Mercer County North Dakota Fair Festival
Beulah holds a county fair with a break in the middle of its story. Created in Beulah in 1915, ended in 1925, and revived half a century later, the Mercer County Fair carries that interrupted past openly rather than smoothing it into an unbroken line. It is a summer fair of young exhibitors, livestock judging, a premium sale, a carnival midway, a ranch rodeo and evening music. Its season has moved from July to late June, and its one published gate ladder belongs to a single year.
About the Fair
The fair’s published name is the Mercer County Fair, held at the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Beulah. Beulah is the fair town, not the county seat: Stanton holds that office, and Hazen has never hosted the fair in any layer fetched. Its fullest documented programme is the 2024 schedule, a five-day edition running Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14, 2024. The current record places the fair in late June, June 25 to 29 in 2025, with late-June 2026 layers that do not agree on an exact span, so June is the current season here, and every dated run belongs to its own year.
Quick Facts
| Item | Documented record |
| Event name | Mercer County Fair |
| Fair town | Beulah, Mercer County |
| County seat | Stanton, which does not host the fair |
| Grounds | Mercer County Fairgrounds, Beulah |
| Current season | Late June, in the 2025 and 2026 layers |
| 2024 edition | July 10 to 14, 2024, five days |
| Operating body | Fair Board, in the operating layers |
| 2024 gate | Adults ten dollars, students eight dollars, preschool free |
| Camping | No fair camping terms published in any layer fetched |
Who Runs the Fair
Two name forms for the fair’s running body stand in the record, and they are not merged here. The Mercer County Fair Association is the state-facing body in the July 10, 2025 agriculture department award, which gave the association forty-five thousand dollars for facility upgrades and named Rick Bauman as its contact. The Fair Board is the operating body in the Beacon’s July 2025 layer, where Bauman is named as Fair Board president and the work is called a community effort. No layer equates the association and the board, so each form is credited only in its own layer.
The president’s surname is spelled Bauman in the award list and the Beacon layer, and Baumann in a Senate-hearing summary layer; this article uses Bauman, the fair-side spelling, without claiming the summary names a different person. Mark Hafner appears as a co-witness in the March 2025 hearing layers, and a Beacon layer also carries a volunteer worker of the same name who grew up on the fairgrounds when it first started. A directory layer names a Mercer County Fair Office in Beulah, but the fair’s site was not fetched and no fact is taken from it beyond that reference.
Other bodies stay in their own roles. The Beulah Rodeo appears in a tourism layer’s description of what the fair includes, never as a separate organiser. State university Extension for Mercer County, with county 4-H and Beulah Future Farmers of America, works the youth side, and a February 2025 judging contest layer places judging at the fairgrounds in the hoop barns, but that is an Extension contest using the grounds, not the fair’s organiser. The City of Beulah issues permits and raffle authorisations.
For a useful comparison, see the McLean County North Dakota Fair Festival for another county festival.
A Fair That Died and Came Back
The Beacon’s history layers tell the beginning plainly, and they are recorded here exactly as billed. A four-member board including L. F. Temme created a fair in Beulah in 1915, a year after the First World War broke out in Europe. The fair continued year after year until, in 1925, it was ended, and the Beacon records that no reason could be found in its archives before press time. It would not be until fifty years later that the tradition was revived. No continuous run from 1915 may be printed, because the Beacon itself records the ending and the gap.
The revival-era record is filled by a July 2025 Beacon retrospective on the 1974 fair, a 1974 layer, never a claim about any other year. That fair had two parades, a Jaycees-sponsored kiddie parade and a main parade with prizes, and its grand attraction was the LeRoy Van Dyke Country Western Show, with concert tickets at two dollars and fifty cents per ticket and three dollars at the door. Those are concert tickets in 1974, never a gate price and never a modern figure.
One more billed item stands as billed. The 2024 schedule carries a Special 50th Year Presentation on Friday evening, July 12, 2024, a billed presentation in that schedule only. This article does not state what it counted fifty years from, does not derive a 1974 founding or a fiftieth-edition claim from it, and does not merge it with the Beacon’s fifty-years-later revival line. No founding year for the current fair as a continuous institution, no first fair of the modern run, and no edition number is published in any layer fetched.
What to Expect
Youth and Livestock at the Centre
The fair’s spine is its young exhibitors. The 2024 schedule opens Wednesday with 4-H Horse Show registration and show, moves Thursday to interview judging with rabbit and poultry shows and a pet show, and gives Friday to livestock judging across swine, dairy, sheep, goats and beef, with open-class static judging. Saturday carries an open-class livestock show, and Sunday closes with a dairy goat show and a junior livestock show. The Premium Sale sits at the heart of Friday, and the documented 2025 premium sale on June 27, 2025 is the only 2025 programme element documented in its own layer fetched. A directory-generated summary’s 2025 attractions are not asserted here.
Carnival, Midway and Family Grounds
The Mighty Thomas Carnival opens Wednesday in the 2024 schedule and runs through the edition, with a beer garden alongside it. Thursday adds a Kids’ Zone with Messy Mania and Gateway to Science, axe throwing, pony rides and mini golf with the Magic Joe Show, the TC Hatter Show and Mutton Busting. Saturday keeps a petting zone and the carnival, and the Rocky Top Petting Zoo appears Friday and in the magazine layer on Saturday and Sunday. The 4-H and Civic Center building holds exhibits and static judging.
Evenings: Rodeo, Races and Music
Evenings give the fair its noise. Wednesday in 2024 pairs Donkey Races with the MoonCats, Thursday closes with the Johnny Holm Band, and Friday carries the Ranch Rodeo, the Special 50th Year Presentation and Ashley Wineland. Saturday brings a Lawn Mower Endurance Race, a Free Co-Op BBQ, the Lizzy Hofer Band, the Born to Banner Come Back Livestock Show and the Mark Mackay Band, A regional magazine layer, in a June 21 to 24 edition whose year is not stated, offers a different bill: the Johnny Holm Band on Thursday, Thunder Road after the Bull-A-Rama on Friday, Moe Bandy headlining Saturday, an antique tractor show and Saturday wrestling. That magazine bill is never presented as any named year’s schedule.
The Parade and the Town Route
Saturday in 2024 carries the fair parade on a new route, by Knife River Care Center down Central Avenue, and the magazine layer places its annual parade on Saturday at ten in the morning in downtown Beulah. The two parade layers stand in their own years and wordings.
Planning Your Visit
Getting to the Grounds
The fairgrounds stand in Beulah, and visitors should navigate by the fairgrounds name in that town. No fair-published grounds street address exists in any layer fetched, and none is printed here. Directory and listing layers disagree on the office address’s directional suffix, one giving a northeast form and the other a northwest form, so this article prints neither as the grounds address. The June 2026 traffic layer expects parked cars along Central Avenue and 7th Street, a traffic expectation only.
Dates and Timing
The fair’s month has moved, and the layers are kept apart. The current record is late June: June 25 to 29 in 2025, and two late-June layers for 2026 that stand unmerged, one giving council permits for June 25 to 27, 2026 with a fair raffle on June 27, 2026, and the other expecting an upcoming fair of June 24 to 28. The visitors bureau layer says the fair, normally held around the Fourth of July, is now part of June’s event openings. July belongs to the fair’s past: the full 2024 schedule ran July 10 to 14, and farm-press schedules give July 14 to 17 in 2022 and July 15 to 18 in an earlier pagination. Confirm the current year’s dates before travelling.
Admission and Other Costs
Only one gate ladder is published in any layer fetched, and it belongs to 2024 alone: ten dollars for adults, eight dollars for students, and free entry for preschool children. The same schedule carries a free gate admission line in its closing-day layout for Sunday, July 14, a one-day term in that schedule, never a general claim that the fair is free and never extended to any other day or year. Gate admission for 2025, 2026 and every other year is unpublished, and no figure may be printed for those years; the 2024 ladder must not be carried forward as a standing price. The state grant and premium-sale auction amounts are not visitor prices. No figure for parking appears in any layer fetched.
Staying Over
The fair publishes no camping terms in the sources found, so no camping service at the fairgrounds is described here. Arrange ordinary lodging in Beulah or nearby towns on your own, and do not treat any town lodging line as a fair offer. The tourism layer’s town-lodging note is never a fair camping offer.
A Sample Day at the Fair
Take Saturday as the fair’s fullest day, following its published 2024 shape. Arrive for the open-class livestock show and the exhibits, then take the parade route by Knife River Care Center down Central Avenue. Spend the afternoon with the petting zone and the carnival, and keep the evening for the Lawn Mower Endurance Race, the Free Co-Op BBQ, the bands and the Born to Banner Come Back Livestock Show.
How This Fair Compares
Most fairs in this series present themselves with an unbroken pedigree and a standing gate price. This one does neither, and that is its distinction. Its history is told as a creation, an ending and a revival, with a fifty-year gap. Its gate is documented for one year only, and its season has visibly moved from July to late June. What it offers instead is a fully documented five-day programme in 2024 and a premium sale documented again in 2025.
Visitor Checklist
- Aim for Beulah, not Stanton, the county seat
- Confirm the current year’s dates; the season has moved from July to late June
- Treat the gate figures as 2024 only
- Expect the youth programme at the centre
- Check the current year’s schedule before planning around any single act or event
- Navigate by the fairgrounds name in Beulah; no fair-published street address is given here
- Arrange lodging separately, since the fair publishes no camping terms
- Allow for heavy traffic on Central Avenue and 7th Street during fair week
Beyond the Festival Grounds
Beulah itself is part of the visit. The Saturday parade route down Central Avenue puts the town centre at the heart of the fair, and the fairgrounds’ 7th Street setting keeps the grounds close to the town’s streets. The county museum stands as a fair-week neighbour in the magazine layer, open during the fair.
Why This Fair Matters
This fair matters because a small town kept it, lost it and brought it back. A four-member board created it in 1915, the town let it end in 1925, and a later generation revived the tradition fifty years later. Its president calls it a community effort, and the record bears that out: volunteers run it and young exhibitors fill its barns and halls.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the fair in Stanton or Beulah?
The fair is in Beulah, at the Mercer County Fairgrounds. Stanton is the county seat of Mercer County and does not host the fair, and Hazen has never hosted it in any fair-side layer fetched.
What does it cost to get into the fair?
The only published gate ladder is from 2024: ten dollars for adults, eight dollars for students, and free entry for preschool children, with a free gate line for the closing day, Sunday, July 14. No gate price is published for 2025, 2026 or any other year, so no standing price is given.
When is the fair held?
The fair is a summer event whose current season is late June, with June 25 to 29 in 2025 and late-June layers for 2026 that do not agree on an exact span. Its documented past includes July editions, most fully the July 10 to 14, 2024 schedule, but July is the fair’s past, not its current month. Confirm the current year’s dates.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?
No camping offer, price, hookup claim or reservation rule for this fair is published in any layer fetched, and none should be assumed. Find a place to stay in town, apart from the fairgrounds.
What to Expect From the Next Mercer County North Dakota Fair Festival
How often is Mercer County North Dakota Fair Festival held?
The fair is an annual summer event in Beulah, documented in successive recent years in late June and, before that, in July. Its history includes an ending in 1925 and a revival fifty years later, so its annual character belongs to the modern run, not to an unbroken line from 1915.
When is the next Mercer County North Dakota Fair Festival?
The firmest guide is the most recent documented pattern, a late-June fair in Beulah, with June 25 to 29 in 2025 and late-June layers for 2026 that stand unmerged on an exact span. Confirm the next edition’s dates in its own schedule.
Will the dates change?
The exact days do move within the summer season, and the fair’s month itself has moved from July to late June in the most recent layers. Treat late June as the current season and the individual dates as something to verify each year.
Closing
The Mercer County Fair in Beulah is best understood as a fair that came back. It began with a small board in 1915, ended ten years later, and returned after half a century to become a summer gathering of livestock judging, exhibits, a premium sale, a carnival, a rodeo and evening music. Its record is candid about what it does not publish. A visitor who comes to Beulah in late June, checks the current year’s schedule, and expects judging rings, exhibit halls and a town parade will find the fair the county actually holds.
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