Rensselaer County New York Schaghticoke Fair Festival

The Schaghticoke Fair is Rensselaer County’s county fair, held at the Schaghticoke Fairgrounds at 69 Stillwater Bridge Road in Schaghticoke, in the northern farm country of the county. Troy is the county seat, and Troy does not host this fair — the fairgrounds stand in Schaghticoke, and everything described here belongs to that town. The fair is run by the Rensselaer County Agricultural and Horticultural Society, named in the full form the record publishes. For 2026 it runs six days, Wednesday, September 2 through Monday, September 7, closing on Labor Day, gates 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the midway noon to 10 p.m. daily. It is a full agricultural fair: livestock and horse shows, exhibit buildings of produce and handwork, grandstand motorsports, a big-top circus, free stage concerts and a carnival midway on one grounds.

About the Schaghticoke Fair

The fair’s name appears in the record in a few published forms, standing side by side rather than merged. The state fairs directory styles the event The Schaghticoke Fair, the state fair association’s schedule lists it as the Schaghticoke Fair, and the fair’s own site bills it as The Great Schaghticoke Fair. The operator, in the exact form the directory and the fair-side record give it, is the Rensselaer County Agricultural and Horticultural Society. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County is present on the grounds and runs 4-H programme machinery — but it is a programme partner, never the organiser; Dreamland Amusements operates the midway under contract and is likewise never the organiser. The fair describes itself, in its own billing, as a family fair with hands-on participation at its exhibits.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Fair	The Schaghticoke Fair, billed by the fair as The Great Schaghticoke Fair
Town	Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, New York
County seat	Troy, which does not host the fair
Grounds	Schaghticoke Fairgrounds, 69 Stillwater Bridge Road, Schaghticoke, NY 12154
Operator	Rensselaer County Agricultural and Horticultural Society
2026 dates	Wednesday, September 2 to Monday, September 7, 2026, ending on Labor Day
Hours	Gates 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; midway noon to 10 p.m.; open rain or shine
2026 admission	Adults fifteen dollars cash, or fifteen dollars and ninety-five cents online; children thirteen and under free
Season pass	Fifty-five dollars per person for all six days
Parking	Free every day

An Old Fair, by Its Own Account

The Schaghticoke Fair presents itself as a very old fair, and its age claims are carried here exactly as what they are: the fair’s own billing. In its own site copy the fair states that it was first established in 1819, and it calls itself the third oldest fair in New York State. Neither figure is treated here as independently verified fact, and no founding year is worked out from the fair’s season counts. Those counts run like this: a 203rd season billed in 2022, a 204th year in 2023 and a 206th season in 2025, with older press roundups hedging the third-oldest line as something the fair is said to be. The billings do not reconcile into clean arithmetic, and gaps or renumberings are simply not documented in the sources behind this article, so no continuous run since 1819 is claimed either. What can be said without strain is narrower: this is a fair that counts its seasons in the two hundreds.

What to Expect

Livestock, Horse Shows and the Exhibit Buildings

Agriculture is the spine of the fair. The 2026 daily schedule carries 4-H and open sheep shows, a beef and dairy costume class and poultry showmanship, alongside wider livestock and horse showing. The exhibit halls fill with vegetables, fruits, antiques, baked goods and homemade crafts — a showcase, in the fair-side description, for the best that Rensselaer County residents and agriculture have to offer. Named plant includes the Family Living Building, the Poultry Barn, the Sheep and Goat Barn, the Indoor Arena and exhibit buildings numbered past fifty-seven.

Grandstand Motorsports

The grandstand programme is mechanical and loud: tractor pulls, monster trucks and a demolition derby. The money splits by day. Weekday shows, Wednesday through Friday, are free with fair admission. Weekend shows, Saturday through Monday, need an extra ticket costing three dollars and eight cents — two dollars and fifty cents plus fifty-eight cents in fees — on top of admission, cash only at the day-of box office under the grandstand. The fair’s own page marked Monday, September 7 demolition derby tickets sold out, so that closing-day show cannot be assumed available at the gate.

For a useful comparison, see the Queens County New York Fair Festival for another county festival.

The Big Top, the Reptile Tent and the Park Stage

The headline entertainment for 2026 is a circus announced as brand new to Schaghticoke: Circus Murcia, under the big top, with high wire, a Globe of Death, aerialists, jugglers and clowns, showing daily, free with admission. The Wildlife Adventure Center’s Reptile Adventure Show, also free with admission, presents reptiles from five continents, open daily; its Butterfly Encounter holds two hundred to three hundred live butterflies of six species, with feeding sticks offered and three shows daily. Park Stage concerts are free with admission as well. The daily schedule adds its own colour — the Buffalo Barfield Music Show, Donny Elvis, the Hill Country Cloggers and a pie-eating contest. One advertised name will not appear in 2026: the Sea Lion Splash show is cancelled for this year after its equipment was involved in a traffic accident, crew, staff and animals all safe, and the fair says it plans to have the show back in 2027 — an intention, not a confirmed booking.

The Dreamland Amusements Midway

Dreamland Amusements runs the midway, open from noon to 10 p.m. daily. Unlimited-ride wristbands cost thirty dollars Wednesday through Friday and thirty-five dollars Saturday through Monday. Wednesday is two-dollar day for rides: two dollars a ride with a minimum purchase of ten rides, that day only. On Thursday, wristbands are buy one, get one free on site from noon to close, never online. Two online specials stand in the fair’s own 2026 terms: four wristbands for any one day at one hundred fifteen dollars, and fifty ride tickets at fifty-five dollars.

Planning Your Visit

The Two Gate Prices and the Season Pass

For 2026 the fair publishes two adult gate prices, one for each channel. Bought online, adult admission is fifteen dollars and ninety-five cents, a figure the fair footnotes as including online ticketing and credit card fees; paid in cash, it is fifteen dollars. Children thirteen and under are free every day, and a six-day season pass costs fifty-five dollars per person. The same page also says advance sale tickets are not available and visitors should purchase on the grounds on the day; both wordings are the fair’s own, reported here together, unmerged. No senior, military or veteran admission tier is published on the fair’s own 2026 page, whatever older years offered.

Parking, Hours and Looking After Children

Parking is free every day, in the fair’s own words. The fair opens rain or shine; gates run 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the midway starts at noon. From the fair’s own child-safety pages: lost and found sits in the main office building. Weekend grandstand tickets can be pre-sold until midnight on the day of the event, but the day-of box office is cash only, so a visitor relying on it needs notes, not a card.

A Sample Saturday at the Fair

Arrive at the 10 a.m. gate opening and pay the fifteen-dollar cash admission, children thirteen and under walking in free. Spend the morning in the exhibit buildings, then cross to the barns for the sheep showing and poultry events. Take the reptile show before lunch and the Butterfly Encounter in the early afternoon. If the midway is the afternoon’s main business, the thirty-five-dollar Saturday wristband runs from noon to close. Catch the free Park Stage music, then decide on the grandstand: Saturday’s show costs the extra three dollars and eight cents per person at the cash-only box office. Finish with a last circuit of the food stands before the 10 p.m. close.

Staying Over: the Camping Question, Answered Honestly

No public fair-week camping offer, and no camping rate of any kind, is published by this fair in the sources behind this article, so no price can be quoted — and none should be trusted from search results alone. Exhibitor camping machinery has existed at the fair, since an exhibitors camping form appears in its older site layers, but its terms and price are not retrievable from a current fair-side source, and it is not a public offer. A private campground operates in the same town as a separate business; it is not the fair’s camping. Visitors staying overnight should arrange ordinary lodging rather than count on a pitch at the fairgrounds.

Not to Be Confused With

Several near neighbours and search traps need fencing off. Troy is the county seat, but it is not the fair’s town, and no Troy venue or event belongs to this fair. Two other New York county fairs run on the exact same 2026 dates, Wednesday, September 2 to Monday, September 7: the Fonda Fair in Montgomery County and the Columbia County Fair at Chatham — a standing mix-up risk, since none of their prices or programmes are this fair’s. The Saratoga County Fair at Ballston Spa is a different county’s fair again. Finally, a camping document circulating in searches for this fair, with a per-space charge for a fair’s duration, is the exhibitor guide of the Amador County Fair in Plymouth, California; every figure in it is a California fair’s.

A Fair-Day Checklist

• Pay cash at the gate for the fifteen-dollar adult price rather than the fifteen-dollar-and-ninety-five-cent online figure.
• Bring no ticket money for children thirteen and under; they enter free every day.
• Choose Wednesday for the cheapest riding: two-dollar rides with a minimum purchase of ten rides.
• Use Thursday’s buy-one-get-one-free wristband offer if two riders are going; buy on site, as it is not valid online.
• Carry cash for the weekend grandstand box office, and budget three dollars and eight cents extra per person.
• Remember that parking costs nothing on any day.
• Note the split hours: grounds from 10 a.m., midway only from noon.
• Do not plan around camping at the fairgrounds; no public fair-week camping is published.

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Schaghticoke itself is a small town on the county’s northern side, and a fair visit sits naturally inside a slower day in farm country. Troy, away to the south, carries on its own life as the county seat, lending the fair nothing. The fairgrounds also work beyond fair week as a hired venue — gatherings, shows and winter storage — but that is grounds business, never fair programme. Outside fair week, the same fields and barns serve other people’s occasions.

Why This Fair Matters to Rensselaer County

A county fair earns its keep by making a county legible to itself, and Schaghticoke does that: the produce and baking in the exhibit buildings, the sheep and poultry in the barns and the 4-H showing in the schedule are the county’s farms and households showing their best work in public. The fair’s own emphasis on hands-on participation points the same way — this is staged as a fair to take part in, not only to watch. Its billed antiquity, honestly labelled as billing, still says something true about local attachment: a community does not keep counting a fair’s seasons into the two hundreds unless the fair remains a fixed point of its year. Ending on Labor Day, it also closes the county’s summer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where exactly is the Schaghticoke Fair held, and is it in Troy?

It is held at the Schaghticoke Fairgrounds, 69 Stillwater Bridge Road, Schaghticoke, New York 12154 — not in Troy, the county seat, which does not host this fair; no Troy address or venue has anything to do with the event.

How much does it cost to get in and to park in 2026?

Adult admission for 2026 is fifteen dollars in cash or fifteen dollars and ninety-five cents online, the online figure including the fair’s stated ticketing and credit card fees. Children thirteen and under are admitted free every day, a six-day season pass costs fifty-five dollars per person, and parking is free every day.

Which shows are included with admission, and which cost extra?

The big-top circus, the reptile show, the butterfly encounter and the Park Stage concerts are all free with admission in 2026, and weekday grandstand shows are included as well. Weekend grandstand shows cost an additional three dollars and eight cents per person, plus admission. Midway riding is separate money: wristbands run thirty dollars on weekdays, thirty-five on weekend days.

Is there camping for visitors at the fairgrounds during the fair?

No public fair-week camping offer or rate is published by the fair, so there is nothing reliable to book or quote. Exhibitor camping paperwork existed in older fair materials, but its terms appear in no current fair-side source, and camping prices attached to this fair in search results trace to other fairs entirely. Plan on area lodging instead.

What to Expect From the Next Rensselaer County New York Schaghticoke Fair Festival

How often is the Rensselaer County New York Schaghticoke Fair Festival held?

The fair is held once a year, as a six-day run at the end of summer, in the most recent documented shapes running from a Wednesday through the Monday of Labor Day weekend, with the season count the fair bills for itself advancing year by year.

When is the next Rensselaer County New York Schaghticoke Fair Festival?

After the edition of Wednesday, September 2 to Monday, September 7, 2026, the next fair is expected the following year on the same late-summer pattern, ending on Labor Day 2027. Exact 2027 dates had not been published in the sources behind this article, and the fair’s stated hope of bringing back one cancelled 2026 show in 2027 is an announced plan, not a fixture that can be promised.

Will the dates change?

The six-day shape and the Labor Day finish are stable; the calendar dates move with Labor Day itself. The 2025 fair ran from Wednesday, August 27 to Monday, September 1, and the 2026 fair runs from Wednesday, September 2 to Monday, September 7 — a shift of about a week between years is normal rather than a change of plan.

The Schaghticoke Fair offers a complete county fair at a price a family can work out to the cent before leaving home: fifteen dollars cash at the gate, nothing for the children, nothing for parking, and the circus included. It belongs to Schaghticoke and to the Rensselaer County Agricultural and Horticultural Society that runs it, on its own grounds in the county’s north — and it asks to be taken on its own terms, in its own town, rather than through the county seat or on a neighbour’s dates.