana Fair Festival

How often is the Carter County Montana Fair Festival held?

The fair is held once a year, occupying a Thursday to Sunday slot in the second week of August, with exhibitor entries closing on the Monday of fair week.

When is the next Carter County Montana Fair Festival?

Expect the next edition on the fair’s pattern: Thursday to Sunday in the second week of August at the Carter County Fairgrounds in Ekalaka, with shows opening on the Thursday, the rodeo across the weekend and the parade on the Sunday. Advance word comes through the county paper’s preview rather than a posted calendar, so confirm the exact days there before you travel.

Will the dates change?

The weekday pattern is steady, but the calendar dates shift slightly from year to year, as the move from August 8 to 11 in 2024 to August 7 to 10 in 2025 shows. Confirm the dates for the year in question rather than relying on a previous edition’s days.

Go to Ekalaka in the second week of August and you will find a county fair that answers to another name and explains nothing about it, and does not need to. The shows start on Thursday, the pets parade on Friday, the rodeo takes the weekend and the town turns out on Sunday. That rhythm, kept by a local fair board on ground the county has owned since 1930, is the whole story.