The calendar has flipped to June, which means one thing in the town of Libby: It’s almost time for the annual Logger Days festival.

The annual summer event will start Thursday, June 25, and end Sunday, June 28. This year’s celebration will mark the 57the Logger Days event and is the longest running celebration in Libby. 

Hope Kirschenmann has been helping plan the event for 11 years.

“We basically start planning for the event the day after it ends.”

Libby Logger Days highlights the town’s logging industry and history. What started as just logging competitions has turned into a town festival and is a Lincoln County summer attraction.  

The logging competitions are still the main attraction, but now there are attractions for each age level to enjoy. There will be a parade, a carnival and lawn mower races. 

The festivities start on Thursday and it’s being billed as “Family Fun Night.” The Paradise Carnival kicks things off at 5 p.m. The carnival will start at 11 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Following the carnival on Thursday, there will be a kid’s water fight at 6 p.m. 

There will be a 5K/10K Fun Run on Saturday, which will start at 8 a.m. There is an $18 entry fee that includes a free t-shirt. Early registration can be done via mail or in person at the Montana Athletic Club in Libby.

There will be live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. Country Legends will start playing at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 25. The live music on Friday and Saturday will start at 9 p.m. Copper Mountain Band will be playing on Friday night and the Rockaholics will rock out on Saturday.  

The Bull and Bullette of the woods will take place on Friday night at 7 p.m. It is a boxing competition with a twist. The contestants stand on a log and try to box each other off the log. There is a $25 entry fee.  The winner of the Bull (Men) and Bullette (Women) contests will win $500 each.

“Bull and Bullette of the Woods is one of the more popular events,” Kirshenmann said.  

The logging competitions will start on Saturday, June 27 at noon at J. Neil’s Memorial Park. Professional competitors and athletes compete in a 15 different logging contests. Some of these contests are done individually, like the horizontal chop. The horizontal chop is when the competitor stands on top of a two foot long horizontally positioned block. He chops halfway through from the front side and turns and then finishes chopping through the backside. Other competitions, like the double buck is team based. In the double buck competition, two contestants use a six-foot long crosscut saw to slice their way through a block. 

The Libby Logger Days has gone through changes. But it’s made sure to not lose its roots and true meaning behind the event, and that’s to pay homage to the town’s logging industry and heritage.