Hooper Tomato Days, the western week that runs into Labor Day.

Hooper City runs it in the days leading into Labor Day, and in 2026 it ran from 31 August to 7 September, ending on the Monday holiday. The city has not always posted the following year's dates far ahead, so a run of days finishing on Labor Day is the pattern to expect rather than a fixed calendar entry. The city runs the festival from its own pages, so the Hooper City Tomato Days page is the place to confirm the current year's dates before you travel or plan around it.

At Hooper Park and the Hooper rodeo arena at 5600 S 6300 W, about two miles southwest of Hooper city hall. That one ground carries almost everything the festival does, from the shows and the tournaments to the concert and the fireworks, with the rodeo at the arena. The main exception is the parade, which runs through Hooper and ends at the park. Because the festival concentrates on the one site, parking on the big days is a walk from wherever you find a space rather than a spot at the gate, so come early.

A full week of it. The rodeo is the spine, run over several nights with slack, alongside junior and jackpot rodeos, a rodeo queen, barrel racing and roping. Around it the city runs a parade, a car show, a tractor show, a horse show and horse pulls, a pancake breakfast, the Tomato Chase 5K, dog races, a baby show, children's games, tournaments in volleyball, pickleball, softball and golf, a barbecue competition, a concert and fireworks. It is a real western festival spread across Hooper Park and the rodeo arena, with a part in it for almost everyone in a household.

More than a hundred years, on the city's own framing. Hooper City describes the festival as having been held for over a century, which puts it among the older continuously run community festivals in the county. That long history is a large part of why it leans so heavily western, with the rodeo, the horse pulls and the tractor show at its core: it grew up as a farm and ranch community's celebration and it has kept that character even as the city around it has filled in with houses. The exact founding year is the city's to pin, and it prints the event as a century-plus tradition.

Turning up does not. Hooper City charges no admission for the festival itself, and most of what happens, the parade, the shows, the concert and the fireworks, is free to watch. What can carry a fee are the individual competition events: the rodeo sessions and the sport tournaments in particular may have their own entry or ticket charges. So the honest answer is that the festival is free to attend but not every part of it is free to enter, and if the rodeo is the reason you are coming, check its own listing rather than assuming the whole week is free.

Yes, and it is the heart of the festival. The rodeo runs at the Hooper arena over several nights with slack, the earlier overflow performance for when there are more entries than an evening holds, and it carries junior and jackpot rodeos, a rodeo queen, barrel racing, and team and breakaway roping alongside the main sessions. It is a genuine western rodeo rather than a token one, and it is the part of the week most likely to be ticketed, so it is the one to check a schedule and a price for rather than assuming it is free like the rest of the festival.

Hooper City runs it. The city hosts the festival at its own Hooper Park and rodeo arena, publishes the program on its own pages, and lists a Tomato Days chairman and a community events email as the contacts rather than a separate outside organizer. That matters practically, because the city's own number and page reach the people who actually put the week on, and they are the place to settle a date, a rodeo time, a vendor question or an entry form. The festival is a genuinely municipal event, not a private one running on city ground.

A short calendar, run by the city on its own parks. In spring there is the Easter egg event the city calls Hop in the Park, held at North Park beside city hall. There is a Halloween event in the fall and a holiday wreaths event as the year closes. Between those and Tomato Days at the end of summer, that is most of the city's published calendar, which is modest for a city this size. Hooper is a large lot, spread out place, so much of its social life runs through neighborhoods, schools and churches rather than a busy municipal roster, and the city's own events page is where the current dates live.

The parade runs through Hooper and ends at Hooper Park, and the city keeps the exact route and timing on its own pages and adjusts them year to year, so pick a spot along the route early rather than relying on last year's plan. The fireworks and the concert are at Hooper Park itself, so the park is the place to be for the end of the day. Because nearly everything but the parade concentrates on the one park and arena ground at 5600 S 6300 W, plan on parking a walk away and arriving before the crowd on the big days.