A guide to 2026 Maine ag fairs
Maine's agricultural fair season is heating up, with the earliest events already in the books and dozens more on the calendar stretching all the way through October.
The season kicked off in mid-June with the Pittston Fair, followed by the Monmouth Fair on June 24-27. From there, the schedule rolls steadily onward, hitting towns large and small from the southern tier to the northernmost reaches of the state.
July brings the Ossipee Valley Fair in Hiram (July 9-12), the Houlton Fair (July 10-12), the Waterford World's Fair (July 17-19), and the sprawling Bangor State Fair, which runs from July 30 through August 8.
August is the busiest stretch. The Union Fair takes over the first weekend of the month (Aug. 4-9), followed by the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle (Aug. 5-9). The Topsham Fair runs Aug. 11-16, and the Skowhegan State Fair holds court from Aug. 13-22. The month closes with a cluster of events: the Acton Fair and Piscataquis Valley Fair in Dover-Foxcroft, both running Aug. 27-30, the Washington County Fair in Pembroke (Aug. 29-30), and the Windsor Fair, which spans Aug. 29 through Sept. 7.
September is equally packed. The Blue Hill Fair runs Sept. 3-7, with the Harmony Free Fair overlapping Sept. 4-7. The Litchfield Fair and Clinton Lions Agricultural Fair share the Sept. 10-13 window. The Oxford County Fair follows (Sept. 16-19), then the New Portland Lions Fair (Sept. 18-20). The Farmington Fair is set for Sept. 20-26, followed by the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity (Sept. 25-27) and the Cumberland Fair, which bridges September and October from Sept. 27 through Oct. 3.
The season wraps up with the Fryeburg Fair, running Oct. 4-11.
While the calendar listing tells fairgoers when and where to go, a photo from last year's Farmington Fair, taken Sept. 17, 2025, by photographer Rich Abrahamson, offers a glimpse of what awaits. It shows 10-year-old Benjamin Galusha of Kingfield watching intently as Andrew Silver of the Silver Circus spins a plate on a stick, the colorful disc whirling in that mesmerizing way that has delighted children at fairs for generations.
That scene captures something essential about Maine's fair tradition. Beyond the schedule of livestock competitions, oxen pulls, tractor events, and midways packed with rides and cotton candy vendors, these gatherings remain a place where simple acts — a performer spinning a plate, a kid watching in wide-eyed wonder — still define the experience. For generations of Mainers, a trip to the local fair is less about any single attraction and more about the texture of the day: the smells of fried dough and livestock, the bark of carnival barkers, the sight of neighbors and friends gathered under the same wide Maine sky.
With events stretching from Pittston to Presque Isle, from Hiram to Pembroke, and dozens of towns in between, there is no shortage of chances to make that memory this year.
