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Spring event Richmond

A Richmond tradition every May since 1912

Richmond's Black and White Days.

Every May, the small dairy town of Richmond, about twenty minutes north of Logan, gives a week to a dairy cattle show it has run since 1912 and now bills as the nation's longest-running. The Western Spring National Holstein Show at its center draws breeders and their cows from across the West and Canada, and around the show the town runs a Saturday parade, a carnival, footraces, a pancake breakfast and a movie in the park. Here is what the week actually is, where it came from, and how to time a visit.

On this page The short answer The show Since 1912 Show and festival Getting there FAQ
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah Updated August 2026

The short answer

Black and White Days is Richmond's dairy show and town festival rolled into one week every May. At its center is the Western Spring National Holstein Show, a national cattle show that the town has hosted since 1912, and around it Richmond runs a parade, a carnival, footraces, a pancake breakfast, a royalty pageant and a movie in the park. Most of it is free to watch, the carnival and food are priced, and the town sets the exact days fresh each year. The 2026 run is May 11 to 16, with the parade on Saturday, May 16 at 5 p.m.

Where Richmond City Park and the show grounds beside it, plus a Main Street parade
From central Richmond It is all in town, a few blocks apart; about twenty to twenty five minutes from Logan
Season A week each May; the 2026 run is May 11 to 16. Confirm the current year dates
Cost Free to watch the show and the parade; the carnival and food are priced
Time needed An hour for the parade, an afternoon at the show, or the whole week

The show at the heart of the week

The show grounds Free to watch Across the week

Strip away the carnival and the parade and what is left is a serious cattle show, the reason Black and White Days exists at all. The name comes from the black and white markings of the Holstein, the dairy breed the whole thing was built around, and for a week Richmond's show grounds fill with top dairy cattle, their handlers and the families who raise them. People and cows travel to this small town from across the western states and Canada, which is not something you expect of a place this size until you see the barns full.

You do not need to know a thing about dairy cattle to enjoy an afternoon at ringside. The animals are immaculate, the judging is a quiet, close-read craft, and the whole scene is a working piece of the valley's dairy identity rather than a staged attraction. Watching costs nothing, and it is the part of the week most visitors skip and then wish they had not.

The Western Spring National

The marquee event is the Western Spring National Holstein Show, which the organizers describe as the longest-standing national Holstein show not tied to a state fair. Holstein and Red and White cattle are judged in classes by age, from junior heifers up through mature cows, and the Western Heritage Sale runs during the week as well, where animals change hands. It is the piece that earns Black and White Days its billing, repeated by the local Herald Journal, as the nation's longest-running dairy cattle show.

The junior shows and showmanship

Alongside the open classes, the week runs a junior show and youth showmanship, where young handlers are judged as much on how they present an animal as on the animal itself. There is a junior Holstein show and youth dairy contests woven through the schedule too. If you want to understand why a farm town keeps a hundred year tradition alive, watch the junior ring: this is where the next generation of dairy families learns the trade in public.

The details

WhereThe Black and White Days show grounds, beside Richmond City Park
From central RichmondIn town, a few blocks off Main Street
SeasonThe show classes run across the middle of the week in May
CostFree to watch the shows and the sale
Time neededAn afternoon at ringside is plenty for a first visit

Before you go

  • The show classes run on weekdays through the week, while the parade and the biggest crowds land on the final Saturday.
  • Watching the show is free, and the barns are open to walk through between classes, which is the best way to see the cattle up close.
  • Richmond's dairy roots run beyond this one week, and the valley-wide story is on the Cache Valley farm country page.

Where it came from, and why it is the 111th

Since 1912 111th in 2026 A dairy town

Richmond has held Black and White Days since 1912, which makes it one of the oldest continuously celebrated events in Utah and, by the reckoning of its organizers and the local Herald Journal, the nation's longest-running dairy cattle show. It started as a way for the valley's dairy farmers to show their best Holsteins against each other, and it grew from there the way small town traditions do, adding a parade, a carnival and community events one year at a time until a cattle show had become a whole week the town plans its spring around.

The setting is the point. Richmond sits at about 4,652 feet at the north end of Cache Valley, a working dairy town where the fields and the cattle are not scenery but the economy. This is the town that makes Casper's ice cream sandwiches, and the barns and the milk trucks are part of daily life. A show built on dairy cattle is not a costume here; it is the place celebrating what it actually does.

The 111th, not the 114th

It is worth being precise about the numbers, because they do not quite line up. Richmond has run the event since 1912, but a handful of years were missed along the way, so 2026 is the 111th annual celebration rather than the 114th year on the calendar. Both facts are true at once: the tradition dates to 1912, and this is the 111th time the town has actually held it. That gap is the honest reason you will see it called a hundred and some years old rather than a clean count from the founding.

The details

WhereRichmond, on US-91 at the north end of Cache Valley, elevation about 4,652 feet
From central RichmondThe show grounds and park sit right in town
SeasonHeld in May since 1912; 2026 is the 111th annual
CostFree to watch the show and the parade
Time neededA few minutes to read the story; a week to live it

Show and festival

Two events under one banner.

Black and White Days really is two things sharing a name and a week: a national dairy cattle show, and a town festival that grew up around it. They suit different visitors, and knowing which you are coming for makes the week easy to plan. Here is how the two sides compare.

What to compare The dairy cattle show The town festival
What it isA judged Holstein and Red and White show, the Western Spring NationalA parade, carnival and community events built up around the show
When in the weekAcross the middle of the weekBuilds to the final Friday and Saturday
WhereThe show grounds and barnsMain Street and Richmond City Park
What runsOpen and junior classes, showmanship and the Western Heritage SaleThe Saturday parade, footraces, a mechanical bull, a pancake breakfast and a movie in the park
CostFree to watchFree to mostly free; the carnival and food are priced
Best if you wantTo see top show cattle up closeAn easy, inexpensive family evening

If you only do one thing

Come for the Saturday parade at 5 p.m. and stay for the carnival and the movie in the park afterward. That free evening is Black and White Days at its most Richmond.

If you came for the cattle

Aim for a weekday, when the show classes are running and the barns are quiet enough to walk through. Ringside at the Western Spring National is the real draw and it costs nothing.

If you are bringing kids

The carnival, the pancake breakfast, the footraces and the movie in the park are the pieces built for a family night, and none of them ask much of a budget.

Getting there

The road in, parking, and timing the Saturday.

Richmond sits on US-91 at the north end of Cache Valley, a short drive above Logan, and the show grounds and Richmond City Park are easy to find in the center of town. The only real planning is around the Saturday parade and its street closure.

WhereRichmond City Park, 90 South 100 West, the show grounds beside it, and Main Street
From central RichmondIt is all in town, a few blocks apart; about twenty to twenty five minutes from Logan
SeasonA week each May; the 2026 run is May 11 to 16. Confirm the current year dates
CostFree to watch and to park; the carnival and food are priced
Time neededBudget an evening for the parade and the park on Saturday

Parking and the parade

For the Saturday parade at five, Main Street shuts down and the surrounding blocks fill, so give yourself extra time and plan to walk in from a few streets away. The carnival, the food and the evening events gather at Richmond City Park and the show grounds, so if that is your target, head for the park side and park on the residential streets nearby.

Coming from out of town

There is no interstate into Cache Valley, so from the Wasatch Front the way in is US-89 and US-91 over Sardine Canyon from Brigham City, then US-91 north through Logan and the smaller towns to Richmond, about thirteen miles and twenty to twenty five minutes above Logan. The fare free CVTD Connect bus also runs the US-91 corridor. A visit pairs naturally with a day in Richmond itself, on the things to do in Richmond page.

Confirm the current year dates before you plan a trip around it. Black and White Days always lands in mid-May, but Richmond sets the exact days and event times fresh each year, and a component can move or be added. As of this writing the 2026 celebration runs Monday, May 11 through Saturday, May 16, with the parade Saturday, May 16 at 5 p.m. Treat any date you read months ahead as a plan, not a promise, and take the exact schedule from the city or the event's own page. Checked August 2026.

Keep reading

More of Richmond and the valley around it.

The rest of the year

Things to Do in Richmond

Casper's malt shop, the historic Main Street, High Creek Canyon and the marsh, beyond the one week in May.

Read the guide

Where it happens

Richmond Parks and Recreation

Richmond City Park and the grandstand and ball field the show and parade are built around, plus the arena and youth sports.

Read the guide

The dairy valley

Cache Valley Farm Country

The cheese, the creameries and the fields that make Black and White Days more than a costume, region wide.

Read the guide

Up the canyon

High Creek Canyon

The hard climb northeast of town to High Creek Lake, high in the Mount Naomi Wilderness above Richmond.

Read the guide

The whole region

Cache Valley on The Local

Logan Canyon, Bear Lake over the summit, the ski hills and the farm country, town by town.

Open the region

The city guide

Richmond homes and neighborhoods

Prices, neighborhoods, schools and current listings, for anyone weighing a move to Richmond.

Open the city guide

Quick answers

Black and White Days, answered.

The 111th Black and White Days runs Monday, May 11 through Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Richmond, about twenty minutes north of Logan on US-91. It is a week long event, with the dairy cattle shows spread across the middle of the week and the parade, carnival and community events landing on the final days. The exact days shift a little from year to year, so confirm the current schedule with the city before you plan travel.

It is Richmond's dairy show and town festival rolled into one week every May. At its center is a national Holstein cattle show that draws dairy families and their cows from across the western states and Canada, and around it the town runs a parade, a carnival, footraces, a pancake breakfast, a royalty pageant and a movie in the park. The name comes from the black and white markings of the Holstein cows the show was built around.

Its organizers and the local Herald Journal bill it as the nation's longest-running dairy cattle show, and the Western Spring National held inside it is described as the longest-standing national Holstein show not tied to a state fair. Richmond has run the event since 1912. It is not quite an unbroken streak, because a few years were missed along the way, which is why 2026 is the 111th annual rather than the 114th.

It is the marquee cattle show at the heart of Black and White Days, and the reason breeders travel to a small Utah town for it. Holstein and Red and White cattle are judged in classes by age, from junior heifers up through mature cows, alongside youth showmanship and a junior show. The Western Heritage Sale runs during the week as well. For anyone who has never seen a top show string up close, it is worth an afternoon.

The parade is on the final Saturday at 5 p.m., running down Main Street through the center of Richmond. In 2026 that is Saturday, May 16. It is the biggest single draw of the week for people who are not there for the cattle, and Main Street fills early, so stake out a spot ahead of time.

Plenty, and most of it is free or close to it. Over the week Richmond runs a carnival with rides, food vendors, footraces, mechanical bull rides, a pancake breakfast, a royalty pageant and an outdoor dinner and movie in the park, on top of the Saturday parade. It works as a family evening even if you never set foot in the show barns.

The community side is inexpensive. The parade, watching the cattle show and most of the town events are free, the pancake breakfast and food vendors are a few dollars, and the carnival charges per ride or by wristband. You can spend an evening there for very little, which is part of why it has lasted.

It centers on Richmond City Park and the show grounds beside it, on the north end of town, with the parade on Main Street. Richmond sits about thirteen miles north of Logan on US-91, roughly a twenty to twenty five minute drive, and the fare free CVTD Connect bus also runs the corridor. There is no freeway, so US-91 is the way in from every direction.

Yes. Black and White Days lands in mid-May each year, but the exact days and the order of events are set anew each season, and a component can move or be added. Treat any specific date you read months ahead as a plan, not a promise, and confirm the current year with the city or the event's own page before you book anything.

Scott Buehler, Moving Utah

A week in May, and a town worth a longer look.

A May full of Black and White Days shows Richmond at its liveliest, but a cattle show is not a housing search. What matters when you actually move here is quieter: how the school lines fall, which parcels carry Richmond Irrigation and Power shares that sell apart from the deed, how hard the January inversion sits on the floor, and what a home on a given street is really worth. Tell me what you are weighing and I will connect you with a Cache County partner agent who knows these blocks, then stay with you through the research and the financing.

Explore Richmond Talk to Scott

Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.