Elma, Iowa: Elma Trail Days

Elma Trail Days is the town’s annual festival, occurring the weekend of the 2nd Saturday of July each year; dates for the 2022 festival are July 8-9-10.  The event has a few preliminary activities in the week leading up to the festival, such as a family-friendly “Chalk the Walk” event and a “Medallion Hunt”, but the majority of festival activities take place Friday evening through Saturday evening  and end with a  Knights of Columbus community breakfast on Sunday morning.  Some annual features of the festival include a kid’s pedal tractor pull & ball games, a ribeye sandwich meal in the park Friday night with additional entertainment, beverage garden, & concession stand operating late into the night with a  fireworks display at 10 :00 p.m.  Saturday morning begins with a 5k walk/run, community breakfast, 11:00 a.m. parade, and then a full day/evening of fun in the Elma City Park.  Saturday fun typically includes the concession stand & beverage garden operating from the park noon-12:00 midnight, live music on the stage at night, inflatable bounce house & other kid’s activities.  Other music & activities through-out the day vary from year to year, but in the past have included caricatures, scavenger hunts, bloody mary bar, fireman’s water-ball challenge, face painting, 4-wheeler obstacle course, various eating contests, slow-pitch ball games, bean bag tournaments, mud volleyball and a dunk tank to name a few.