If you've lived in Isanti for more than a summer, you already know the second weekend of July belongs to the rodeo. What's different this year is the backdrop. The same Main Street that hosts the outhouse races and the pie line at Faith Lutheran is in the middle of a downtown facelift, and the 2026 festival is the first one that lands on it. That changes how a resident should plan the weekend, and it's worth walking through before Thursday afternoon arrives.
The dates to lock in: July 9 through July 12, presented by the North 65 Chamber of Commerce and the Isanti Firefighters Rodeo Association. The Chamber itself is the Grand Marshal this year, celebrating ten years.
Why this year's festival feels different
The city spent 2025 quietly stitching together a downtown revitalization plan, and three familiar buildings on the parade route now carry redevelopment dollars behind their storefronts. The Creamery Crossing building received $75,000, the HearSwell building received $9,000, and the Rockstad and Co. building received $12,000, all channeled through the state's Main Street Redevelopment Program via the Initiative Foundation. Isanti also launched what Mayor Luke Merrill described as the first restaurant recruitment program of its kind in Minnesota, aimed squarely at a complaint every resident has voiced at some point: we need more places to eat.
That matters for Jubilee Days because the parade, the outhouse races, the turtle race, and the food vendor stretch all run through the exact blocks getting attention. When you're standing on Main Street on Friday afternoon, you're standing inside the plan. Bring that lens with you and the weekend reads differently.
The four-day skeleton, in the order a resident would actually use it
Thursday, July 9 — parade night. Food vendors set up along the parade route at 4 p.m. Faith Lutheran opens its pie and ice cream from 4 to 10 p.m., which is the single most reliable dinner strategy of the entire weekend if you have kids and a folding chair to plant. Live music from The Happy Trucker runs 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. downtown. Line-up starts at 5:30 on Rosewood Avenue North. The parade rolls at 6:30 p.m. with a T-6 Thunder fly-over. Goat Tying at 5:30 and Mutton Bustin' at 6 lead into the 49th Annual Isanti Firefighters PRCA Rodeo at 6:30 at the rodeo grounds, followed by a dance featuring Stone Daisy. Fireworks close the night at Bluebird Park around 10 p.m.
Friday, July 10 — the family day. The Splish Splash Summer Bash runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Bluebird Park, sponsored by the City of Isanti. Water slides, splash zones, a kids DJ, pop bottle rockets, face painting, and food trucks. The Neighborhood Market operates 1 to 6 p.m. at the northeast corner of Highway 65 and CSAH 5. Hockey Association Bingo lands at Wintergreens at 7 p.m. Live music from CB Wilson takes the Isanti VFW Post 2735 stage at 8 p.m.
Saturday, July 11 — the day the town gets weird, in the best way. The Kiddie Parade steps off at 11 a.m. from the Faith Lutheran parking lot, sponsored by the VFW Auxiliary. The Isanti Lions run the Turtle Race at noon on Main Street. Sign-ups for the 35th Annual Outhouse Races open at noon at Main and 1st, with the races themselves at 1 p.m., sponsored by Absolute Portable Restrooms and the North 65 Chamber. The second rodeo performance runs at 6:30 with a dance featuring Six to Midnight.
Sunday, July 12 — recovery. The schedule tapers off. Use it for a quiet breakfast and a walk.
A note for anyone new to the parade route etiquette: chairs on private property before 6 a.m. on parade day are frowned on, and chairs left in downtown before 4 p.m. can be removed so customers can still reach open businesses. Both rules exist because the parade route doubles as a working retail block, which is exactly the point the redevelopment work is trying to reinforce.
Where to eat when you don't want another brat
The food vendor stretch is fine, but the town has enough sit-down options that you don't have to make a meal of parade food unless you want to. A short list of what actually works during festival hours:
- Wintergreens Golf & Grill at 306 Credit Union Drive. Fish fry, bar bingo Friday night as part of the Hockey Association fundraiser, and a golf simulator if the rodeo grounds parking scares you off. Kitchen runs until 10 p.m. most nights.
- Back to Captain's at 27821 Bayshore Drive NW. Their part-time patio came back May 1, and summer hours mean the kitchen stays open into the late evening, which is useful after the fireworks empty out Bluebird Park. Breakfast served until 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
- Now That's Waffles for a slow Saturday morning before the Kiddie Parade. The Hell Hound has a following for a reason.
- Jimmy's Pizza for a takeout order that survives a folding-chair delivery.
- Smokin Jay's BBQ and China House round out the walk-in options within a few minutes of downtown.
The Isanti VFW Post 2735 is worth mentioning separately. It's the CB Wilson venue on Friday night, and it functions as the unofficial living room of the festival for a lot of longtime residents.
Reading the weekend against the buildings
Here's the piece most guides skip. Walk the parade route on Thursday afternoon before the crowds arrive and look at three storefronts: Creamery Crossing, HearSwell, and Rockstad and Co. Those are the three that pulled Main Street Redevelopment dollars in 2025. The city's tax rate for 2026 sits at 41 percent on a $3.6 million levy, which Mayor Merrill has pointed out is down 47.22 percent from 2017. The math the council is making is a straightforward one: bring in commercial growth, spread the levy across a wider base, keep the rate trending down. Jubilee Days is the one weekend a year that puts thousands of people onto the exact blocks that math is riding on.
That's a useful thing to notice as a resident, because it changes how you spend a Saturday afternoon. Stopping into a downtown business during the outhouse races isn't a break from the festival. It's part of what makes the festival keep making sense to the people writing next year's budget.
A few practical logistics
Handicap parade parking is available at Faith Lutheran Church. Advance rodeo tickets are online only through the Isanti Fire District. If you're bringing a turtle to the Turtle Race, DNR regulations apply, no Blandings turtles, and no turtle sales without a permit. If you're volunteering, the Chamber runs sign-ups through their site.
Weather-wise, the Splish Splash Summer Bash is a good hedge for a hot Friday, and the rodeo grounds have historically packed out both nights, so getting there earlier than you think you need to is the standard advice.
The through-line
Jubilee Days has been running long enough that most of the fixtures don't need reinvention. The 49th rodeo, the 35th outhouse races, the parade route down Rosewood, the pie table at Faith Lutheran. What's genuinely new in 2026 is what surrounds them. A downtown that has money moving into three of its buildings, a restaurant recruitment program the state hasn't seen before, and a levy structure the council is actively trying to keep flat while population grows. For residents, the weekend is an easy chance to see all of that at once without a single meeting agenda involved.
Go for the parade. Stay for the pie. Notice the storefronts. Then keep the reservation you were going to make at Wintergreens or Back to Captain's, because the recruitment program only works if the current lineup stays busy in the meantime.
If you're weighing what all of this means for property values on your block, or you're curious what a Main Street revival tends to do to neighborhoods a mile out from downtown, Team Lundeen is happy to talk through it with the numbers your address actually deserves. Let's Find Your Way Home — Request a Free Home Valuation.
