Marengo Settlers' Days 2026: The Schedule, the Street Closures, and What the Council Said

Settlers' Days is back downtown the weekend of October 9 to 11, and it turns 55 this year. The carnival opens Friday at 5 p.m. in the city parking lot by the railroad tracks, Saturday Night on Main Street runs 5 to 10 p.m. on State Street, and the parade steps off Sunday at 2 p.m.

If you have been to the last few, the shape is familiar. The car show is at Marengo Community High School again; the organizers say they moved it there from Calvin Spencer Park last year to fit more vehicles. The public schedule runs Friday through Sunday, where last year's started on Thursday. This year's theme, as the parade entry form spells it, is "All-American Affair: A Star-Spangled Spectacular," chosen to mark the country's 250th birthday, the organizers wrote to the city in April.

Here is the whole weekend, drawn from the festival's own schedule page, then the part most people do not see: what the city agreed to close, what the police chief told the council about keeping the crowd safe next to a working rail line, and the debate that came before the closures were approved.

Before the Weekend

Settlers' Days began in 1971. Richard Mikyska and Jim Sweet named it, and the logo Dee Schafer designed for the first one is still in use, according to the festival's own history page. The carnival is Skinner's, the Marengo family operation that has run rides across northern Illinois since 1910 and closes its season here every October, according to a Rockton-Roscoe News profile of the company.

The run-up starts midweek. City Parking Lot 2, the lot by the tracks, closes to parking Wednesday, October 7, and stays closed through Sunday evening while the carnival sets up, runs and tears down. Thursday, October 8 is the last day to buy pre-sale ride bracelets: $30 for unlimited rides, good for Friday 5 to 9 p.m. or Saturday 1 to 5 p.m., on sale September 24 through October 8; details at settlersdays.com. Thursday also brings a 5:30 p.m. movie night at the library, "An American Tail," and the Prince and Princess pageant rehearsal at 6:30 on the second floor of Joe's Place.

Two registration deadlines land first: parade entries close Thursday, October 1, and pageant pre-registration closes Monday, October 5. Both forms are on the festival site.

Friday, October 9

• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Cody's Farm: corn maze, apples, pumpkins, corn box and kid zone.
• 4 to 5:15 p.m., Locust School big gym: pumpkin decorating contest.
• 5 p.m., carnival opens in the municipal lot; closes at 10.
• 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Firehouse: bingo.
• 7 p.m., Northside Tap: Beads for Bail, a breast cancer fundraiser.

Saturday, October 10

• 8 a.m., First Baptist Church: MASEF 5K Fun Run registration, 8:30 step-off.
• 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Zion: Touch-a-Truck.
• 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., library: book sale.
• 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., MCHS: arts and crafts fair.
• 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., MCHS: car show with a DJ and food truck. Registration opens at 9; $10 in advance, $15 the day of.
• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Cody's Farm: food and apple cider donuts.
• 10:30 a.m., First Baptist: children's pet parade check-in, 11 a.m. step-off.
• 1 p.m., carnival opens; closes at 11.
• 4 to 10 p.m., Flatlander Market: extended hours.
• 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Firehouse: bingo.
• 7 to 9 p.m., Wholesome Petz: haunted house.

Saturday Night on Main Street, 5 to 10 p.m. Live music, food vendors, crafts, kids' activities, street performers and the beer tent, on State Street downtown. Voting for the downtown window decorating contest is open the same hours. The Chamber's beer tent sits at 100 West Washington Street, and its liquor license runs an hour past the music, 5 to 11 p.m.

Main Stage: Jack Beltz at 5, Electric Brew at 6:30, Back Country Roads at 8:30. North Stage: the Prince and Princess pageants at 5, then Embers Rise at 7.

Sunday, October 11

• 7 a.m. to noon, the Union fire station: pancake breakfast. This one is in Union, not downtown Marengo.
• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Cody's Farm.
• Noon to 1:30 p.m., Washington and Taylor: Zion outreach.
• 1 p.m., carnival opens; closes at 5.
• 2 p.m., the parade. It starts at East Railroad Street, runs down State Street, the stretch of Route 23 the festival calls Main Street, to East Washington, then down Washington and ends at Prospect. The entry form asks that flags in the parade be unaltered American flags, in keeping with the 250th theme, and says throwing candy is prohibited.
• 4 p.m., Rod Poppe Field at MCHS: marching band field show competition.

What Closes, and When

The city council signed off on the closures on April 27. Per the resolution and the organizers' request letter in that night's packet:

• Route 23, between the Route 20 stoplight and Railroad Street: Saturday 3 p.m. to midnight for Saturday Night on Main Street, and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. for the parade. Route 23 is a state highway, so the council's resolution is a request to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which issues the permit.
• West Washington Street, from State Street west to South Ann Street: Saturday 11 a.m. through Sunday 4 p.m., for the beer garden and the main stage.
• City Parking Lot 2: the whole lot, Wednesday through Sunday, for the carnival.

The posted detour sends Route 23 traffic around downtown on Railroad Street, West Street and Grant Highway (Route 20). Route 176 traffic detours by way of Prospect Street and Route 20.

The truck route through the city closes too; the police chief's account of what that means for trucks is below.

What the Police Chief Told the Council

Before the council voted on the closures in April, Police Chief Andrew Kjellgren, who was acting chief at the time, laid out the safety case in some detail. As the minutes summarize it:

• Do not count on the trains slowing down. Union Pacific can be told about the event, but there is no guarantee it will reduce train speeds. The posted speed for freight trains through downtown is 45 mph, and trains have kept that speed during past downtown festivals even after being notified. Union Pacific, the chief said, has an audio recording advising municipalities to move events away from railroad corridors.
• Kids and the tracks. The chief has had to direct children off the railroad tracks and has issued trespassing citations over it.
• Some access points are not fully secured. Certain ways into the closed-off area are not fully blocked, so a vehicle could get into the event area.
• Trucks. The truck route through the city will be closed, leaving Railroad and West streets as the alternatives. Farmers had raised concerns about using Prospect Street because of its new medians, noting the roadway is only 11 feet wide, and whether oversize or overweight vehicles can legally use the alternate streets still needed clarification.

The minutes record those as the chief's concerns about the safety of the event location. For a family headed downtown they are also practical: the carnival lot and the closed blocks sit next to the tracks, and the trains keep running through the festival. Keep kids off the tracks and use the crossings.

The Votes

The closures came on split votes. Both votes on April 27, the Route 23 resolution and the Washington Street and parking lot closure, passed 5 to 3, the same three council members voting no each time. The minutes record the reasons.

One council member called the matter first and foremost a safety issue and said the city cannot afford the staff time, public works and police, that the event takes; if the Chamber wants Route 23 closed, the member said, it should assume a portion of the costs. A second raised the safety concerns. A third, a former downtown business owner, said downtown businesses made the most money on this one night a year. A fourth pointed out that other McHenry County towns have moved their festivals out of downtown and into city parks.

Colleen Helfers, speaking for the Settlers' Days board, told the council the city is grandfathered in with the state on closing Route 23 for this event and would lose that ability if the festival moved anywhere else in town. Many downtown businesses, Helfers said, rely heavily on the one evening, and the event reflects what Marengo represents as a community.

The question of where the festival belongs has come up before. In 2017 the Settlers' Days committee floated moving the festival to an open lot away from Main Street, residents objected at two council meetings, and by August the committee had agreed to bring it back downtown, according to the council minutes from that summer.

The second and final vote came September 14, when the council approved the Chamber's beer tent license and the city services that go with the weekend, barricades, road closures and a police presence, 5 to 1. A council member asked what the event costs the city. Assistant City Administrator Megan Lopez told the council the city has tracked its service costs for the event in past years, and put the all-in figure, public works and police together, at somewhere between $8,000 and $15,000 a year. The organizers' letter said the Settlers' Days committee would provide meal vouchers to the city workers and officers assigned to the evening. Our recap of that meeting has the rest.

Two organizations put on the weekend. Settlers' Days, Inc. asked for the street closures in April, and the Marengo-Union Chamber of Commerce holds the beer tent license; the festival's website describes Settlers' Days, Inc. as a not-for-profit separate from both the Chamber and the city.

If You Go

For changes, check the schedule at settlersdays.com or the Settlers' Days Marengo Facebook page. The site has the full brochure, the parade and pageant forms, and the vendor map once it is posted.

Marengo Weekly reviewed the 2026 schedule, forms and event pages posted at settlersdays.com as of September 14, 2026; the April 27, 2026 Marengo City Council packet, minutes and closure resolution; the September 14, 2026 council packet and the Chamber's September 2 letter; council minutes from June through August 2017; and a 2021 Rockton-Roscoe News profile of Skinner's Amusements.

Correction (Sept. 19, 2026): An earlier version said the car show moved to Marengo Community High School this year; it moved last year. It also placed Beads for Bail at TrYst and listed a Saturday corn hole tournament, as the festival's posted schedule does. The organizers told us Beads for Bail is at Northside Tap and there is no corn hole tournament this year. We also removed a sentence, drawn from the organizers' April letter to the city, that said volunteers would help place detour signs; the city handles the barricades and road closures.