Cass County North Dakota Red River Valley Fair Festival
The first correction a visitor needs is geography. Cass County’s big July fair does not stand in Fargo, although Fargo is the county seat. It stands in West Fargo, a separate city, at fairgrounds on Main Avenue West.
About the Fair
The Red River Valley Fair is Cass County’s large summer fair, ten days long in its current consecutive format and billed in its own 2026 material as the ten best days of summer. It joins two kinds of fairgoing: a grandstand with dirt derbies on the holiday weekend, rock and country and faith nights, and a midway running through all ten days; and an agricultural side of livestock barns, horse and small animal shows, arts and crafts, and a youth programme ending in a livestock auction after the public run closes.
Quick Facts
| Item | Documented record |
| Event | Red River Valley Fair, a July fair in Cass County |
| Fair town | West Fargo, which hosts the fair |
| County seat | Fargo, which does not host the fair |
| Grounds | Red River Valley Fairgrounds |
| Grounds address | 1805 Main Avenue West, West Fargo, North Dakota |
| Season | July, ten consecutive days in the current format |
| Organiser | Red River Valley Fair Association |
| Current edition shape | July 3 to July 12 in 2026 |
| Programme core | Grandstand nights, midway, livestock and youth exhibits |
| Admission | Layered by year and product; no single standing price |
Who Runs the Fair
The organiser named in the fair’s own terms is the Red River Valley Fair Association, whose premium book header carries the association name with Cody Cashman as chief executive. A 2024 radio layer uses the title general manager for Cashman, and the two titles stand in their own layers without being merged here. No other body is credited as organiser.
History of the Fair
No founding year can honestly be printed. One reproduced layer of the association’s about copy says it has brought family entertainment to the Red River Valley since nineteen hundred four, while a platform profile copy says nineteen hundred five. The two billings stand unmerged, and a directory field reading founded nineteen hundred five is a directory field only. A university archive holds scrapbooks, premium lists and the first financial ledger, all with gaps, naming no first fair.
Two breaks rule out any unbroken run in a fixed format. City history records the fairgrounds moving to West Fargo in nineteen seventy two and the fair cancelled in the nineteen seventy five flood, when the Sheyenne crested on July eighth at twenty two point two three feet. The twenty twenty four edition then ran as three split weekends, June twenty eight to thirty, July four to seven, and July eleven to fourteen, before twenty twenty five returned to ten consecutive days.
For a useful comparison, see the Burleigh County North Dakota Capital A’Fair Festival for another county festival.
What to Expect
The 2026 Grandstand
The 2026 grandstand ran: July 3, a fair race; July 4, a combine demo derby and a demolition derby; July 5, a demolition derby, each derby ticket eighteen dollars in the fair’s listing, gate admission included; July 7, Hairball and July 8, BlackHawk, both free with gate admission in that year’s layers; July 9, rock night with Stone Temple Pilots, Candlebox and Pop Evil at the All Finish Concrete Grandstand; July 10, Jason Derulo with Bobby V; July 11, country night with Trace Adkins, Uncle Kracker, and a guest spelled Chase Matthews in one ticket listing and Chase Matthew in other fair publicity, a discrepancy recorded rather than resolved; July 12, faith and family night with Anne Wilson, Matt Maher and Chris Tungseth, plus Nick Hall in the fair’s listing, which names the stage in fuller form, the Dakota Magic Casino Stage at the All Finish Concrete Grandstand. Rock night and Jason Derulo were priced forty five to one hundred sixty dollars, faith and family night forty to one hundred thirty five dollars, in the 2026 listings, with a ten dollar June 15 increase in the derby and Anne Wilson layers. Gate inclusion differs by listing.
The Agricultural Core
Livestock barns, horse and small animal shows, and arts and crafts exhibits form the spine, alongside four H and Future Farmers of America exhibits. A January 2025 chamber letter records over twelve thousand one hundred Future Farmers of America and four H static exhibits in 2024, an exhibit count, never attendance. The 2026 grounds programme reported while the fair was running included a new Livestock Discovery Barn with newborn piglets and calves, a bear show, an exotic petting zoo, a ninja show, a mime performance, and expanded dairy and poultry shows, all belonging to the July 2026 report alone. The Agriculture Education Center, in fuller form the Cass County Farm Bureau Agriculture Education Center, is a renovated building open year round for field trips in the visitor bureau layer. The Livestock Enrichment Program, for ages eight to eighteen, runs through the fair’s foundation in that feature and ends in a post fair auction, growing from about fourteen thousand dollars at the start to about two hundred fourteen thousand dollars in the past year in the chief executive’s telling.
The 2025 Youth Schedule
The 2025 fair book sets static judging July 1 in the Butler Building, horse check in July 8 and 9 with shows July 9 and 10 in the Horse Arena, a pet and small animal show July 11, Farmer Olympics and the large animal show July 12, showmanship, picnic and awards July 13, and a livestock auction Monday, July 14, after the public run. That is the 2025 schedule only.
Planning Your Visit
Getting to the Grounds
The fairgrounds address in the fair’s footer, receipts and terms is 1805 Main Avenue West, West Fargo, North Dakota. The county’s West Fargo building at 1201 Main Avenue West is a county highway and vector control facility, a county office and never the fairgrounds. The neighbouring pioneer village is a separate museum attraction, never a fair address.
Dates and Hours
The current shape is a July fair of ten consecutive days: July 3 to 12 in 2026, and July 4 to 13 in 2025, with 2025 opening hours of eleven in the morning Friday through Sunday and two in the afternoon Monday through Thursday, except Tuesday, July 8, when the public opening was four in the afternoon. Those hours belong to 2025 only.
Admission, Layer by Layer
A season gate pass cost twenty nine dollars for unlimited gate admission all ten days in 2026, without rides. A mega pass was tiered, so no single mega price can be asserted: tier one ninety one dollars, tier three one hundred eleven dollars, each giving unlimited gate admission and rides, tier one sales ending July 1, 2026. A blue ribbon pit pass cost one hundred sixty one dollars for all access to every concert and event.
A general 2026 daily walk up ladder beyond one special page is not published. The one daily ladder published for 2026 sits on a West Fargo residents page for July 4, 2026 only: adult ten dollars for twelve and older, child five dollars for six to eleven, five and under free, with a residents code for free gate admission thanks to the City of West Fargo. Neither that ladder nor the residents free admission may be printed as general 2026 policy.
The 2025 fair book prints free for five and under, five dollars for six to eleven, fifteen dollars for twelve and up at the gate; its twenty dollar four H exhibitor one day ride pass is an exhibitor pass, never gate admission. The 2023 guide prints adult fifteen dollars, children six to eleven eight dollars, five and under free, plus a Monday through Thursday eleven to one free window in that guide alone, never printed for another year.
Parking, Without a Single Rule
A 2025 fair fun answer says all parking is free; a 2024 about answer says both free and ten dollar paid parking are available; a 2025 vendor application prints a paid parking gate at ten dollars per day, opening one hour before the main gate. No single parking rule, price or free parking claim is asserted for any year from those layers.
Staying Over
Vendor only camping is a limited electric only gravel lot west of the main buildings, fifty and thirty amp service, three hundred fifty dollars per unit for all ten days in 2025, thirty five dollars per additional night, no water or sewer, reserved for carnival and food vendors first. That vendor offer is never a public rate, and its payment cannot transfer to the general campground. The general campground east of the grounds, across from the main gate, is first come, first served, so no spaces can be guaranteed. No nightly rate for it is published in the fair layer.
A Sample Day at the Fair
Arrive in the late morning and walk the barns and the agriculture education building first, while the livestock judging and interactive exhibits are at their liveliest. Spend the early afternoon in the expo building area and the kids zone, then return to the barns for the later shows. Eat at the food vendors on the grounds, because the gap between the daytime programme and the grandstand is short, and finish at the grandstand, arriving before the gates open, since grandstand gates and concert start times differ by listing. A quieter day means a weekday afternoon for the barns; the fullest fair means the fourth of July weekend, when the derbies and the largest single day crowds fall together.
How This Fair Compares
Most county fairs in this series are smaller, single county seat affairs with one fair board, one set of grounds and a programme that fits inside a long weekend. This fair breaks that pattern in scale, geography and paperwork: ten days rather than four, a host city that is not the county seat, and an admission record of separate products, passes, concert tickets and one day residents terms, rather than a single gate price at a fence. It also breaks the pattern in agricultural depth, with a renovated year round education building, a youth programme with its own auction, and an exhibit count in the thousands.
Visitor Checklist
- Head for West Fargo, not Fargo; grounds at 1805 Main Avenue West
- Check the current year’s dates and hours before travelling
- Price the visit by product, not by a single gate figure, and keep the 2026 passes apart from earlier ladders
- Treat the July 4 residents terms as a one day, residents only offer, never as the general gate
- Do not budget parking on any single published rule
- Arrive before the grandstand gates for an evening show
- Keep the vendor camping terms separate from the general campground, which is first come, first served
- Leave rodeo, tractor pull and pageant expectations behind
Beyond the Festival Grounds
West Fargo itself repays a walk outside fair week, and the wider Red River Valley gives the fair its context. The valley’s flat farmland, grain and livestock economy, and river towns explain why a fair of this size can fill ten days with barns, shows and a grandstand, and why an agriculture education building draws school groups all year. Fargo, the county seat, is a separate visit on its own terms.
Why This Fair Matters
This fair matters because it shows what a county fair becomes when it grows past the small town model without giving up its agricultural core. The grandstand sells the tickets and fills the evenings, but the barns, the youth exhibits and the education building keep the fair rooted in the county that names it, and the youth auction at the end of the run turns a summer visit into a working investment in the next generation of exhibitors. The honest record matters too: a fair whose age, parking and gate are each told in conflicting layers rewards a careful visitor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the fair in Fargo?
No. The fair is in West Fargo, at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds on Main Avenue West. Fargo is the county seat of Cass County and does not host the fair.
Who runs the fair?
The Red River Valley Fair Association runs the fair, with Cody Cashman named as chief executive in the premium book layers. A 2024 radio layer uses the title general manager for Cashman, and the two titles stand in their own layers. The fair’s foundation, the City of West Fargo, Cass County, the midway operator and the farm bureau are not the organiser.
What does it cost to get in?
There is no single answer, because the price depends on the year and the product. In 2026, a season gate pass cost twenty nine dollars for all ten days without rides, a tiered mega pass cost ninety one dollars at tier one and one hundred eleven dollars at tier three, and a blue ribbon pit pass cost one hundred sixty one dollars. No general 2026 daily walk up ladder beyond the July 4 residents page is published.
Can I camp at the fairgrounds?
Camping is documented in two separate offers in the 2025 vendor application, and the two must not be confused. Vendor only camping is an electric only gravel lot west of the main buildings at 2025 vendor prices, reserved for carnival and food vendors first. The general campground east of the grounds, across from the main gate, is first come, first served.
What to Expect From the Next Cass County North Dakota Red River Valley Fair Festival
How often is Cass County North Dakota Red River Valley Fair Festival held?
The fair is an annual July event, running ten consecutive days in its current format. Earlier formats differed, including a split three weekend run in 2024, so the ten day shape is the current format, not a timeless rule.
When is the next Cass County North Dakota Red River Valley Fair Festival?
The most recent fully documented edition ran July 3 to July 12 in 2026. Exact dates for the next edition should be confirmed from the fair’s current listings as the season approaches, since dates change by year.
Will the dates change?
The dates do move within July from year to year. The documented runs already show July 7 to 16 in 2023, a split June and July run in 2024, July 4 to 13 in 2025, and July 3 to 12 in 2026, so July is the stable fact and the individual dates are something to verify each year.
Closing
The Red River Valley Fair is best understood as a large, layered July fair in the wrong city for anyone who only knows the county seat. It belongs to West Fargo, it is run by the Red River Valley Fair Association, and it fills ten days with a grandstand, a midway, livestock barns and a youth programme that outlasts the summer. Its layered record rewards a careful visitor.
