CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio – The Ohio county fair season began on June 8 with the Paulding County Fair in Paulding. Eighty-eight county and independent fairs across the Buckeye State will be held, with the Fairfield County Fair (Oct. 6-12) in Lancaster being the final county fair of the season.

COVID-19 brought a halt to all Ohio county fairs in 2020, and many fairs held limited fair participation in 2021.

The sluggish economy in 2022 and 2023 had fair officials scratching their heads looking for ways to attract fair-goers. This year some of those officials are making things a bit easier for attendees. For instance, Paulding County Fair officials offered free admission to their fair and free rides each day from 1-10 p.m.

The Warren County Fair runs July 15-20. Officials there are offering free rides, free parking and free entertainment in the grandstands with paid admission to the fair. Warren County Fair secretary Melanie Heitzman said the recent economy has put a crimp in the lives of many in the Warren County area, so they’ve helped by making attending the fair a bit more affordable.

“We did make some changes and we’ve had good results,” Heitzman said. “We’ve seen an increase in attendance since the pandemic, and last year we saw the highest attendance at our fair since 2015. We’re expecting similar attendance figures this season. We’re relatively close to Kings Island and I think our fair offers something more affordable for peoples’ budget.”

Fair vendors are feeling the financial pinch as well. To compensate for inflation, some county fair vendors are raising prices and downsizing food portions. Some vendors are operating fewer trailers and trucks at one time. 

David Drake has owned and operated Drake Concessions for 31 years at county fairs across Ohio. At one time the fair veteran was concerned his business would close as labor remains an issue during a time food costs are rising.

“Labor is the No. 1 issue for me. We’ve seen this about three or four years before the pandemic,” said Drake, who needs a staff of 15 to operate at full capacity.

With fewer workers, Drake had to field a fraction of his seven soft-serve ice cream trucks, lowering his monthly revenue. The lower his sales, the more unlikely he is to afford space at county fairs.

“It’s a trickle-down effect,” Drake said. “If I can’t pay for that space at a fair and it goes empty, it’s a loss of revenue for the fair, too.”

On the other hand, the sluggish economy the past few years has actually led many to county fairs across the state. High gas prices may have prohibited some families from taking long road trips, opting instead to attend a local event such as their county fair.

“Long gone are our expensive, 12-day excursions to Myrtle Beach each year,” said Tonya Wilson, of Stoutsville, just east of Circleville, Ohio. “We did that every year, but when gas prices, hotel prices and food prices soared the past few years my husband and I and our two young children stopped heading east. We now pick and choose a few county fairs to attend each summer.”

All would agree that county fairs do have a positive economic impact on the community. A majority of vendors are local entrepreneurs, so being part of the county fair is prime time for advertising and selling their wares and food. Some even say that going to the fair is the perfect way to shop local.

Several fair managers cited that county fairs offer something different, like pronto pubs, cotton candy, funnel cakes, deep fried cheese and cheese curds.

For many older county fair-goers, like Laverne Stills, of Circleville, the fair helps re-kindle the past. Stills, 79, has missed just two Pickaway County fairs the past 50 years. Her granddaughter’s participation in the Clothing & Creative Arts was the attraction for Stills this year.

“If county fairs went away, communities would lose part of their heritage and identity,” Stills said.

Stills, who is instrumental in supporting the annual Circleville Pumpkin Show in the county, said she is an even stronger advocate for the Pickaway County Fair.

“We live in a mobile society where we can see the best food, the best places on earth and can live vicariously through other people’s lives on Instagram,” Stills laughed. “Some see county fairs as irrelevant, but I think county fairs are more relevant than ever before. We lack a sense of community in this tech-savvy age. What better place to support one’s local community than through shared experiences, food and entertainment. County fairs unite both families and distant community members. Like ours, I think many families are eager to maintain the tradition of going to the county fair with their children, as they did with their parents before.”

The Hamilton County Fair near Cincinnati is the oldest county fair in Ohio, first held in 1820 on the Ezekiel Hutchinson farm and beginning in 1855 at the current fairgrounds location in Carthage.

Joe Boggs is currently the Ohio State University Extension agent for Hamilton County, a position he’s held the past 33 years. Boggs said the Hamilton County Fair has had its share of ups and downs over the years, and the unstable economy the past few years hasn’t helped any. Still, Boggs said, the lure of a county gathering is like no other and people will find a way to afford the price of admission.

“When people feel the pinch of things I think there’s certain things that people do to not feel the pinch, and one of those is attend their local county fair,” Boggs said. “I think if the fair is well embedded into the community, I don’t think the economy plays a role one way or the other.

“County fairs are an anchor point for people who grew up with them in their county. People gravitate to something they’re familiar with. It’s kinda like coming home to a home-cooked meal after you’ve been away for a while.

“One great aspect about the county fair is you can just walk around and see things to don’t normally see on a day-to-day basis, plus you can also sample foods that you wouldn’t normally eat. There’s nothing quite like a county fair.”

County fairs in all states have an interesting origin and Ohio is no exception. In 1845, a number of Ohio farmers came together and formed an Ohio Board of Agriculture. In 1846, recognizing the fact that there were a lot of farmers in Ohio, the General Assembly created an Ohio State Board of Agriculture. The board set an initial goal of organizing county fairs in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.