Downtown Bonner Springs is packed with carnival rides, food vendors, and live music this weekend as Tiblow Days gets underway, bringing the small Kansas town's biggest annual gathering back to its historic streets. The festival runs tonight and tomorrow, wrapping up a weekend built around food, local vendors, and family-friendly fun in the heart of the city.
Tiblow Days is underway in historic downtown Bonner Springs, with local food and live entertainment offered in the city's core.
Behind the fun, though, festival organizers have made a notable change for 2026. The Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Area Chamber of Commerce introduced a new youth curfew policy requiring anyone under 18 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian once carnival hours end — 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 8 p.m. Saturday, according to the chamber. The policy appears in the chamber's own event guidance.
Getting Downtown Without the Headache
Anyone worried about parking has an easier option this year. Festival organizers set up a continuous, free park-and-ride shuttle running from Bonner Springs High School to the downtown event area until the evening concerts end on Friday and Saturday, per the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Area Chamber of Commerce. Street closures along Oak Street are also limiting downtown vehicle access during the event, according to the same chamber guidance, so the shuttle offers a way to skip the congestion altogether.
Saturday morning includes the Bonner Springs Police Department's K-9 Car Show, running from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with community award presentations at 2 p.m., as detailed by Kansas City on the Cheap. The event puts local law enforcement squarely in the middle of the community celebration rather than on its edges.
A National Voice Takes the Centennial Park Stage
Saturday evening's free concert series at Centennial Park is headlined by Will Moseley, the runner-up of American Idol Season 22 in 2024, according to Kansas City on the Cheap. All the music performances at Centennial Park remain open to the public without any admission fee, giving the festival a taste of national-tour polish without the ticket price.
Saturday morning's centerpiece is the 48th annual Tiblow Trot, scheduled for 7 a.m. on August 29, a Rotary Club-sponsored race that dates back to 1979, according to reporting cited by First Team. The run raises money for Bonner Springs High School scholarships and global polio eradication efforts, a tradition that predates much of the highway infrastructure now surrounding the town.
The Frontier History Behind the Festival Name
The festival's name traces back to Henry Tiblow, a Delaware chief and U.S. government interpreter who lived from 1818 to 1881 and operated a ferry across the Kansas River, according to historical records compiled by Rootsweb. Tiblow reportedly spoke seven languages and represented tribal interests in treaties between 1843 and 1866, and his ferry was well patronized by a daily stagecoach.
The town itself was originally called Tiblow before Philo Clark renamed it Bonner Springs in the 1880s, honoring New York Ledger publisher Robert Bonner and the area's natural mineral springs, according to the City of Bonner Springs. Clark later became the city's first mayor, and the municipality officially incorporated on November 10, 1898. The region's roots run even deeper: a Chouteau trading post was established in the Kansas City area in 1821.
Today, Bonner Springs remains a small town in the Kansas City area. Beyond Tiblow Days, regional attractions such as Azura Amphitheater and the Kansas City Renaissance Festival add to the city's cultural profile in the Kansas City area.
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