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Since 1822
Two Hundred Years
Of Showing Up
The Frederick County Agricultural Society was founded four decades before the Civil War. The fair it runs is now in its 164th edition — and still, at bottom, a place where people bring animals to be judged.
The fair
A short history
The society behind the Great Frederick Fair dates to 1822, which makes it one of the oldest agricultural organisations in the United States. The fair itself has been counted continuously since 1862 — 2012 marked its sesquicentennial, and 2026 is the 164th edition.
What has survived across those two centuries is remarkably specific: a livestock programme, a competitive exhibit hall, a half-mile track and a week in September. The midway, the grandstand concerts and the demolition derbies are comparatively recent additions bolted onto an agricultural event that never stopped being agricultural.
The 2026 theme is "One Nation. One Fair. Together We're Better."
The part that still matters
Roughly half of the fair's programme is youth agriculture — 4-H and FFA members aged eight to eighteen showing animals they have raised themselves. The week ends with the Youth Livestock Sale, where those animals go to auction and the proceeds go to the young people who raised them.
If you visit the fair and see only the midway, you have seen the fairground. If you spend an hour in the barns on a weekday morning, you have seen the fair.
Future dates
The fair has published its dates through 2034. It runs the same stretch of September each year, and the fairgrounds host events and rentals year-round between fairs.
This guide
What this guide is
An independent visitor's guide. We are not the fair, we do not work for the fair, and we have no affiliation with the Frederick County Agricultural Society. We do not sell tickets — every ticket link on this site points at the fair's own official channels.
The fair's website is where you buy admission and read the exhibitor rules. It does that job. What it does not do — because it is not really its job — is help you decide whether Tuesday is a better day than Saturday, work out that a truck-pull ticket includes your gate admission, or tell you the apple dumplings are at the back of the grounds.
That is what this is for.
How the information here is put together
- Prices, dates and hours are taken from the fair's own published pages and dated in the footer of every page.
- Schedules change. Grandstand acts get added, weather moves things, and a promotion can be adjusted late. Confirm anything time-critical on the official site before you drive.
- Food vendors vary year to year. The stands named on the food page are long-standing favourites, not a guaranteed 2026 line-up.
- Opinions are labelled as opinions. When this site says a day is quieter or a deal is better, that is a judgement, not a fact published by the fair.
Found something wrong?
Corrections are welcome and get made quickly. Fair-run information — refunds, exhibitor entries, lost property, accessibility bookings — should go to the fair office on 301-663-5895 or info@thegreatfrederickfair.com, not to us.
The guide
What's on this site
Nine pages of fair coverage, plus this one. Everything factual here is compiled from the fair's published information and dated — last full check: 23 August 2026.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Schedule | All nine days — themes, gate hours, what's on in the barns and on the track |
| Grandstand | The full 2026 bill, start times, advance pricing and what to expect in the stands |
| Tickets & prices | Gate admission, every free-admission window, parking, and worked cost examples |
| Attractions | The barns, the exhibit halls, the track, and the traditions that make no sense from outside |
| The Midway | Ride pricing, wristbands versus the Jack Pass, sensory-friendly hours, opening times |
| Food | The four stands worth queueing for, and how to pay for everything else |
| Plan your visit | Getting there, hours, parking, accessibility and the questions people actually ask |
| Enter the fair | All four entry routes, the youth programmes, deadlines and scholarships |
| Sell at the fair | Booth sizes, how pitches are priced, the application process and the paperwork |
The fair is the authority
Where this site and the Frederick County Agricultural Society disagree, they are right and we are wrong. Prices, dates, lineups and entry rules all change — confirm anything time-critical with the fair before you travel, enter or spend. Their contact details and website are in the footer of every page.
18–26 September 2026
Nine days. Go at least twice.
Once on a weekday morning for the barns, once at night for the lights.