Stutsman County North Dakota Fair Festival
Late June belongs to the fair in Jamestown. For four days, Wednesday through Saturday in the fair’s recent documented shape, the Stutsman County Fairgrounds on the northwest side of town fill with the county’s work: young exhibitors leading animals they raised, tables of art and flowers and baked goods, a midway turning through the evening, and a grandstand crowd for rodeo and main-stage nights. It is a full county fair in the county seat. The record is strong in some places and honestly thin in others. Every price below is printed inside the year that published it.
About the Fair
The event’s own published name is the Stutsman County Fair. Its governing side appears under two name forms, kept unmerged exactly as the layers carry them: the Stutsman County Fair Board, the name on the board’s January 2025 letterhead to the legislature (President Dennis Mickelson, Vice President Marv Frey, Treasurer Jason Connolly, Secretary Deb Hatlewick, directors Pat Stockert, Rod Wilhelm, Dennis Sand, Chad Kaiser and Shane Roemmich); and the Stutsman County Fair Association, the name in the county’s Extension and tourism layers, where the Association pays 4-H premiums and once asked for fairgrounds signage. Rod Wilhelm speaks for the Board in its testimony and for the Association in its tourism layer. Deb Hatlewick on the letterhead and Debra Hatlewick as the contact in the state’s grant award layer stand beside each other, unmerged, and Mike Williams, Fair Board President in the 2014 and 2020 layers, is never presented as the current president, because the 2025 letterhead names Mickelson. The commission, Extension office and chamber and tourism office are supporting witnesses and programme partners, never owners; the board’s testimony describes a nonprofit relying on volunteers, with very limited private sponsorships. Jamestown, the county seat since 1873, hosts the fair on separate evidence: the fair’s own ticketing, site and press layers all place it there.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Stutsman County Fair |
| Town and grounds | Stutsman County Fairgrounds, northwest Jamestown |
| Season | Late June, Wednesday through Saturday in recent years |
| Latest public run | June 24 through June 27, 2026, in the fair’s own ticketing |
| Entry-system window | June 21 through June 28, 2026, entry-system range only |
| Governing side | Fair Board and Fair Association forms, unmerged |
| State grant | One hundred thousand dollars for restroom facilities, 2025 state award |
| Gate in 2026 | Four-day products only: adult seventeen dollars, youth ten dollars, Mega Ride seventy-three dollars |
| Fair-week camping | No camping offer published for the fair itself |
A Fair With Two Counts of Its Own Age
The oldest layer in this record is a fall fair, not a summer one: in the first week of October 1915, Jamestown held a fair for mature crop, produce and livestock displays, with horse races begun a day early, unsanctioned motorcycle races and a Dodge Brothers commercial display. That autumn fair proves a Stutsman fair existed in 1915, and is never used as a founding, a first fair or an edition anchor. The modern edition record is honestly tangled: one chain runs through the 117th Annual fair in 2014 and 121 years of tradition in 2018, agreeing arithmetically, while a second runs through the board’s 127th-year statement for summer 2025, matched by the county paper’s column, and a 129th Annual billing for 2027 in a state tourism listing. The chains differ by one year. Neither is reconciled, no founding year is back-calculated, and no 2026 edition is printed, because none is published. The documented cancellation of the 2020 fair, announced in May of that year because of the coronavirus pandemic, stands in its own layer and is never offered as the explanation for the one-year difference. Attendance stays in its own years: 32,775 in a 2014 layer on an inclusive definition (paid gate, children, workers, exhibitors), with roughly 1,055 4-H and 598 livestock entries, against approximately 20,000 fairgoers a year in the board’s 2025 testimony, never blended or trended.
What to Expect at the Fair
The Showing Rings Come First
The fair week’s centre is the showing of animals and work. The board’s testimony names livestock, horse, rabbit, chicken, art, flower and baked-goods showing, with 4-H and FFA participation throughout. A 4-H schedule layer of unprinted year lays out the shape: registration and weigh-in at the Livestock Barn, poultry and rabbit shows in the Old Merchants Building, llama, swine, sheep, goat, beef and dairy shows in the Livestock Arena, a Round Robin Showmanship Championship, a Parade of Champions, and a Friday-evening Market Livestock Premium Sale. That layer belongs to its own run, never the current programme.
The Midway and the Main Stage
The midway takes different forms in different documented years. In 2022 the fair’s own information text promises nightly main-stage entertainment: the Devon Worley Band on Wednesday, Johnny Holm on Thursday, Brianna Helbring opening and the ZZ-3 tribute band headlining on Friday, and Out of Line on Saturday. That bill is 2022’s alone, never a standing lineup.
For a useful comparison, see the Steele County North Dakota Fair Festival for another county festival.
Royalty and Rodeo
The royalty side, documented in the fair’s own handbook, opens the week. The queen contest is decided by interview, judged on knowledge of 4-H and FFA projects, personality, manners, communication and leadership, crowning a Queen, a First Princess, a Second Princess, a Miss Congeniality and a Junior Queen. Candidates are young women currently competing through 4-H or FFA, church groups or girl scouts, aged sixteen to nineteen as of September 1; Junior Queen contestants must be twelve. The crowning takes place on the Sunday before the fair begins, at the gazebo and stage at the fairgrounds, and the scholarships in that layer are prizes, never prices: two hundred fifty dollars for the Queen, two hundred dollars for the First Princess, one hundred fifty dollars for the Second Princess and one hundred dollars for Miss Congeniality, each with crown, sash and buckle. Royalty duties include passing out ribbons, promotion work, and representing the fair at parades and other events the document names; those duties are the only place this story touches the rodeo and the speedway, separate events with their own seasons. Fair-week rodeo appears in fenced form: the 2025 column places performances at the fairgrounds on the Friday and Saturday of fair week, and the 2014 schedule carries rodeo performances too.
The Sale Ring and the Champions
The week builds toward the sale ring and the champions’ parade: the 4-H schedule layer carries the Market Livestock Premium Sale on Friday evening and the Parade of Champions, with Overall Junior and Senior Showmanship decided in 2014. The pattern, not the bill: exhibits and judging by day, sale and showmanship as the week peaks, entertainment after dark.
Planning Your Visit
Getting There
Head for the fairgrounds on 27th Street Northwest, in northwest Jamestown, the street form the tourism, press and place layers carry. The fair’s own website footer carries a different form, on 83rd Avenue Southeast, recurring in another festival’s ticketing for the same grounds; the two stand unmerged, so treat the 27th Street form as the grounds address and the footer form as the site’s contact form.
Tickets and Prices, Year by Year
Prices are never timeless; the 2026 prices are four-day products only. The fair’s own 2026 ticketing sells Adult Four-Day Gate Admission for thirteen and older at seventeen dollars, Youth Four-Day Gate Admission for ages seven to twelve at ten dollars, and a Mega Ride four-day ride pass at seventy-three dollars. No single-day gate price for 2026 is published, and no free age band is stated in the 2026 layer, so neither is constructed or imported from an earlier year. In 2022 the fair’s own information text prices Mega Ride passes at sixty-five dollars, and no 2022 gate ladder is published, so 2022 gate admission is unverified. In 2018 the county paper’s ladder reads: gate admission five dollars for thirteen and older, two dollars for ages seven to twelve, free for ages six and younger, a four-day pass at twelve dollars, single-day ride passes at twenty-five dollars and a four-day Mega Pass at fifty dollars, sold at a car wash and two grocery stores in Jamestown. Every figure belongs to 2018, including its free band. Free parking appears only in the fair’s own 2014 schedule block; parking in every other year, including 2026, is unverified. Apart from these ladders: the state’s one hundred thousand dollar 2025 award is infrastructure money, royalty scholarships are prizes, and premium sale proceeds and 4-H premiums are programme money.
Walking the Grounds
The testimony’s facilities list names a grandstand, concession stands and a concert stage, the gazebo and stage where royalty is crowned, the Livestock Barn, the Old Merchants Building and the Livestock Arena, and merchants, Home and Hobby and 4-H exhibit space with midway grounds from the 2014 schedule. A speedway track sits on the grounds as a tenant, with its own season. The testimony also names what the grounds still need — accessible bathrooms, exhibition-hall improvements, a storm shelter, an agricultural educational facility, roof repairs, stage, grandstand and concession updates, and a year-round arena as a long-term goal — as needs, never completed works; only the restroom facilities grant is funded.
A Note on Camping and Lodging
No camping offer, price or camping terms for the Stutsman County Fair itself is published in any fair layer fetched, and no fair-week camping is described here. Camping at and near the grounds belongs to other bodies: a separate festival’s on-site camping for its own weekend, a commercial campground by the interstate, and the county park board’s reservoir campgrounds. None of those is the fair’s camping.
Four Days, the Recent Way
Following the recent Wednesday-to-Saturday shape, with the warning that the 2026 programme was not published, so each day below is drawn from earlier years’ records: spend Wednesday on the grounds and exhibits, Thursday in the showing rings, Friday at showmanship and the sale ring with rodeo in the evening, and Saturday on final shows and the champions’ parade.
The Same Fair in Different Years
In 2014 the fair is fully documented: a complete schedule, a named midway, a full bill and an inclusive attendance count. In 2020 it breaks: a May cancellation, then, separately, a 4-H static-exhibit competition at the fairgrounds in August. In 2026 it is ticketing alone: four-day products and a four-day run, no programme schedule.
Visitor Checklist
- Check the current announcement before travelling: dates move, and the 2026 programme was not published.
- Expect late June, Wednesday to Saturday; confirm the current year’s days.
- Buy gate admission as the current year’s products are sold; in 2026 those were four-day products only.
- Do not carry an earlier year’s ladder forward, or expect a free age band the current year’s layer does not state.
- Head for 27th Street Northwest; the footer address form is a contact form, not a second grounds address.
- Give the showing rings the middle of your visit; keep Friday evening for showmanship and the sale ring.
- If royalty matters, ask whether a crowning is scheduled for the Sunday before the fair.
- Arrange lodging and camping on your own terms: no fair-week camping is published.
Beyond the Festival Grounds
The country around Jamestown is part of the visit: the James River runs through a wide prairie valley, and the land around the city is working farm country — fields, shelterbelts and grain elevators under long late-June light. Spend an evening away from the grounds with a meal in town.
Why the Fair Matters to the County
A county fair earns its place by what it gathers: this one gathers the county’s young people, animals, handwork and neighbours into a single week. The board’s testimony frames it as a cultural and economic pillar; supporting witnesses speak of thousands of visitors and hotel and restaurant spending in fair week, as testimony-layer statements. The state’s one hundred thousand dollar restroom-facilities award is likewise shared infrastructure, not any single year’s bill.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Stutsman County Fair held?
Late June, Wednesday through Saturday in its recent documented shape. Its own ticketing sold June 24 through June 27, 2026, as the public run, while the entry system’s finder range ran June 21 through June 28 and stands separately from the public days. The 2020 fair was cancelled.
What does admission cost?
Only the current year’s products are quoted. In 2026 the fair’s own ticketing sold four-day products: seventeen dollars for adults thirteen and older, ten dollars for youth ages seven to twelve, and seventy-three dollars for a Mega Ride four-day pass. No single-day gate price for 2026 is published, and no free age band is stated in the 2026 layer.
Who runs the fair?
Two name forms, never merged: the Stutsman County Fair Board and the Stutsman County Fair Association. The board’s January 2025 letterhead names Dennis Mickelson as president, with Marv Frey, Jason Connolly and Deb Hatlewick as officers. Extension is a programme partner; the commission and chamber and tourism office are supporting witnesses; the board describes a nonprofit relying on volunteers.
Is there camping at the fair?
No camping offer, price or camping terms for the Stutsman County Fair itself is published in any fair layer fetched, so no fair-week camping is described here. Camping near the grounds belongs to other operators: a separate festival’s weekend camping, a commercial campground by the interstate, and the county park board’s reservoir campgrounds.
What to Expect From the Next Stutsman County North Dakota Fair Festival
How often is Stutsman County North Dakota Fair Festival held?
An annual late-June event in its documented years, Wednesday through Saturday in its recent shape. The one break is 2020, when the fair was cancelled. The honest answer is annual in pattern, with the current year’s announcement as the only settled source.
When is the next Stutsman County North Dakota Fair Festival?
No next-edition date is settled. The recent pattern is late June, with the fair’s own ticketing selling June 24 through June 27, 2026, as the latest public run. A future-year tourism listing carries July dates for 2027 under a 129th Annual billing, but those stand unmerged with the late-June pattern and are not the fair’s standing timing.
Will the dates change?
Yes, they have moved from year to year. The 2018 run fell on June 27 through June 30, the 2022 run on June 29 through July 2, the 2025 run on June 25 through June 28, and the 2026 public run on June 24 through June 27, while a schedule layer for 2021 carries a much longer June 25 through July 3 range that stands unmerged with the Wednesday-to-Saturday runs. Expect the next edition’s dates to shift again.
A Last Word Before You Go
Come for the showing rings, stay for the evenings, and read the prices and the programme by their years.
