Overview The El Paso County Fair fills eight July days on the fairgrounds in Calhan, Colorado, with a CPRA rodeo, a rough-stock rodeo, stock-car races, a demolition derby and 4-H and FFA livestock shows, and most days of the week carry a theme, from Military Appreciation Day to a sensory-friendly day. It is El Paso County's own fair, produced by the Board of County Commissioners, a Fair Advisory Board, the Fairgrounds Corporation, CSU Extension, county staff and volunteers. The fairgrounds were deeded to the county in 1979, and 2025 marked the fair's 120th year. On site The grandstand carries the ticketed nights. In 2026 that meant a Rough Stock Rodeo with mounted cavalry, shotgun and rifle demonstrations by the EPCF Colorado Regulators, a Colorado Professional Rodeo Association show with bull riding, barrel racing and steer wrestling, two nights of BST Racing auto races, the second followed by a 500-drone light show, and a demolition derby to close the fair. Admission covers the rest: live bands twice a day at the Farmers State Bank Pavilion, the Pork Chop Revue with Oink the Singing Pig, a comedy Wild West gunfight stunt show, inflatables, wildlife displays from the Bear Creek and Fox Run nature centers, cutting horses and youth bull riding. In 2026 Swink Hall held a timeline wall for America's 250th and Colorado's 150th, with local homesteaders demonstrating on weekdays. Audience Much of the fair is its exhibitors. 4-H and FFA members show livestock through the week and sell their animals at the junior livestock sale on the final Saturday, and free barn tours let visitors meet them. The week's calendar is built for particular groups: veterans on opening day, every county resident free on El Paso County Day, seniors with a lunch and pie, a sensory day with carnival rides running without music or flashing lights, and a Heroes Day for first responders, teachers and medical workers. Track record The fair began in 1905 as a farmers' thanksgiving for the potato harvest, with a potato and bean bake and relay horse races in a schoolyard near Letterman's Hill. A rodeo was added in 1906. When blizzards in 1926 and 1927 left the fair $2,500 in debt, the community cleared it by pooling stock shares. The Hammerton family gave ten acres for permanent grounds in the late 1920s, and the fair reorganized as a nonprofit in 1929. Its Diamond Jubilee in 1980 drew about 40,000 visitors. Brand presence The top sponsor levels take naming rights to a zone of the fairgrounds. Below them, sponsors get arena and grandstand signage, feather flags, logos on the posters, website and fair guide, spots on the electronic monitors and giveaways at the gates, and they can take a single theme day, one of the free shows, the Fair Queen program or the educational programs. The music pavilion already carries Farmers State Bank's name. Partners are recognized at a VIP reception and at a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners.