Horace Bean Days: A Fast-Growing Town’s Weekend for a Legume
Horace’s community weekend brings a Main Street parade, a street dance and fireworks to a Fargo suburb that counted 915 residents in 2000, all in the name of the dry bean.
Visitor update, September 22, 2026: Bean Days 2026 has passed. On this check, the City of Horace's Bean Days page and horacebeandays.com still showed the 2026 festival and had not announced 2027 dates. The details below describe the 2026 festival; check those pages each summer for the next one.
Bean Days is Horace, North Dakota’s community weekend, with the city, Park District, Lions Club and Booster Club all taking part. The confirmed headline program is Friday and Saturday, September 11-12, 2026: a parade down Main Street, a Friday car show, fireworks, a Saturday street dance, a 5K, and a vendor fair with food trucks. The city lists a broader September 11-13 weekend, but confirm a specific activity before making a Sunday trip.
The official pages we checked do not explain the name. What is on the record is the crop: USDA ranked North Dakota first in dry-edible-bean production in 2024, with 42.2 percent of the U.S. total.
The town is not what the word “suburb” suggests, either. Horace has grown fast for two decades, its high school opened in 2021, and the 350-gallon pot of baked beans still cited as a world record is historical trivia rather than a standing title.
Here is what happens, how to plan around it, and what a Cass County city on the Sheyenne River has to do with a legume.
When Bean Days happens
The City of Horace's Bean Days page lists September 11-13, 2026. The Horace Park District's event page lists September 11-12, and the festival homepage describes a two-day celebration. These pages do not establish a full Sunday program. Check your chosen activity's date on horacebeandays.com before making a Sunday trip. In 2025 the broad dates were September 5-7, with most programming on the 5th and 6th.
Dates and historical census counts rechecked September 4, 2026. This update distinguishes the city's weekend listing from the Park District's Friday–Saturday program and adds Census Bureau sources for the population counts. Other details retain the September 2 check date.
Do not treat “the weekend after Labor Day” as a hard rule. It held in 2025 and again in 2026, but the 2023 edition ran in mid-August, timed to the city’s 150th-anniversary celebration. Check horacebeandays.com or @cityofhorace on Facebook each summer rather than assuming.
What actually happens
Per the City of Horace and the official Bean Days schedule, the 2026 lineup includes:
- A parade down Main Street
- A car show Friday, 5-7:30 p.m., with live music from Tripwire right after
- A street dance Saturday at 5 p.m. on County Road 17 by Big Erv’s, headlined by Slamabama
- Fireworks planned Friday at 9 p.m., with a tribute to the victims of 9/11: 2026 marks 25 years. The organizer warns that drought or a burn ban may cancel the show.
- Kidfest at Meadowlark Park for 2026
- The 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run, Saturday morning
- Kickball, bean bag and pickleball tournaments
- A trap shoot (HSP) and a Mustache & Beard Contest
- An SVFR fire-department open house, plus shuttles between sites
- BINGO at the Senior Center, food trucks, a vendor fair and a Horace Lions Club pancake breakfast
- A golf scramble run by the Horace Hawks Booster Club
Not everything repeats yearly. The Bean Days site warns that “locations and times are subject to change.” Treat this list as a dated snapshot rather than a guarantee, and open the official schedule before you drive.
The 5K and the 1 Mile Fun Run
The 2026 race is billed the “3rd Annual” and starts at 8547 Front Street: the 5K at 8 a.m. ($30) and the 1-Mile Fun Run at 9:15 a.m. ($10). Both loop north-side neighborhoods and finish at St. Benedict Church: the 5K by way of Lakeview Drive and Cub Creek Way, the Fun Run by way of St. Ann Avenue. Every finisher gets a custom medal.
One deadline has already passed. T-shirts were ordered August 19, so late sign-ups are not guaranteed a size. As checked September 8, the registration page closes the 1-Mile Fun Run at 11:59 p.m. Central on September 10 and the 5K at 11:59 p.m. Central on September 11; do not assume race-day registration.
Why beans, specifically
North Dakota produced 42.2 percent of U.S. dry edible beans in 2024, ranking first, according to USDA NASS’s state rankings. That figure has a defined crop year. The 32 percent figure still shown in the U.S. Dry Bean Council’s undated production table should not be presented as the current annual share.
That is the documented background we found. The official pages checked for this guide do not explain how the festival got its name. The crop makes the connection plausible; it remains an inference until a festival organizer or historical record establishes it.
The pattern is familiar here, though: a crop or a kitchen turns into an identity, and sometimes into a business. The state’s best-known version of that story is the seasoned pretzel that started in a Velva kitchen.
Horace’s world-record bean-pot bid
Horace leaned into the theme once before. A trade-press report published August 19, 2002 described a 350-gallon Bean Days pot in a town of roughly 941 residents. That is a historical report of a record bid; its publication date does not establish the day the beans were cooked.
Worth knowing before you repeat the “Horace holds a world record” line: it is not on the record page. Guinness’s current record is 6,840 litres (about 1,807 U.S. gallons, more than five times the size of the Horace pot), set on August 22, 2026, in Kelkit, Turkey. No Horace entry appears there.
The 2002 stunt is good trivia. It is historical trivia, not a standing title, and it keeps good company: several of the state’s great stories are worth double-checking before you repeat them.
Who runs it
Bean Days is a joint effort. The city handles coordination and vendor and parade registration (PR@cityofhorace.com), the Park District runs Kidfest and the tournaments, the Lions Club runs the pancake breakfast, and the Booster Club runs the golf scramble.
Horace has more to celebrate than beans. In August 2023 the city folded a 150th-anniversary celebration (reportedly August 17-20, under its own horace150.com banner) into that year’s Bean Days, complete with a pancake feed, street dance and fireworks.
The founding math is fuzzy. The city’s history page says settlers arrived in Dakota Territory in 1871, a post office opened in 1875, and the town was platted in 1882. Whichever anniversary the city was counting from, Horace Park District’s Paige Shockman told KFGO the day was about “having a huge celebration where the whole community can come together and celebrate.” The line you may have seen elsewhere (that it gave Horace “a more big-city feeling”) was the reporter’s paraphrase, not Shockman’s own words.
The town underneath the festival
Bean Days makes more sense once you understand Horace itself. This Cass County city sits on the Sheyenne River, roughly 16 miles by road southwest of Fargo (the city’s own site cites that driving distance, and the “8 miles” you will see elsewhere is a straight-line figure), and 5 to 8 miles south of West Fargo.
The Census Bureau counted 915 residents in 2000, then 2,430 in 2010 and 3,085 in 2020. That is a 165.6 percent increase between the first two censuses and 27.0 percent between the next two. These are historical counts, not an estimate of how many people live in Horace today.
Those counts establish substantial growth. They do not establish a current statewide fastest-growing-city ranking, which would require comparing the same period and method across cities.
The growth shows in the schools. Horace High School (the Hawks) opened for 2021-22 as West Fargo’s third high school; construction and supply-chain delays kept freshmen out until October 27, 2021, and even then it opened in phases, with rehearsal spaces, auditoriums and the gym arriving later. It sits at 8100 Lakeview Drive on a 92.8-acre campus shared with Heritage Middle School, built for a preferred capacity of 1,080, a maximum of 1,200, and room to expand toward 1,550.
None of that is why the parade is worth watching. But Bean Days predates the boom: the bean-pot stunt was a Bean Days event in 2002, when Horace had roughly 941 residents.
Plan your visit
- Where: downtown Horace. Main Street and the surrounding parks host most events, roughly 16 miles by road southwest of downtown Fargo.
- When: the confirmed headline program is Friday–Saturday, September 11-12, 2026. The city lists a broader September 11-13 weekend, but check a specific activity before planning a Sunday visit. Dates have varied: the 2023 festival ran in mid-August.
- Cost: the parade, car show, fireworks, live music and vendor fair carry no listed admission fee. The 5K and fun run ($30 and $10) and the golf scramble have entry costs; food trucks and vendors set their own prices.
- Getting there and staying: we found no hotel in Horace, so plan on Fargo or West Fargo, a short drive away. Expect street closures around the parade route and the street dance; the festival also runs shuttles between sites.
- Before you go: check horacebeandays.com or @cityofhorace on Facebook. Venues, band lineups and even the fireworks have varied from year to year.
- City Hall: 215 Park Drive East, Horace, ND 58047, (701) 492-2972, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
If the dates do not line up
Bean Days is one weekend a year, and it is the kind of small-town festival that rewards being nearby rather than being planned around from a thousand miles away. If your travel dates miss it, our month-by-month guide to North Dakota festivals shows what else is running when, and the statewide field guide covers the anchor stops that do not depend on a single weekend.
If you are traveling with children and building a longer eastern-to-western trip around it, the I-94 family route and the Fargo-to-Medora drive both start within easy reach of Horace. The full North Dakota Guide organizes every one of our stories by region, route and visitor question.
Frequently asked questions
When is Bean Days 2026?
The city lists September 11–13, while the Park District lists September 11–12 and the festival site describes a two-day celebration. The confirmed headline program is Friday and Saturday. Confirm a specific activity before making a Sunday trip.
When is Bean Days 2027?
Not announced yet. As of September 22, 2026, the City of Horace and the festival site still showed the 2026 dates. The 2025 and 2026 festivals fell the weekend after Labor Day, but the 2023 edition ran in mid-August, so wait for the official dates before planning around it.
Why is it called “Bean Days”?
USDA ranked North Dakota first in dry-edible-bean production in 2024, with 42.2 percent of the national total. The official pages we checked do not explain the festival’s name, so the connection is an inference rather than a documented origin.
Is Bean Days free to attend?
The parade, car show, fireworks, live music and vendor fair carry no listed admission fee. The 5K and fun run and the golf scramble are the events with entry fees.
Who organizes Bean Days?
The City of Horace coordinates the event. The Park District runs Kidfest and the tournaments, the Lions Club hosts the pancake breakfast, and the Booster Club runs the golf scramble.
Did Horace really hold a Guinness World Record for baked beans?
It was reported as one at the time. In 2002, roughly 941 residents cooked a 350-gallon pot of baked beans chasing the title, and trade press covered the attempt as a record. Whatever it was then, it is not one now: Guinness’s current record is 6,840 litres, about 1,807 U.S. gallons, set in Kelkit, Turkey, in August 2026, and Horace does not appear on the record page.
Is Horace really North Dakota’s fastest-growing city?
Horace has grown substantially: the Census Bureau counted 915 residents in 2000, 2,430 in 2010 and 3,085 in 2020. This guide does not establish a current statewide growth ranking. A fair comparison would use the same period and population measure for every city.
Where do you stay for Bean Days?
We found no hotel in Horace. Fargo and West Fargo are both a short drive away, and the festival runs shuttles between its own sites.
Source notes
- Bean Days, City of Horace and the city’s community events index: the “at the end of every summer” framing, the 2026 dates, and the city’s coordination and registration role.
- Horace Bean Days official site, its 2026 event schedule and its live music and event details page: venues, times, band names, the fireworks tribute and the “locations and times are subject to change” warning.
- Horace Bean Days 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run course details and the RunSignUp race listing: start address, start times, entry fees, the two courses, the finisher medal and the August 19 t-shirt order deadline.
- City of Horace Facebook: the Bean Days 2026 registration post and the 2025 save-the-date post: the 2026 registration categories, the September 5-7, 2025 dates and the concentration of 2025 programming on the 5th and 6th.
- Horace Park District events: Kidfest at Meadowlark Park and the district’s tournament role. The page is clear about Kidfest’s location and less specific about where each tournament is played.
- “Horace celebrates 150 years with annual Bean Days,” KFGO, August 19, 2023: the 2023 mid-August timing, the anniversary programming and the Paige Shockman quotation. The “more big-city feeling” phrasing in that story is the reporter’s paraphrase, not a quotation.
- “USA: Horace citizens set world record during Bean Days Festival,” Just Food: a report published August 19, 2002, describing the roughly 941-resident town and 350-gallon pot; the publication date is not treated as the event date.
- Largest pot of baked beans, Guinness World Records: the current 6,840-litre record set in Kelkit, Turkey, on August 22, 2026, and the absence of any Horace entry on the record page.
- USDA NASS, North Dakota’s Rank in U.S. Agriculture, May 1, 2025: first place and a 42.2 percent share of 2024 U.S. dry-edible-bean production. Replaces an undated industry share previously presented as current.
- Welcome to Horace, City of Horace and the City Hall staff directory: the 16-mile driving distance from Fargo, the 5-to-8-mile distance south of West Fargo, the Sheyenne River setting, the 1871, 1875 and 1882 founding dates, and the City Hall address, phone number and hours.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2000–2003 incorporated-place population table, page 5, and QuickFacts: Horace city, North Dakota: the decennial census counts of 915 in 2000, 2,430 in 2010 and 3,085 in 2020, rechecked September 4, 2026. Percentage changes are calculated from those counts; no current statewide growth ranking is claimed.
- “A look inside West Fargo’s newest school: Horace High School,” InForum and the Horace High School overview, West Fargo Public Schools: the delayed and phased 2021 opening, the October 27, 2021 date, the 8100 Lakeview Drive address, the 92.8-acre shared campus and the 1,080 / 1,200 / 1,550 capacity figures.
- Horace, North Dakota, Wikipedia: used as a lead for the 2000, 2010 and 2020 decennial counts and the 165.6 percent and 27.0 percent decade growth figures. The Census Bureau sources in note 11 supersede this initial crowdsourced lead.
Festival dates, the music schedule, race details and registration deadlines, the fireworks caveat, Guinness’s current listed record and USDA’s dated bean share rechecked September 8, 2026. Historical census counts were checked September 4; other background retains the September 2 check date. The city and festival pages were checked again September 22, 2026, for 2027 dates; none were posted. Spot an error? Read our editorial standards and corrections policy.