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Threshing, weaving, and blacksmithing are mostly antiquated in this day and age, but at the Yesteryear Farm Show, they’re celebrated.

Returning to Longmont this weekend for its 37th year, the Yesteryear Farm Show will feature a variety of antique equipment with a focus on farm machinery. Located at the Dougherty Museum, the event tries to help visitors appreciate the rigor that went into farming before the mass modernization of the industry.

“This is a chance for people who grew up on farms — or people who didn’t — to get an idea of what farming used to be like,” said Bob McCarty, co-chairman of the nonprofit that puts on the event.

Roughly 200 tractors will be on display at the show, as well as a working steam engine. “Most people probably haven’t seen a steam engine in action,” McCarty said.

The show begins at 8 a.m. Friday and runs until 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights. The show wraps up at 3 p.m. Sunday. Admission and parking are both free, as is the exhibition itself to previous visitors of the farm show with antiques of their own to display.

“We have repeat visitors and exhibitors who are familiar with what we do, and they’re allowed to come in early,” said David Brown, secretary-treasurer. “It’s a very relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. We don’t charge anything, and we don’t have many rules in place except safety rules.”

The show used to be a feature of the Boulder County Fair, said Brown, until more space was needed to display the wide array of antiques and machinery. The Dougherty Museum was an ideal candidate for the new location, with its wide fields on either side of the building and the plethora of old machinery inside.

The museum is at 8306 No. 107th St., just south of Longmont on the east side of U.S. 287.

This could have been the farm show’s 38th summer, but the event wasn’t held in 2020 in order to prioritize safety in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We agonized over that decision,” said Brown, “but it was the right thing to do.”

This year’s farm show is a return to form for the event, with demonstrations, working exhibits, and an antique parade each day. A fundraising auction of donated items will be held on Saturday, with a 1945 Minneapolis-Moline Model R tractor as the main feature. According to Brown, the money raised through the auction is integral for keeping the farm show afloat.

“Each year we have to buy our own liability policies, provide security, and offer sanitary facilities,” Brown said. “It’s gotten quite expensive to do all those things, so the auction is how we get that done. We make enough to get by and that’s about it, but that’s all we’re looking for.”

11 a.m.: Antique power cruise of tractors, trucks, and cars (informal parade, no announcer) 3 p.m.: Grain threshing demonstration followed by stationary straw bailing 6 p.m.: Antique parade of tractors, trucks, and cars

10 a.m.: Grain threshing demonstration followed by stationary straw bailing 11 a.m.: Antique power cruise 3 p.m.: Grain threshing demonstration followed by stationary straw bailing 4 p.m.: Exhibitor door prize drawing and fund-raising auction 6 p.m.: Antique parade 7 p.m.: Free ice cream social

10 a.m.: Grain threshing demonstration followed by stationary straw bailing 11 a.m.: Antique power cruise 1 p.m.: Antique parade

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