Warren County New Jersey Farmers’ Fair Festival

The Warren County Farmers’ Fair is the rare fair that hands you two events for a single ticket. For eight days at the turn of July into August, the Warren County Fairgrounds in Harmony Township fill with livestock barns, horse rings, arena horsepower and a carnival midway — and then, each evening at about half past six, the sky fills as well, because the fair carries the Hot Air Balloon Festival inside its own gates and inside its own admission. The fairground sits on Strykers Road in Harmony Township, whatever the envelope says. Belvidere, the county seat, hosts no part of it, and neither does Phillipsburg, whose name appears on the fair’s mailing address. The fair itself is the place: a farmers’ fair in farm country, with balloons overhead.

A Fair That Publishes Under Its Own Name

The event’s real published name is the Warren County Farmers’ Fair, and its current combined billing joins the two halves of the week: the Warren County Farmers’ Fair & Hot Air Balloon Festival. The balloon festival is a component of the fair, running inside it — in 2026 it reached its twenty-sixth annual running — and it has never been a separate event with a separate gate. The fair publishes under its own name, and the county’s agricultural life shows up inside it rather than behind it: Warren County 4-H exhibits at the fair during Farmers’ Fair week, and FFA members show alongside them. Neither the 4-H programme nor any county office is the fair’s organiser; the fair is its own institution, on its own grounds.

Those grounds are the Warren County Fairgrounds, at the intersection of County Route 519 and Strykers Road in Harmony Township, about three miles north of Phillipsburg. The postal address carries Phillipsburg’s name because that is how the mail reaches the site, and the distinction matters on the road: anyone navigating to Phillipsburg’s streets, or to Belvidere, is navigating away from the fair.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Fair	Warren County Farmers’ Fair, billed with its Hot Air Balloon Festival
Fairgrounds	Warren County Fairgrounds, 1350 Strykers Road, Harmony Township
County seat	Belvidere — the seat does not host the fair
Mailing address	Phillipsburg — a postal address only, not the fair town
Season	Late July into early August; eight days, Saturday to Saturday
Admission	Ten dollars for adults; five dollars for children ages six to twelve; ages five and under free
Balloon festival	Included in fair admission — no separate ticket
Parking	Free
Camping	No fair camping is published or offered
Signature sight	Mass balloon launches each evening at about half past six, weather permitting

Two Beginnings, Kept in Their Own Layers

The fair tells its own history in two layers, and the honest way to repeat it is to keep them apart. In the fair’s own words, what started as a gathering of farmers, mechanics and manufacturers in 1859 evolved into the incorporation of the Warren County Farmers’ Fair in 1937. The 1859 gathering is the fair’s origin billing — a coming-together of the county’s agricultural and mechanical trades — and the 1937 incorporation is its corporate layer, the moment the gathering became the fair itself. Neither date does the other’s work: the gathering was not yet the incorporated fair, and the incorporated fair does not pretend the gathering was a corporation.

The fair’s current billing describes eighty-eight years of providing affordable family fun, and the 2026 edition was billed as the eighty-eighth annual Warren County Farmers’ Fair & Hot Air Balloon Festival. That billing is carried here as the fair publishes it — as its own framing of its run — and no founding year is worked backwards from it against either 1859 or 1937. The 2026 edition also carried a frame of its own: the fair presented itself as celebrating the American farmer and family traditions for America’s two hundred fiftieth birthday, and a special Sunday-night fireworks celebration honouring that anniversary was presented by the Warren County Board of County Commissioners — a sponsorship of one night’s celebration, not a hand in running the fair.

For a useful comparison, see the Union County New Jersey Celtic Festival for another county festival.

What to Expect

Barns, Rings and Exhibit Buildings

The agricultural core comes first, because this is a farmers’ fair before it is anything else. Livestock shows and 4-H and FFA animal shows run all week, horse shows fill the rings, and the exhibit buildings hold the judged produce, crafts and home work of a county that still farms. The beekeepers, the gardeners and the bakers all have their place in the buildings, and the showing has the unhurried rhythm of exhibitors who know one another by first name.

Power in the Main Arena

The main arena runs on horsepower of the mechanical and the animal kind, often on the same day. Demolition derbies, diesel and four-wheel-drive truck pulls and tractor pulls supply the noise, while Bulls and Barrels and the Rafter Z Rodeo supply the animal version — bulls, barrels and rodeo riding in the arena lights. Car, truck, motorcycle and tractor shows park a quieter kind of horsepower along the grounds for those who prefer their machines polished rather than pulled.

Midway, Corral and Fair Favourites

The carnival midway brings the rides and games, sold by their own tickets and wristbands in the usual way — machinery that sits on top of admission, never instead of it. Children get ground of their own at the Kids’ Corral, with a youth pedal tractor obstacle course scaled to small legs and big ambitions. A stunt car show and drone demonstrations widen the programme beyond the farm gate, free concerts run during the fair, an open pet show lets the county’s animals compete without pedigree, and the fair’s own favourites — fry pan throwing and rubber chicken tosses — keep the whole thing cheerful. Traditional craftsmen demonstrate their trades, gathered in the fair’s Traditional Arts Expo.

Balloons Over the Fairgrounds

Every evening, weather permitting, the fair changes its centre of gravity from the arena to the sky. The Hot Air Balloon Festival’s mass launches go up at about half past six, balloon after balloon rising over the midway until the fair below is looking up instead of around. Tethered balloon rides are offered in the evenings on a first-come basis, and full balloon flights can be booked in advance through the balloon festival’s own operation. All of it — the launches, the glow of the envelopes, the drift over Harmony Township — sits inside the same fair admission, which is the fair’s defining bargain.

Planning Your Visit

Finding Strykers Road

Set the navigation for the fairgrounds, not for a town. The grounds stand in Harmony Township at 1350 Strykers Road, at the corner of County Route 519, roughly three miles north of Phillipsburg. Phillipsburg on the address is the post town; Belvidere, for all its Victorian courthouse-town charm, is the seat and not the site. Parking at the fairgrounds is free, which removes the usual second budget line.

Tickets, Hours and the One-Admission Rule

Admission is ten dollars for adults, five dollars for children ages six to twelve, and free for children five and under, and discounted advance admission tickets are sold online ahead of the fair. The single most important money fact is the combined rule: fair admission includes access to the Hot Air Balloon Festival, two attractions for the price of one, so nobody should budget a second ticket for the balloons. Ride tickets and wristbands on the midway are separate, as midway money always is, and they buy rides only — never entry. The published hours pattern has the fair running from noon to ten in the evening on Saturdays and Sundays, and from three to ten on weekdays, when the evening carries the programme.

A Sample Saturday at the Fair

Arrive near the noon opening and give the first hour to the exhibit buildings, while the judged produce and baking are fresh in every sense. Walk the livestock barns in the early afternoon and watch a class of animals shown by the young exhibitors who raised them. Take the middle of the day slowly: a horse show class, a pass through the Traditional Arts Expo, something fried from the food stands. As the afternoon leans down, find the arena for a pull or the derby build-up, let the children play at the Kids’ Corral and the pedal tractor course, and then, a little before half past six, claim a spot with an open view of the sky. The mass launch is the day’s hinge. Stay after it for the evening arena programme or a concert, and leave under the lights at ten with the whole fair — barns, arena, midway and sky — inside one ten-dollar ticket.

Evenings, Weather and the Balloon Question

The balloons are the fair’s glory and its one weather-dependent promise. Launches go up when conditions allow, at about half past six, and a still evening is worth planning around: if the forecast offers one calm day in an unsettled week, that is the day to go. Tethered rides run in the evenings as conditions and queues allow, first come, first served. Because the fair runs a full eight days, a weathered-out evening is a reason to return on another day of the same fair rather than a reason to have missed the balloons altogether.

Eight Days Here, or the State Fair Up the Road?

New Jersey keeps its state fair in Sussex County, where the New Jersey State Fair runs with the Sussex County Farm & Horse Show at Augusta — a larger, longer show whose advance ladder prices adults at twelve dollars and whose regular gate runs higher. The Warren County fair answers with a different shape: eight days instead of nine-plus, a ten-dollar gate, free parking, and an entire balloon festival folded into the admission. A family choosing between them is choosing between scale and the two-for-one — the state fair’s breadth, or a farmers’ fair whose sky fills with balloons every evening on the same ticket that admitted you.

Before You Set Out

• Navigate to the Warren County Fairgrounds on Strykers Road in Harmony Township — not to Belvidere and not into Phillipsburg.
• Budget ten dollars per adult and five dollars per child ages six to twelve; parking costs nothing.
• Remember the one-admission rule: the balloon festival is already inside the fair ticket.
• Bring separate money only for midway ride tickets or wristbands, food and tethered balloon rides.
• Check the evening forecast before choosing your day — the mass launches need calm weather.
• Plan to be looking up at about half past six in the evening.
• Book full balloon flights in advance through the balloon festival’s own operation.
• Do not plan to camp — the fair publishes no camping, so line up lodging in the surrounding towns.

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Harmony Township sits in the Delaware River country of western New Jersey, and a fair day pairs naturally with the river valley around it. Phillipsburg, just south of the grounds, faces Easton across the Delaware and carries the old canal-and-railroad character of a river town. Belvidere, the county seat to the north, is a small courthouse town of Victorian streets worth an hour’s stroll on a non-fair morning. Between them, the county’s farm roads, produce stands and small boroughs make the drive itself part of the trip — this is the corner of New Jersey that still looks like the fair it hosts.

Why This Fair Holds Its Ground

Plenty of fairs can offer barns, an arena and a midway. The Farmers’ Fair’s distinction is the second event living inside the first: a balloon festival in its third decade, launching nightly over the midway, included in a ten-dollar gate that has kept the fair’s own promise of affordable family fun. Add a county 4-H programme exhibiting inside the week, traditional arts given their own expo, and a history the fair itself tells in two honest layers — a gathering in 1859, an incorporation in 1937 — and the result is a fair that knows exactly what it is: the county’s farm week, with the sky included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Farmers’ Fair actually held?

At the Warren County Fairgrounds, 1350 Strykers Road, in Harmony Township. Belvidere is the county seat but hosts no part of the fair, and Phillipsburg appears only as the grounds’ mailing address — the fairgrounds stand about three miles north of it on County Route 519.

Does one ticket really cover both the fair and the balloon festival?

Yes. The fair states the rule plainly: fair admission includes access to the Hot Air Balloon Festival, offering two attractions for the price of one. The nightly mass launches are watched from inside the fair you already paid to enter. Midway rides and tethered balloon rides carry their own separate charges, as rides do.

What does admission cost a family?

Ten dollars for each adult and five dollars for each child ages six to twelve, with children five and under admitted free and parking free on top of that. Discounted advance admission is sold online before the fair. The only money beyond the gate is what a family chooses to spend on midway rides, food and fair extras.

Can visitors stay overnight at the fairgrounds?

No fair camping is published in the fair’s own record, and none should be planned on. The fair is a day-and-evening visit: come for the afternoon and the balloon launch, and sleep in ordinary lodging in Phillipsburg, Belvidere or the surrounding river towns.

What to Expect From the Next Warren County New Jersey Farmers’ Fair Festival

How often is the Warren County New Jersey Farmers’ Fair Festival held?

Once a year. The fair runs a single edition each summer — eight days, Saturday to Saturday, at the turn of July into August — with the Hot Air Balloon Festival held inside the same week rather than at a separate time.

When is the next Warren County New Jersey Farmers’ Fair Festival?

The fair’s season is settled even where its dates are set edition by edition: expect the next fair in late July, running into the first days of August, across its eight days. The fair publishes each edition’s dates on its own pages ahead of the season, and the balloon festival’s dates move with the fair’s, because the two are one event.

Will the dates change?

They can shift by a few days, since an eight-day Saturday-to-Saturday run lands differently on each summer’s calendar, and the fair confirms each edition’s exact span when it publishes the new season. What does not change is the shape: late July into early August, eight days, with the balloons launching on the fair’s evenings rather than on any separate schedule.

The Farmers’ Fair asks very little of its visitors — the right township in the navigation, ten dollars at the gate, and an eye on the evening sky. In return it gives them the county’s whole farm week and a sky full of balloons on the same ticket. There are bigger fairs in New Jersey, but there is only one that launches.