Palmer readying for 90th annual Colony Days

Last minute preparations are well underway for the much-anticipated 90th annual Colony Days.

The annual 3-day festival, hosted by the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce (GPCC), features a wide variety of events, activities, and local vendor shopping opportunities.

“It’s something great that’s happening,” says Kelley Shoemake, Executive Director of the GPCC.

This year's Colony Days festival will feature many free family friendly events and activities that visitors have come to know and love, such as the Outdoor Vendor Market, with a variety of Alaska-made products, food trucks, and more; the popular Community Bed Races; the Colony Days Car Show, featuring classic, antique, and hotrod cars; and of course the annual Colony Days Parade.

“It will be the same great event as always, while offering a few new events for visitors, too,” said Shoemake.

There will also be a few new events this year, including a Business Expo held at the Borough Gym, designed to help small businesses win big. Among attractions expected at the Expo will be Twindly Bridge Robotics, AK Taekwondo, Mat-Su College, FBI, APD, and more showcasing what they have to offer to the community.

Possibly making a return appearance to the Colony Days Parade is the Grotto Lunker, though Shoemake says that the elusive creature is sometimes driven away by the fun to be had at the parade.

“He’s been trying to ruin fun for decades.”

Colony Days began in 1936, after the Matanuska Colony began when 203 families were relocated as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal along with other agricultural colonies created in Georgia, Florida and Arkansas. The residents of the agricultural Matanuska Colony wanted to celebrate surviving the winter in 1936 and did so with a festival. The early-summer festival soon took on the name “grotto lunker festival.”

Colony Days is an annual event cherished by many community members, bring thousands to the Palmer community to celebrate Palmer's history as an agricultural colony that eventually evolved into the vibrant city it is today.

The hours for this year’s festival are:

June 13th – 11am to 7pm

June 14th – 11am – 7pm

June 15th – 11am – 4pm

For more information about the 2025 Colony Days, including a full schedule of events, please visit www.palmerchamber.org.