Sugar Beet Days
Celebrate Sugar Beet Days in beautiful downtown Sterling on September 16 and 17. This event is held annually on the 3rd weekend of September and is the premier festival in northeast Colorado with 200+ food and craft vendors and two full days of entertainment.
Join in the fun at the Historic Logan County Courthouse Square, 315 Main Street, Sterling, Colo.
- Saturday, September 16: 9 am - 6 pm
- Sunday, September 17: 10 am - 4 pm
You will find this festival truly has something for everyone!
Sugar beets have been part of Logan County history starting in 1901, when 400 people met to launch an effort to bring a sugar beet factory to Sterling.
The first sugar beets were shipped out of this region in 1902 and went to the factory at Easton. In 1904, a site for the sugar beet factory was purchased: 200 acres at the south edge of town.
Work on the factory began in April 1905. Nearly 9,000 acres of beets were harvested in the Sterling factory territory in the fall of 1905 (which included several thousand acres in Morgan and Sedgwick counties). Farmers received $5 per ton for the crop.
By 1909, the factory was employing 275 persons, with a payroll of $110,000. The factory processed record tonnage in 1930 when Sterling district growers in the county produced 224,000 tons on 16,869 acres!
The Sugar Beet Days Festival was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 1982 as an annual tribute to agriculture. Even though we no longer have the sugar beet factory operational in Sterling, the festival continues to celebrate harvest time and the hardworking people of Northeastern Colorado.
