Pembina County North Dakota Fair Festival
Hamilton had forty-six residents at the 2020 census, yet every July this Pembina County city fills its fairgrounds on North Dakota Highway 5 with livestock arenas, exhibit buildings, a grandstand and a free stage. The event staged there is the Pembina County Fair, and its home county records it as claiming a rare distinction: the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s fairs exhibit writes that Pembina claims to be the first county in the state to host a county agricultural fair, and that the Pembina Fair at Hamilton started in 1894. That wording matters, because the same exhibit notes that Fargo held a fair at least as early as 1873, so the fair’s age is carried here exactly as its records carry it, as a claim with a stated 1894 start rather than a settled ranking.
About the Pembina County Fair
The event’s working name in every current record is simply the Pembina County Fair. Its operator’s legal name is longer: nonprofit records style the body Pembina County Annual Fair And Exhibition Association, care of Jamie Tollefson, with a mailing address at Post Office Box 744 in Cavalier, while the state supreme court styled the same body Pembina County Annual Fair & Exhibition Association in a 2016 case caption. The fair’s own 2026 premium list speaks of the Fair Board as the body that reserves the right to interpret its rules, a premium-list wording rather than a separate organisation. Geography is this fair’s standing trap, so it is worth stating plainly: Hamilton hosts the fair, and Cavalier does not. Cavalier has been the county seat since 1911, before which the city of Pembina held the seat from 1867, and it is also the county’s largest city, but its role in the fair’s record is the association’s mailing town. The city of Cavalier sits inside Pembina County, not inside Cavalier County, whose own seat is Langdon, and no fair-side record places the fair in any other county town.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event name | Pembina County Fair |
| Fair town | Hamilton, North Dakota |
| Grounds | Pembina County Fairgrounds, 14878 North Dakota Highway 5, Hamilton, ND 58238 |
| Season | July |
| 2026 main days | July 9 to 11, 2026, within a fair week of July 7 to 12 |
| Operator | Pembina County Annual Fair and Exhibition Association |
| County seat | Cavalier, which does not host the fair |
| Gate admission | No current price published on the fair’s own 2026 pages |
A History Carried as Claims
Hamilton was platted in 1882, twelve years before the 1894 start the state exhibit assigns to its fair, and the claims built on that start arrive in separate layers. Hamilton’s own town record bills the event as the oldest continuously running county fair in North Dakota since 1894, the town’s billing rather than a settled ranking. Cavalier’s town record says the fair has been held annually in nearby Hamilton for more than 125 years, a duration claim in that layer only. In January 2011 legislative minutes, a state agriculture official named this fair and said that summer’s running would be the 119th continuous fair, while a 2015 radio arts calendar billed that year’s running as the 122nd Pembina County Fair. Those two edition billings do not reconcile, and neither may be combined with the 1894 start to manufacture an edition for any other year, so no edition number is printed for 2026, whose records publish none. Colour from 2007 legislative minutes has a member calling this the oldest county fair in the state and describing a grand for the grandstand fundraiser, built on donors giving more than a thousand dollars each. A 2016 state supreme court decision adds one firmer plank: its record stipulated that the association owns the Hamilton fairgrounds and grandstand, public lands operated for the fair’s nonprofit, tax-exempt purposes.
What to Expect at the 2026 Fair
Everything in this section comes from the fair’s own 2026 schedule and its 2026 Official Premium List.
Shows in the Arenas and Barns
The week opens with exhibitors before it opens to crowds, with a 4-H Horse Show on Tuesday, July 7 and livestock and 4-H check-in alongside 4-H static judging on Wednesday, July 8. Thursday brings the Open Rabbit and Poultry Show and the 4-H Livestock Show, open livestock and open horse shows run across Thursday and Friday, and Saturday closes the showing with 4-H Showmanship and the Round Robin, then the Premium Sale at 11 a.m. in the Livestock Arena and the 4-H Premium Meal sponsored by Farm Bureau. Open-class exhibitors enter across six premium-list divisions covering horses, beef and dairy cattle, swine, sheep and goats, rabbits and poultry, while the Fine Arts Building takes needlework, hobby and sewing classes. The premium list names each department’s superintendent, among them Sophia Herman for horses, David Vaughn for cattle, Madison Johnson for swine and for sheep and goats, and Justine Anderson for rabbits and poultry.
For a useful comparison, see the Oliver County North Dakota Fair Festival for another county festival.
Racing and Grandstand Nights
Thursday’s grandstand bill pairs Chariot and Chuckwagon Racing with Broncs and Mutton Bustin’, and Friday repeats the horse, chariot and chuckwagon racing with mutton bustin’ and inflatable barrel racing added. Saturday belongs to Bush, 4WD and Open class racing under the fair’s own 2026 Bush Car Racing Rules, with registration near the East Gate. Wednesday evening pairs, on the Free Stage, the Little Miss Pembina County Pageant with a Mullet Contest.
Free Stage and Grounds Entertainment
Magician Nick Sharpe performs throughout the fair, Wolves of the World appears throughout, and the Amazing Bubble Factory adds a third roaming attraction. The 4-H Building hosts a Traveling Escape Room with ongoing Escape Puzzles, the Zaggs Building hosts bingo sponsored by Faith In Action alongside the pie sale and root beer floats, and fairgoers can try a 4-H Yogurt Bar, Edible Engineering sessions and a STEM Challenge. Saturday adds a Kids Pedal Pull, the Bessie and Bossie Bingo drawing, a 4-H Scavenger Hunt and the 4-H Junior Leaders Bake Sale.
Themed Days and Evening Music
Friday, July 10 carries the Military, Law Enforcement and First Responder Day designation, and Saturday is Kids Day. Friday night in the Beer Gardens belongs to Whiskey Wheeler, and karaoke by Dean Willits Productions follows Saturday’s races.
One Fair Week, Day by Day in 2026
Monday, July 6 is a working evening of horse check-in between 5 and 8 p.m., and Tuesday belongs to the 4-H Horse Show. Wednesday layers check-in, static judging and the 4-H Rabbit and Poultry Show under the evening pageant and mullet contest, and Thursday, July 9 opens the public days with open and 4-H showing plus the first chariot racing. Friday ends with Beer Gardens music after the open livestock show, Saturday runs fullest from showmanship judging through the Premium Sale to the bush racing and karaoke, and Sunday winds down with exhibit pickup.
Planning Your Visit
Finding the Fairgrounds
The fair’s own pages sign the event Pembina County Fair, 14878 North Dakota Highway 5, Hamilton, ND 58238, and publish the phone number 701-265-3134. The documented plant includes the Horse Arena, the Livestock Arena, barns including a Rabbit and Poultry Barn, the 4-H Building, the Fine Arts Building, the Commercial Building, the Zaggs Building, the Free Stage, the Grandstands, the Beer Gardens and an East Gate. No parking price or arrangement is published in any fair-side record.
Admission and the Free Elements
No gate price, season pass or general free-admission statement for visitors appears on the fair’s own 2026 homepage or in its 2026 premium list, so current gate admission is unpublished rather than free. Two free elements do stand in the 2026 schedule, each exactly as written. On the Friday service-members’ day, grandstand admission is free for the member serving who shows valid military, law enforcement or first responder identification, a one-day term yielding no general grandstand price. The Friday-night act Whiskey Wheeler is billed with free admission, covering that Beer Gardens performance and nothing beyond it. An older no-fee account exists in the 2016 court record, where it was stipulated that a visitor at a Hamilton fair fireworks display paid no fee for entry or any activity there, a stipulation describing the fair that visitor attended rather than a present-day policy.
Exhibitor Fees and Racing Entries
Money that is published belongs to exhibitors and racers, never to visitors at a gate. Every open class exhibitor pays a five dollar membership fee under the 2026 premium list. Horse exhibitors pay a five dollar stall fee per head and a five dollar per-class fee, with first place premiums of fifteen dollars, second place twelve dollars and third place ten dollars in that division. Cattle exhibitors pay a five dollar stall fee and five dollars to pre-register per lead, or six dollars per lead registering at the show, while swine, sheep and goat exhibitors pay a five dollar stall fee and a five dollar entry fee per animal, and rabbit and poultry exhibitors pay a one dollar cage fee and a two dollar entry fee per animal or fowl. Bush racers pre-register for twenty-five dollars by June 30 or forty dollars after that date under the 2026 rules, and a separate 2023 form for the Horse vs Horse Power race charged twenty-five dollars, rising to forty dollars after June 20, 2023, a 2023 participant layer rather than a current price.
Camping at the Grounds
One camping figure exists in the fair’s own record, inside the horse division’s fee block in the 2026 premium list, which sets a camping fee of twenty-five dollars per day, with a ticket from the office to hang in the window. Because that figure is printed among exhibitor stall and entry fees, it stands here only as that premium-list fee, and no site count, hookup claim or campground rule set is published anywhere in the record. General visitor camping is otherwise unpublished, and state-park camping elsewhere in Pembina County belongs to that park’s own record.
How This Fair Differs From the Typical County Fair
Most county fairs sit in the county seat, while this one fills the grounds of a village of forty-six people and leaves the seat as its mailing town. Many fairs publish a gate ladder on their homepages, whereas Hamilton’s 2026 pages publish exhibitor fees in fine detail and no visitor price at all. A named carnival operator appears on many fair bills, yet no midway company is named anywhere in this fair’s own 2026 record, and few fairs anywhere pair a children’s pageant with a mullet contest on one free stage.
Visitor Checklist
- Confirm the July dates on the fair’s own pages before travelling, since public days and exhibitor fringe days differ.
- Aim for the Pembina County Fairgrounds on North Dakota Highway 5 in Hamilton, not for Cavalier.
- Remember that the city of Cavalier is in Pembina County, a different county from Cavalier County.
- Carry service identification on the Friday of the 2026 fair, when grandstand admission is free for the member serving.
- Bring cash for food and the pie sale, since card arrangements are not published.
- Exhibitors should budget the five dollar membership fee plus their division’s stall, cage and entry fees.
- Bush racers should pre-register by June 30 to hold the lower entry fee.
- Plan around the Saturday Premium Sale at 11 a.m. if the livestock programme is your reason for coming.
- Do not count on a published parking arrangement or a general campground offer, because neither is documented.
Beyond the Festival Grounds
Hamilton itself is the first stop, a city platted in 1882 whose whole population would fit inside its own grandstand. Cavalier, the county seat and largest city, handles civic business and the fair association’s mail, and a trip there underlines how unusual it is for the seat to host none of the fair. The city of Pembina, the original seat from 1867 to 1911, carries the county’s earliest administrative history, while Walhalla and Drayton round out the town map with calendars independent of the Hamilton fair.
Why the Hamilton Fair Matters
A fair that a village of forty-six residents sustains at full fairgrounds scale is a working piece of county infrastructure, not a novelty act. The state treated it that way in July 2025, awarding this fair a resiliency grant of one hundred thousand dollars toward electrical system upgrades, with Macie Shane named as the award’s contact. Its operator is a nonprofit association that the court record shows owning its own fairgrounds and grandstand, giving the event a permanence rented-ground fairs cannot assume. Under the modern plant sits the county’s claim to the state’s earliest county agricultural fair, and even carried strictly as a claim, that 1894 starting point gives Pembina County a fair history of unusual depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly is the Pembina County Fair held?
The fair takes place at the Pembina County Fairgrounds, 14878 North Dakota Highway 5, in Hamilton, North Dakota. Cavalier appears in the paperwork because the association receives its mail there and some older farm-press schedules printed Cavalier as the fair’s town, but Hamilton is the fair town.
What does it cost to walk through the gate?
The fair’s own 2026 pages publish no gate price, so no current figure can honestly be quoted. The fees that are published belong to exhibitors and racers, and the only free element stated for visitors is the Friday grandstand term for serving members with valid identification in 2026.
Which days carry the main programme?
In 2026 the public days ran Thursday, July 9 through Saturday, July 11, with exhibitor activity beginning earlier in the week and exhibit pickup on the Sunday.
Who operates the fair?
The operator is the association published in nonprofit and court records as the Pembina County Annual Fair and Exhibition Association, working under the event name Pembina County Fair. County and city governments do not run it, and 4-H and Extension participate rather than manage.
What to Expect From the Next Pembina County North Dakota Fair Festival
How often is Pembina County North Dakota Fair Festival held?
The fair is an annual event held each July in Hamilton, with the public days falling in the earlier half of the month across the documented years.
When is the next Pembina County North Dakota Fair Festival?
Following the 2026 running, the state’s tourism listing carries the fair forward at the Hamilton fairgrounds for July 14 to 18, 2027. That range comes from a tourism listing rather than the fair’s own schedule, so it stands until the fair publishes its own dates.
Will the dates change?
Individual dates do shift between editions within July, as the move from the 2026 window to the listed 2027 range already shows. The month, the town and the fairgrounds have stayed constant across the documented record even while the exact days move.
The Pembina County Fair rewards a visitor who reads it carefully: find Hamilton rather than the county seat, leave the superlatives in the claim form their own records give them, and what remains is a complete county fair, arenas, barns and grandstand, run by a village small enough to know every exhibitor by name.
