Sargent County North Dakota Fair Festival

For four days in late July, the fairgrounds on the edge of Forman fill with the county’s own work: 4-H members leading animals they raised, open-class exhibitors arranging crops and preserves and photographs, and, when evening comes, a rodeo crowd in the grandstands and a street dance on the grounds. It is a working county fair in the older sense, run by a local association and documented in its own books and posters year after year.

About the Fair

The event’s own billing is the Sargent County Fair and 4-H Achievement Days, a joined name for its two halves: the open-class fair and the youth achievement programme beside it. The shorter form, Sargent County Fair, appears in the headings of the 2025 and 2026 schedules, while the 2025 poster keeps the full joined billing. Both forms stand as published in their years, and neither is a renaming of the event.

The organiser of record is the Sargent County Fair Association, named in its own sponsor letters and in the 2025 state grant award. The Association’s fair board governs the grounds and the rules, reserving final interpretation of the rules to itself and requiring written board permission before an all-terrain vehicle may be used on the grounds. In the 2024 book the board’s officers were President Joseph Gregor, Vice President Ken Forster, Secretary and Treasurer Sara Dux, and Commissioner Wade Anderson. The Association’s mailing address is Post Office Box 303 in Forman, distinct from the fairgrounds address.

Two partners belong inside the joined billing but are never the organiser: the county’s Extension office and 4-H Department, which run the achievement-days side, and the North Dakota Rodeo Association with Abrahamson Rodeo Company, which run the rodeo nights. The City of Forman promotes a citywide rummage sale during fair week, a town promotion alongside the fair rather than part of it.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Event	Sargent County Fair and 4-H Achievement Days
Town	Forman, the county seat since 1886
Grounds	Sargent County Fairgrounds, 101 Green Avenue Southeast, Forman
Season	Late July, four days
Most recent billed edition	103rd Annual in 2026
Organiser	Sargent County Fair Association, with its fair board
Youth programme	4-H Achievement Days, with the county Extension office
Gate in 2025	Thursday free, then ten dollars over 10, 9 and under free
Gate in 2024	Thursday free, then five dollars per day, 9 and under free
Camping in 2025	Primitive onsite camping, by pre-registration, price unpublished

A Fair with Its Own Paper Trail

Few small fairs leave as complete a trail as this one. The fair’s own books, letters, posters and schedules carry an ordinal chain from the 95th Annual fair in 2018, through the 100th in 2023, the 101st in 2024 and the 102nd in 2025, to the 103rd Annual fair scheduled for 2026. That chain is billing only: no founding year is worked backwards from it, no first fair is derived from it, and no claim is made about editions before the 95th. The county was created in 1883 and organised on October 8 of that year, named for Homer E. Sargent, and Forman was founded in 1883, but those are county and town facts, not fair facts.

For a useful comparison, see the Rolette County North Dakota Fair Festival for another county festival.

An earlier town held the county seat from 1883 until 1886, and Forman has held it ever since. The 2018 book is the oldest document in the chain, a Wednesday-to-Sunday fair running July 25 through July 29. One small slip inside it shows how carefully the record must be read: the book’s senior-citizen special is printed for Saturday July 23, inside a fair whose Saturday fell on July 28. The slip stands as printed, just as the fair’s own schedule files sometimes carry filenames that do not match the year of the document inside them; in both cases the printed content governs, never the label.

The dated editions run as follows: July 20 through July 23 in 2023, the 100th annual fair; July 25 through July 28 in 2024, the 101st; July 24 through July 27 in 2025, the 102nd, under the theme Fun in the Sun; and July 23 through July 26 in 2026, the 103rd, with horses brought in on Wednesday July 22. A statewide farm schedule lists the county and Forman in July in both its 2021 and 2022 layers, at July 22 through July 25 in each, standing as published and never used to fix either year’s fair dates. In July 2025 the North Dakota Department of Agriculture awarded the Sargent County Fair Association ninety-five thousand dollars toward construction of a new facility on the fairgrounds, an infrastructure grant, never visitor money, just as the Association’s winter-storage rentals in the exhibit building and cattle barn are grounds business, never an admission or camping price.

What to Expect

The Exhibit Core

The spine of the fair, in every documented year, is the exhibit core: 4-H and open-class livestock judging, crops and static exhibits, a horse show, a pets, poultry and rabbit show, showmanship contests and the Sunday premium sale. The 2026 schedule opens Thursday with livestock, poultry and rabbits brought in, the horse show, and open-class crops and static check-in. Friday brings the pets, poultry and rabbit show, 4-H entry with interview judging, and open-class judging. Saturday holds the livestock judging and the 4-H showmanship round robin. Sunday closes the exhibit week with the herdsmanship awards and the premium sale for purple-ribbon and livestock exhibitors.

Rodeo Nights and the Derby

Evenings belong to the arena. The 2026 schedule carries a rodeo queen pageant on Thursday and a coronation on Friday, with rodeo performances produced by Abrahamson Rodeo Company on Friday and Saturday, and rodeo slack on Saturday. The 2025 schedule carried two rodeo performances with slack and a Powerwheels derby during a rodeo intermission. The demolition derby closes the fair on Sunday, at two in the afternoon in the 2026 schedule, with Sunday gate fees paid at the derby grandstands in the 2025 poster. The 2018 book’s older programme — a ranch rodeo, a mud run put on by the Forman fire department, a horse and pony pull, and supercross races — belongs to 2018 alone and is never written as current entertainment.

Queens, Music and Family Attractions

Two queens are crowned across the fair week. The rodeo queen is chosen mid-fair, with a pageant on Thursday and a coronation on Friday in the 2026 schedule. The fair queen pageant closes the fair on Sunday at Sargent Central School in the modern schedule layers — a school venue for that pageant, never a fairgrounds building. Street dances follow the rodeo nights: Double A DJ on Friday and Buffalo Alice on Saturday in 2026, 2 Mile Final and a solo set by Briana Helbling in 2025, and the 2 Mile Final Band in 2024. Family attractions cluster around the exhibit building, air-conditioned in the 2025 layer; the 2026 schedule carries Pirate’s Rebellion Inflatable Games daily, and the 2025 poster carried carnival games with the county queens, DRN bingo, and a car and tractor show.

Planning Your Visit

Getting There and the Grounds

The fairgrounds address is 101 Green Avenue Southeast in Forman. The plant is modest and practical: the exhibit building, the cattle barn and livestock barns, the grandstands and a beer garden. The barns close at nine in the evening in the 2026 schedule layer. The grounds rules in the book layers are short: no coolers, no pets on the fairgrounds except for the pet show, and no all-terrain vehicles except with written permission from the fair board.

Gate Admission, Year by Year

Gate prices at this fair change by year, and the only honest way to report them is year by year. In 2025 the poster set a Thursday free gate, with gate fees starting at three in the afternoon on Friday and one in the afternoon on Saturday, and Sunday fees paid at the derby grandstands; youth aged 9 and under entered free, and youth over 10 and adults paid ten dollars, with inflatable games free with gate admission. In 2024 the book set a Thursday free gate and five dollars per day for adults and for youth aged 10 to 18 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with youth aged 9 and younger free and a fifteen-dollar three-day pass sold on Friday. In 2018 the book set ten dollars for adults and five dollars for youth aged 6 to 12 each day from Thursday through Sunday, with one dollar off admission for senior citizens and multi-day gate specials of thirty dollars for adults and fifteen dollars for youth when bought on Thursday, and twenty-five dollars for adults and ten dollars for youth when bought on Friday. No gate ladder for 2026, or for 2019 through 2023, was published, so no figure is carried forward from 2025 or borrowed back from 2018. The fair is never described as free on the strength of its free Thursdays. No parking price is published in any fair-side layer, so none is given here, and exhibitor gate passes in the book layers are exhibitor terms, not visitor prices.

Camping and Where to Stay

Camping at the fair is documented in one layer only: the 2025 poster states that primitive onsite camping is available by pre-registration, with no price, hookup, site count or rule published in that layer. Camping in any other year is unverified, and no terms are described beyond the 2025 line. The town campground in Forman is a separate town facility near the fairgrounds, not fair camping.

A Four-Day Visit, Day by Day

Follow the fair’s own rhythm. Thursday: the horse show, crops and static check-in, and the rodeo queen pageant. Friday: interview and open-class judging, the pets, poultry and rabbit show, the rodeo queen coronation, the first rodeo performance and a street dance. Saturday: livestock judging, the showmanship round robin, the farmers market, rodeo slack, a second rodeo performance, and another street dance. Sunday: the herdsmanship awards, the premium sale, the demolition derby, and the fair queen pageant at Sargent Central School. Visitors who can spare only one day should choose Saturday for the fullest programme or Sunday for the premium sale and the derby.

How Sargent Compares

Among North Dakota county fairs, Sargent stands out less for size than for documentation. Many fairs in the state are known only through a schedule line or two. Sargent can be followed through its own publications across eight years, from a full 2018 book to a detailed 2026 schedule, with a state grant award in between. It is also more complete than the achievement-days-only events elsewhere in the state, where no open-class fair exists at all.

Visitor Checklist

• Plan for late July and confirm the current year’s dates before travelling
• Head for the fairgrounds at 101 Green Avenue Southeast in Forman, not the Association’s mailing box
• Expect a gated fair with a free Thursday in the documented years, and do not assume a 2026 gate price
• Leave coolers at home and leave pets at home except for the pet show, per the grounds rules
• Stay through Sunday for the premium sale and the demolition derby
• Remember the fair queen pageant is at Sargent Central School, not on the fairgrounds
• Check current camping terms before travelling

Beyond the Festival Grounds

Forman is a small county seat, and the fair is the biggest thing in town during its week, but the surrounding country rewards a slower look. The citywide rummage sale that runs during fair week turns the town itself into a browsing ground.

Why This Fair Matters

The Sargent County Fair matters because it is still the institution its own books describe: a county association putting on a fair for its own people, with young exhibitors at the centre, open-class work beside them, and an arena programme that draws the whole town in the evening. The ninety-five-thousand-dollar state grant for a new facility, awarded in 2025, points to a fair investing in its own future.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Sargent County Fair the same event as the Sargent County Fair and 4-H Achievement Days?

Yes, in the fair’s own publications the two names describe one event. The joined billing appears in the 2018 and 2024 books, while the 2025 and 2026 schedules shorten their headings to Sargent County Fair, and the 2025 poster keeps the full joined billing.

How much does it cost to get into the fair?

It depends on the year, and the years are never blended. In 2025 the gate was ten dollars for youth over 10 and adults, with youth aged 9 and under free and Thursday free. In 2024 the gate was five dollars per day for adults and youth aged 10 to 18, with youth aged 9 and younger free and Thursday free, plus a fifteen-dollar three-day pass on Friday. In 2018 the daily gate was ten dollars for adults and five dollars for youth aged 6 to 12, with multi-day specials. No gate ladder for 2026 was published.

Where is the fair queen pageant held?

At Sargent Central School, in the modern schedule layers. The pageant closes the fair on Sunday but sits off the fairgrounds.

Can I camp at the fairgrounds?

Only the 2025 poster documents camping at the fair, describing primitive onsite camping available by pre-registration, with no price or hookups published. Camping in any other year is unverified, so visitors should confirm current terms before travelling.

What to Expect From the Next Sargent County North Dakota Fair Festival

How often is Sargent County North Dakota Fair Festival held?

Every year, in late July, as an annual four-day county fair in Forman, with editions documented in 2018, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

When is the next Sargent County North Dakota Fair Festival?

The most recent scheduled edition in the fair’s own record was July 23 through July 26, 2026, billed as the 103rd Annual fair. A following edition would be expected in late July of the next year, but no dates for it were published.

Will the dates change?

Late July is the fair’s established season, but the exact span moves from year to year — July 25 through July 29 in 2018, July 20 through July 23 in 2023, July 25 through July 28 in 2024, July 24 through July 27 in 2025, and July 23 through July 26 in 2026 — so the dates should always be checked for the year you plan to attend.

The Sargent County Fair rewards visitors who read it on its own terms: a late-July fair in Forman, run by its own association, built around young exhibitors and open-class work, with rodeo nights, a derby and two queens to close the week.