Westchester County New York Yorktown Grange Fair Festival
Westchester County has no recognised county fair. No Westchester fair appears in the state fair association schedule for 2026, and none appears in the state agriculture directory for that year. What the county does have, in the northern town of Yorktown, is smaller and more personal: the Yorktown Grange Fair, a three day volunteer run fair held each September on its own grounds at 99 Moseman Road in Yorktown Heights. White Plains is the county seat, and the seat does not host this fair. Yorktown Heights does, at the opposite end of the county.
The fair calls itself, in its own masthead wording, Westchester’s Authentic Country Fair Since 1924. That line is the fair’s own billing, treated here exactly that way; it is not state recognition. The plainer record is strong enough: local people have kept a judged exhibition of farm and home work going on this ground for generations, and still close the weekend by auctioning the entries that were judged.
About the Grange Fair
The published name of the event is the Yorktown Grange Fair. Its presenter, in the form the fair itself uses, is the Yorktown Grange Agricultural Society. Behind that society stands a local chapter recorded in two published forms kept separate in the record: Yorktown Grange #862 in the Grange’s own history, and Yorktown Grange No. 862 in a state Assembly resolution naming the chapter as organiser of the fair. The chapter was organised on December 30, 1898, with seventeen members, and the Agricultural Society is recorded as having incorporated as a nonprofit in March 2021. Neither county nor town government runs this fair in any layer of the record.
In the nineteen fifties the fair’s business was handled for a time through separate machinery: by-laws for a Fair Association were drawn up in December 1954, its first annual meeting following on February 24, 1955, so fair planning could be done outside Grange meetings. That association belongs to its era and is not the present presenter. The 4-H members, troops and civic booth holders who help across the weekend are participants, not the organiser, and the midway operator is not named in any fair side layer found.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Yorktown Grange Fair |
| Where | Yorktown Grange Fairgrounds, 99 Moseman Road, Yorktown Heights, New York |
| County seat | White Plains — the seat does not host; Yorktown Heights hosts |
| Presenter | Yorktown Grange Agricultural Society |
| County fair status | No recognised Westchester county fair exists in either state listing for 2026 |
| When | Three days in mid September, Friday to Sunday — September 11 to 13 in 2026 |
| Hours in 2026 | Friday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. |
| Admission in 2026 | Fifteen dollars per carload, or ten dollars per carload bought in advance; children under two free |
| Camping | No camping offer is documented for this fair |
A Potato Dispute, a Borrowed Hall and a Road of Their Own
The fair’s own history, as carried in a local account drawn from that history, traces the first fair to an argument about growing. Chester Hyatt’s potato crop sat at the centre of a running dispute over who raised the best vegetables, and the first Yorktown Grange Fair was held on October 19, 1924. A separate line of press billing dates the fair from 1923, a difference the record does not settle; the fair’s own billing says since 1924, the form used here.
For a useful comparison, see the Wayne County New York Fair Festival for another county festival.
Early fairs did not happen on Moseman Road. The Grange bought a hall at Hanover Street and Railroad Avenue in 1920 for two thousand four hundred dollars, and from 1946 exhibits were shown in the gymnasium of the old Yorktown School, now the Community and Cultural Center, with tents outside for the animals. Those places are history only. The Grange later bought about fourteen acres on Moseman Road, built a new hall there, and held the first fair on the new grounds in 1954. The road carries a founding family’s name: Wright A. Moseman and Carrie Moseman both appear on the Grange’s own roll for 1899.
Edition numbers need care. The 2026 fair was billed as the 102nd, while earlier billings run from the 93rd in 2017 through the 101st Annual in 2025. Counting forward from a first fair in October 1924 does not land neatly on a 102nd fair in 2026, and one year inside the run, 2020, was a virtual fair, entries submitted online under the theme Still Going Strong. No founding year is worked out from any edition number here, and no unbroken run is claimed.
What to Expect
Judged Work From Farms and Kitchens
Exhibits sit at the centre of this fair. Its own wording promises the best livestock, produce and flowers from local farms and growers, and the judged categories recorded across recent layers include vegetables, flowers, needlework, baking, photography, livestock and poultry, plus art and crafts from local makers. In 2026 the flower and produce show filled the Jerry Mulcahy Building, and that year’s produce contest gave a Best of Show ribbon for Chambourcin grapes.
The Auction That Closes the Weekend
One tradition is singled out in the fair’s own history as its signature ending. In the early years the produce, baking and flower entries were auctioned off after judging, and that auction became the traditional finale. The history layer says plainly that it still is.
Tractors, Animals and Hands On Moments
Saturday brings the Antique Tractor Parade, the machines lined up for close viewing. Livestock shows and farm animal exhibits run across the grounds, recent layers record a cow milking contest and demonstration station, and in 2026 a 4-H dog training demonstration formed part of the programme. The record contains no demolition derby, no harness racing and no motorsport bill, and none should be expected from county fair habit.
The Grange’s Own Contest Spine
Some of the most distinctive entertainment here belongs to the Grange itself. Its own thank you message after a recent fair names the nail driving contest, its own Tipsy Waiter contest and a rubber chicken throwing contest it describes in cheerful terms. Press layers add pie eating and watermelon eating contests to the same family, each fenced to the layers that document it.
Music, Rides and a Quiet First Hour
Live music runs through the weekend, and the 2026 photographic record names the Whiskey’s Edge Band playing country rock while visitors line danced. Children’s carnival rides and games feature strongly in the 2026 pictures, although no ride price is published for the current fair. One practice deserves mention: the first hour each day is a quiet hour, with no loud noises, described on the fair’s own site as a perfect time for people with special needs to enjoy the fair, and reported here in that attributed form.
Planning Your Visit
Paying by the Carload, Not by the Person
The modern gate is charged per carload. For 2026 the published terms are fifteen dollars per carload, or ten dollars per carload bought in advance, with children under two free. The same carload figure was published for 2025, without the advance tier stated in that layer. These figures must never be read as a per person ticket price, and one event listing that flattened the 2026 charge to a bare ticket figure, without the carload wording, is a conflict in the record rather than a second price. Parking sits inside that system, with no separate charge published.
Older layers show different systems, belonging to their years alone. In 2019 admission was ten dollars per carload, walk ins and single occupant vehicles five dollars, children under two free. That five dollar figure is the only walk in price found; it belongs to 2019 entirely, and the current walk in price is not published. In 2017 the fair still used per person pricing, eight dollars for adults and five dollars for children, seniors and students with identification, rides priced separately. None of those 2017 figures describes the present fair.
Getting to Moseman Road
Aim for the Yorktown Grange Fairgrounds at 99 Moseman Road, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, in the Town of Yorktown. Some guide layers print the same grounds with the suffix Avenue instead of Road; the 2026 layers and event listings use Road, the form used here. A different Moseman Road number in a third party listing belongs to another grounds event and should not be used to find the fair.
A Sample Saturday
Saturday is the fullest day, running from ten in the morning to eleven at night in 2026. Arrive during the quiet first hour for a calmer ground, then give the late morning to the exhibit buildings and the flower and produce show. Watch the antique tractors parade, spend the afternoon between the livestock areas, the contests and the children’s rides, and eat from the local organisation booths. Stay into the evening for live music, and remember that Sunday, ending at seven, carries the auction finale.
Camping and the Things That Are Not Offered
There is no camping to plan for. No camping offer, camper permit or overnight stay appears in any fair side, Grange side or press layer found, and none is invented here from the habits of larger fairs. No fair book was found published for 2026 either, so exhibitors should seek entry details from the fair office rather than assume them. The fair’s money is documented, though: run by volunteers on a not for profit basis, its revenue goes toward the grounds, the next year’s fair, and local charities and service organisations.
A Fair That Stands Apart by Standing Alone, Carefully Stated
Other places share pieces of this fair’s name and none of them share its facts. York County fairs in Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Maine are different events in different states, and no date, price or fair book from any of them belongs here. Closer to home, a separate Westchester County Fair ran at Yonkers Raceway from 1985 until its cancellation in 2003; it was a different event entire, it is not current, and its existence is one reason the word only in local billing reads as billing rather than timeless fact.
Your Weekend Checklist
- Load the car rather than counting heads, because admission is charged per carload
- Buy the carload in advance where that tier is offered, and only through the Grange’s own channels
- Arrive in the first hour for the quiet hour if loud noise is a concern for your party
- Give the exhibit buildings and the flower and produce show proper time before the midway
- Stay on Saturday for the antique tractor parade and the evening music
- Return or remain on Sunday for the auction of judged entries that closes the fair
- Ask the fair office directly about exhibit entry, since no 2026 fair book was published in the record
- Do not plan on camping, because no overnight offer is documented for this fair
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Yorktown Heights sits in the Town of Yorktown, in northern Westchester, a long way in character from the county seat at White Plains in the south. The fairgrounds carry layers of the town’s past: the hall built on the Moseman Road land, and the blacksmith shop brought from Armonk in 1956 to preserve an older rural note on the site. The road name recalls the Moseman family, whose members appear among the Grange’s earliest officers, and the town’s older buildings still hold the fair’s earlier homes, a reminder of how deeply the exhibition habit is woven into Yorktown itself.
Why This Small Fair Matters to Its County
A county as populous and suburban as Westchester might be expected to have no agricultural exhibition left, and in the official sense it has none: the state listings that recognise county fairs pass it by entirely. What survives at Yorktown Heights survives because a voluntary society chose to keep it. The presenting Grange earned state and national Grange plaques for its 1953 fair, placed first in New York as a community service project, in the local history layer’s account. Its billing as the county’s authentic or only country fair is its own claim, repeated by local press, and repeated here only as that claim. The verifiable core needs no exaggeration: judged produce, flowers, baking and livestock, shown by neighbours and finally auctioned to neighbours, on ground the presenters own.
Frequently Asked Questions
If Westchester has no county fair, what exactly is this event?
It is the Yorktown Grange Fair, a small volunteer run grange fair presented by the Yorktown Grange Agricultural Society at its own fairgrounds in Yorktown Heights. Westchester County has no recognised county fair in either state listing for 2026, and no such status is claimed for the Grange fair here. Its description of itself as the county’s authentic country fair is its own billing, quoted as billing.
Where is the fair held, and does the county seat host it?
The fair is held at the Yorktown Grange Fairgrounds, 99 Moseman Road, Yorktown Heights, in the Town of Yorktown. White Plains is the county seat, and the seat does not host the fair, which sits at the opposite, northern end of the county.
How much does admission cost, and is it charged per person?
Admission is charged per carload, not per person: the 2026 layer prices a carload at fifteen dollars, ten dollars when bought ahead, with children under two carried free. The walk in price for the current fair is not published; the only walk in figure in the record, five dollars, belongs to 2019 and should not be treated as current. Ride prices for the current fair are likewise unpublished.
Is there any overnight camping at the fairgrounds?
No camping offer is documented for this fair in any layer of the record behind this article. There is no campground, camper permit or overnight arrangement to book, and visitors should plan their stay elsewhere rather than assume a fair of this kind provides one.
What to Expect From the Next Westchester County New York Yorktown Grange Fair Festival
How often is the Westchester County New York Yorktown Grange Fair Festival held?
The fair is held once a year, over three days, Friday to Sunday, on the weekend after Labor Day in mid September.
When is the next Westchester County New York Yorktown Grange Fair Festival?
The documented current edition ran Friday September 11 to Sunday September 13, 2026, billed as the 102nd fair, themed Goats, Games and Good Times. No date for a 2027 edition had been published in any fair side layer found, so the next edition’s dates cannot be stated here and should not be projected from the usual pattern alone.
Will the dates change?
The three day shape and the weekend after Labor Day position have held across every documented layer, from 2017 through 2026, but the exact Friday, Saturday and Sunday move with the calendar each year. Because no future date had been published in the record, any specific future weekend would be a guess, so check the fair’s own announcement for the year in question before making plans.
That is the whole of it: a Grange fair on its own road, priced by the carload and finished with an auction, carrying a county’s exhibition tradition without any official title to help it.
