Brunswick County North Carolina Agricultural Fair & Expo Festival
Brunswick County finally has a county fair of its own, and it is only two editions old. The Brunswick County Agricultural Fair & Expo opened in October 2025 at Stump Hill Farms in Ash, and returned for a second annual edition in October 2026 at the same address. That newness is the whole story: no earlier edition under this operator exists, and no borrowed heritage dresses it up. What it offers instead is a five-day October run built around agriculture first, a midway kept honestly separate from the gate,
Ash is an unincorporated community in the western part of the county, and the fair sits there, at 2030 Ash Little River Road Northwest. Bolivia is the county seat and does not host the fair, while the fair’s own mailing address points to Shallotte, so a visitor following either address would end up in the wrong town.
A Fair Two Editions Old
The fair’s full published name is the Brunswick County Agricultural Fair & Expo, and it presents itself as an agriculture fair and expo rather than a carnival with farm exhibits attached. Its own mission text says the organisation was created to bring such a fair to the county, that its primary mission is agriculture preservation and education, and that a fifth-generation family farm is at the heart of the organisation. That farm is Stump Hill Farms, whose family hosts the fair on their property: the farm is the venue, not the operator.
Three operator name forms appear in the fair’s own record and stand as published rather than tidied into one: the Brunswick County Agricultural Fair & Expo Association, Incorporated, in the fair book’s exhibit policies; Brunswick County Agriculture Fair and Expo, Incorporated, with Agriculture rather than Agricultural, over the operator’s own mission text in the 2025 Fair Book; and BCAFE, Incorporated, the short form used through the fair book’s exhibitor rules and the 2026 sponsorship form, which tells supporters to make cheques payable to the fair or simply BCAFE, Incorporated. Narrative layers also refer to a Brunswick County Fair Board, and to a Brunswick Fair Board. None of these forms is corrected into another here.
Brandon Hardee appears as President and Manager in the 2026 sponsorship form, and the 2025 Fair Book is dedicated to founding board member Verma Smith Hardee. Dreamland Amusements provides the midway as a carnival contractor, never the organiser, and county government, Cooperative Extension and the Town of Ash appear only as supporters of programme elements, never as the operator.
For a useful comparison, see the Bladen County North Carolina NC Grape Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Detail | What the record shows |
| Fair | Brunswick County Agricultural Fair & Expo |
| Grounds | Stump Hill Farms, 2030 Ash Little River Road Northwest, Ash |
| County seat | Bolivia, which does not host the fair |
| First edition | October 15 to 19, 2025, billed Inaugural |
| Second edition | October 21 to 25, 2026, billed Second Annual |
| Usual run | Five days, Wednesday to Sunday, in October |
| Gate, both years | Seven dollars cash, eight dollars by card, per person |
| Young children | Thirty-six inches and under admitted free |
| Parking | Free in every published layer |
| Midway | Priced separately from the gate in both years |
How Brunswick County Got Its Fair
The fair’s own billing is short and exact, and it reconciles with the documented record: the 2025 Fair Book bills Brunswick County’s Inaugural Fair, under the theme Home Grown and Proud, and the fair’s own site bills 2026 as the Second Annual. No edition beyond Second Annual may be projected, and no founding earlier than 2025 may be claimed. The operator’s history claims are its own text only, and the farm history belongs to the host family, never a fair-founding date.
Press layers explain why the fair arrived when it did: local 4-H and FFA families had been travelling hours away, and the organisers took advice from the Robeson County fair, the Cape Fear Fair & Expo Board and the Mountain State Fair. The fair also filled a gap left since the Cape Fear Fair & Expo last operated in 2021. That gap is context, never lineage: this fair is not a revival or successor edition of the Cape Fear Fair. The Cape Fear Fair was a different event in a different county, at the Wilmington airport grounds, and its record is quarantined entire here.
What to Expect
The Agricultural Heart
The exhibit programme from the 2025 book is the fair’s centre. The animal exhibit covers cattle, swine, goats, sheep, horses, donkeys, poultry, rabbits, ducks and turkeys, and the home and agricultural exhibits cover field crops, horticultural crops, culinary entries, clothing, needlework, arts and crafts, and youth and vocational entries. Two eligibility layers stand as published: general rules open competition to North Carolina residents, while agricultural-tent individual entries are open to residents of Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.
Livestock showmanship runs through the week in the 2025 book’s day-by-day programme: the Chicken Show on Thursday at six in the evening, the Dairy Cow Derby and the Goat Show on Friday, the latter at six thirty, and the Dairy Heifer Show on Saturday at eleven in the morning. The magazine layer describes the Dairy Derby as the county’s first ever, Friday three to five, with local 4-H youth teaching county commissioners to show cows. Exhibit timing from the 2025 book is fenced to that year: edible exhibits judged Monday, October 13, 2025, non-edible exhibits Tuesday, October 14, entries delivered October 10 to 14 by department, and all exhibits removed Monday, October 20, 2025. The book conflicts with itself on the removal hours that day.
The Midway, Priced Apart
Dreamland Amusements runs the midway, with approximately twenty-five rides in the 2025 magazine layer, from kiddie to thrill rides, plus carnival games and concessions. The midway is always separately priced from the gate, and the wristband ladder is fenced to each year and never swapped between them: twenty-five dollars in 2025, with ride tickets at the Dreamland booth; and in 2026, thirty-two dollars on site, thirty dollars cash, or twenty-one dollars and twenty-five cents online before four in the afternoon on October 21, with four wristbands for seventy-six dollars and seventy-five cents. Dreamland’s own policy layer requires riders to be thirty-six inches or taller for a wristband.
Evenings on the Stage
The 2025 book’s nightly music sat at seven in the evening: Parker Lanier of Winnabow on October 15, Phillip Page of Granite Falls on October 16, Joe Copple and The Wild East Band of Wilmington on October 17, and Hunter Varnum and Ethan Clewis of Varnamtown on October 18. The magazine layer prints the October 17 act as Joe Coople, and the book prints the October 18 act as Hunter Varnam; both spellings stand as published and are never harmonised here. Bob Bohm’s Family Entertainment appeared daily with its ag-education game shows and magic show, and the Victoria Circus High Wire Pirate Show appeared daily.
The 2026 listing layer names a different entertainment spine, and no 2025 item is carried into 2026 copy: midway rides, live music, Brad Machette as a comedy hypnotist, the Agricadabra Magic Show, Ember Fire Arts, livestock exhibits and shows, agriculture and arts exhibits, educational booths, vendors, fair food, and the Sunday worship service. No 2026 act is back-dated to 2025 either.
Sunday, Differently Paced
Sunday runs shorter than the other days and opens differently: in both documented years, eleven in the morning to six in the evening, following a morning worship service. The 2025 book places a church service on Sunday from ten to eleven in the morning, before opening. Wednesday through Friday run from four in the afternoon to eleven at night, and Saturday from eleven in the morning to eleven at night. One conflict is recorded without being settled: Southport Magazine’s 2025 preview prints a ten o’clock Saturday opening, against the fair book’s own eleven o’clock opening. A sensory-friendly event sat on Friday in 2025, ten thirty to one, free for the child and caregiver with five dollars for the rest of the party, fenced to its 2025 layer.
Planning Your Visit
Getting In: Gate and Ground Rules
The gate ladder is identical in both documented years, fenced to those years rather than printed as a timeless price: seven dollars cash or eight dollars by card per person, thirty-six inches and under free, parking free. In 2026, no entry was allowed after ten at night, all bags were checked, and every patron passed through a metal-detector checkpoint, with no weapons allowed on the premises.
The minors rule is not settled in the record, and the layers are carried unblended: the 2026 Carolina Country listing prints sixteen and younger accompanied by an adult, while the fair’s own admission layer as reported prints under eighteen with a parent or guardian aged twenty-one or older. Dreamland’s own parental policy, under eighteen with a guardian twenty-one or older and four minors per adult, is the midway operator’s general policy, never the fair’s gate rule. No fair-published season pass, advance gate discount or group rate was found, so none is promised here, and no fair-published camping offer exists, so no tent site, hook-up, camper rate or overnight rule is printed for this fair and no nearby commercial campground is presented as fair camping.
A Five-Day Visit, Day by Day
Treat Wednesday as an opening evening, Saturday as the full day, Sunday as the quiet close. Arrive Wednesday in the late afternoon for the ribbon-cutting atmosphere and an evening pass through the agricultural tent. Thursday and Friday suit the livestock programme, chicken showmanship Thursday evening and the Dairy Derby and goat showmanship Friday. Saturday is the long day, eleven to eleven, with the heifer show in the late morning. Sunday begins with the worship service and runs to six, the best day for a slower look without the Saturday crush.
How It Compares
Brunswick County’s fair compares most usefully with its neighbours in October. The Columbus County Agriculture Fair at Whiteville and the North Carolina State Fair at Raleigh both run in October and appear beside this fair in round-up listings, but neither contributes anything to this article: their dates and prices never cross into it. The comparison is only that it is far smaller, far newer and far more local. The Brunswick fair does not compete with either on scale. It does not try to.
The sharper comparison is with the fair it replaced in local memory. The Cape Fear Fair & Expo at Wilmington last operated in 2021, after its airport land lease ended, and its absence left a gap this fair now fills for local agricultural families. Filling a gap is not continuing an event: the Cape Fear Fair’s dates, prices, grounds and heritage belong to Wilmington and New Hanover County, none of them is this fair’s, and a visitor who remembers it will recognise the shape but should not expect the same fair under a new name.
A Visitor Checklist
- Confirm the venue is Ash, not Bolivia, Shallotte or Wilmington
- Budget seven dollars cash or eight dollars by card per person, thirty-six inches and under free
- Price midway wristbands separately, and check the current year’s ladder
- Plan Saturday for the longest day, Sunday for the quieter close
- Remember parking is free in every published layer
- Expect bag checks and a metal-detector checkpoint, and leave weapons at home
- Do not plan on fair camping, since no fair-published camping offer exists
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Ash sits in the western part of Brunswick County, and the country around it is farm and small-town country rather than beach country. Outside fair week, the farm runs its own Saturday season, the venue’s own business, not the fair. Bolivia became the county seat in 1977, when the seat moved from Southport, and the county’s government centre sits there.
Why a Two-Year-Old Fair Matters
A two-year-old fair matters because it answers a question its county had been asking for years: where do its agricultural families show their work without travelling hours away? The mission text frames the answer as preservation and education, backed by showmanship classes, 4-H dairy calf and goat shows, and exhibit halls full of county entries. The fair also matters as a test of whether a county fair can start from scratch. Most inherit grounds and decades of habit; this one started on a family farm in 2025 and returned in 2026 with the same gate, shape and entertainment spine. Its second year is more informative than its first: the inaugural proved the fair could happen, and the second proved it could happen again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the fair in Bolivia, the county seat?
No. Bolivia is the county seat and does not host this fair. The fair is at Stump Hill Farms, 2030 Ash Little River Road Northwest, in Ash.
Does the gate price include the rides?
No. The gate and the midway are priced separately in both documented years: seven dollars cash or eight dollars by card per person, thirty-six inches and under free, parking free. Ride wristbands cost extra, and the ladder changed between years: twenty-five dollars in 2025; thirty-two dollars on site, thirty dollars cash, or twenty-one dollars and twenty-five cents online in 2026.
What happens at the entrance?
In 2026, all bags were checked, every patron passed through a metal-detector checkpoint, no weapons were allowed on the premises, and there was no entry after ten at night. The minors-accompaniment rule is not settled in the published layers, which conflict between sixteen and younger and under eighteen, so check the fair’s current published rule before travelling.
Is there anywhere to camp at the fair?
No fair-published camping offer exists in any fair-side source found, so no tent site, hook-up, camper rate or overnight rule is stated for this fair, and nearby commercial campgrounds are not presented as fair camping.
What to Expect From the Next Brunswick County North Carolina Agricultural Fair & Expo Festival
How often is the Brunswick County North Carolina Agricultural Fair & Expo Festival held?
The fair is an annual October event on the documented record. Only two editions exist.
When is the next Brunswick County North Carolina Agricultural Fair & Expo Festival?
No date for a next edition is published here. The most recent documented edition ran October 21 to 25, 2026, billed as the Second Annual, and any next edition would fall in October on the pattern of the first two years.
Will the dates change?
The dates have already moved once between editions, from October 15 to 19 in 2025 to October 21 to 25 in 2026, while keeping the same Wednesday-to-Sunday shape. Future dates may shift within October in the same way, and the gate ladder may change too, since it is fenced to each published year.
A two-edition-old fair is a fragile and hopeful thing, and this one has earned its second year honestly: same farm, same gate, same October shape, and county agriculture first. The record of its first two years is short, checkable and worth keeping exact,
