Portage County Ohio Fair Festival
Every August, the fair that carries this county’s name sets up nowhere near the courthouse. The Portage County Randolph Fair runs six days, Tuesday through Sunday, at the fairgrounds in Randolph while Ravenna, the seat of Portage County, hosts no part of it at all. The gap matters more here than at most Ohio fairs, because the county’s older written fair record belongs to Ravenna, and none of it belongs to Randolph. What fills the Randolph grounds belongs to the Portage County Agricultural Society, a body working under a doing-business-as name, describing its grounds as independently owned and operated, and telling a history that opens with a one-day fair beside a road in 1858. Around that history sits a junior-fair week of livestock shows and sales, saddle-horse and draft-horse rings, merchants and grandstand nights, and one gap: the fair’s own record publishes no current gate price.
A Society Working Under Two Names
The organiser’s full legal styling sits in the first article of its own constitution: the society shall be known as the Portage County Agricultural Society DBA Randolph Fair. The shorter society form does the everyday work in the auditor’s report titles, the homepage and the Extension layers, while the event answers to Portage County Randolph Fair in the Society’s styling and to Portage County Fair in the state schedule’s wording. The Society’s History page explains the double name: 1972 was the year the county-society name was adopted, a year when two premium books were printed, one under each name, and the Society is still independently owned and operated.
A Senior Fair Board, also worded simply as the Fair Board, governs in the site’s layers, and a Junior Fair Board, started in 1973 in the History page’s telling, runs the junior side. The one current office name in the record is Fair Secretary Jennifer May, in the homepage layer. The auditor states plainly that Portage County is not financially accountable for the Society, and OSU Extension for Portage County works as the 4-H partner, its Ravenna office being an Extension office, never the Society’s. Membership is open to county residents aged twenty-one years or older buying an annual ticket before August 1 of the election year at a Board-decided cost, and no membership price was found in any layer behind this article. The constitution provides a board of twenty-one directors on staggered three-year terms. The auditor’s layers give twenty-one directors in their earlier reports and eighteen in the 2014 and 2013 report, counts that stand in their eras, never fused into one timeless board size.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Portage County Randolph Fair |
| Fair town | Randolph, in Randolph Township, in southern Portage County |
| County seat | Ravenna, which hosts no part of this fair |
| Organiser | Portage County Agricultural Society DBA Randolph Fair |
| Grounds | The Portage County Fairgrounds on Fairground Road at Randolph |
| Season | August, six days running Tuesday to Sunday in the documented current spans |
| The 2026 fair | Tuesday, August 25 to Sunday, August 30, billed the 168th in the county paper’s layers |
| Gate money | No current gate price appears in the fair’s own record; the newest complete ladder is the 2022 programme’s |
| Horse programme | Saddle-horse and draft-horse shows and pulling, and horse and pony pulling; no harness racing documented in any current layer |
Three Beginnings That Refuse to Merge
The Society’s own History page is where the Randolph story starts. In that telling, the first Randolph Fair was held on October 15, 1858, beside the road on Route 44, with the vegetables, fruits and grains shown in the schoolhouse and a gate of ten cents per person and ten cents per horse and buggy. The page says its recorded minutes start in 1871, and it words Bela Hubbard as president of the first agricultural society in 1873. Neither date is a founding claim for the Society that runs the fair today.
The page follows the young fair in short strokes. It began as a three-day event, shrank to two days in the early 1900s, and one fair in 1870 lasted only a few hours in the rain. The grounds were purchased and a permanent home established in the years after, with no year, seller or acreage given. The hundredth year was celebrated in 1958, the gate that year standing at fifty cents per person and twenty-five cents per car in the page’s figures. A first tractor pull followed on September 11, 1959 and a steer sale in 1962. The month wandered before settling on August in 1963, at four days, then five days in 1969 and six days in 1975 in that telling.
For a useful comparison, see the Pike County Ohio Fair Festival for another county festival.
Against that page stands the billing chain. The 1972 premium book carried the 114th Randolph Fair, a church bulletin billed the 163rd fair in 2021, the Society’s own 2022 programme billed the 164th, and the county paper billed the 168th in 2026. Counted inclusively the chain runs from 1859, one year later than the page’s own first fair of 1858, while its 1958 celebration marked a hundredth anniversary, not a hundredth edition. No layer states what the count starts from, so no unbroken run can be drawn from it. The state auditor’s reports record the present Society as founded in 1803. That year belongs to the state record alone and may never be printed as this fair’s founding or merged with 1858. County histories keep a still older society story belonging to Ravenna alone, and nothing in these layers joins it to this fair, so none of its dates, grounds or officers appear here as this fair’s past.
What to Expect at the Randolph Fair
The Junior Fair at the Centre of the Week
The county paper’s account of the held 2026 fair describes 4-H and FFA agricultural shows wrapped in rides, food, games, music and tractor pulls. The market livestock sale and auction anchor the junior week in the Extension layers. The Society’s own 2026 rule publications carry saddle-horse versatility classes and swine shows, and Extension’s layer puts a 4-H Life Skills benefit baking contest and live auction on Sunday, August 30, 2026, the closing day.
Grandstand Nights, Old Card and New
A promoter called CS Pulling Promotions billed its own release as a debut at this fair: a truck and tractor pull on Thursday, August 27, 2026, at 7 p.m., across five classes named Classic Super Stock Tractors, 3.6 Pro Street Semis, Hot Street Semis, Street Stock Semis and Street Diesel Trucks, open to the world in that release. The promoter is a programme promoter only, never the organiser, and no complete 2026 day-by-day was found. The fullest grandstand card in the record is older: the Society’s own 2022 programme ran demolition derbies on two nights at 7:30 p.m., truck, semi and tractor pulls at 7 p.m., a rough truck contest on the Sunday and garden tractor pulls, all of it belonging to 2022 alone. Behind both cards, the History page’s tradition layer remembers pony pulling and horse pulling as well established by the hundredth year, in that page’s era only.
Colour Around the Grounds
The fair’s own 2026 schedule fragments name chain saw carving from Tuesday through Saturday on Equipment Row in that same layer. No midway operator is named in any 2026 fair-side layer; the named midway, Bates Brothers Amusement Company, belongs to the 2022 programme only. The horse programme a visitor will actually find is saddle-horse shows, draft-horse shows and pulling, and horse and pony pulling, with no harness racing documented in any current layer behind this article.
Planning Your Visit
Aim for Randolph, Not the Seat
A traveller who navigates to Ravenna, the county seat, will find the courthouse and the Extension office but no fair. The grounds stand on Fairground Road under the street number 4215, and the address layers refuse to settle into one postal form: listing layers print it as 4215 Fairground Road, Randolph, Ohio 44265, while a 2021 church bulletin and listing sites print the same grounds as Atwater, Ohio 44201. The Atwater line never makes Atwater the fair town, since the state schedule, the Society and the auditor all say Randolph. The Society’s mailing address is Post Office Box 213, Randolph, Ohio 44265, a mailing form only, never the street address.
What the Gate Costs, Year by Year
No general gate, weekly-pass, membership or parking price for 2025, 2026 or 2027 was found in any fair-side layer, so the current regular admission stands unverified. What 2026 does document is a pair of specials: admission at five dollars before 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and seniors and veterans admitted free on Saturday, August 29. That five dollars is a special in the layer, never the regular gate. The newest complete fair-side ladder is the Society’s own 2022 programme: general admission at eight dollars, the same five-dollar special until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, children under ten years free, senior citizens aged sixty and over and veterans free on that programme’s Friday, evening grandstand events at ten dollars, ride wristbands at twenty dollars and ride tickets at one dollar each. A church bulletin priced the 2021 gate at six dollars per person, with children under ten free and seniors and veterans free on the Friday. Parking money is likewise unpublished for every year. Booth rents and junior-rule fees in the fair’s papers are contract and competition money, never gate money.
Camping on the Grounds
Camping exists at Randolph as labelled ground, not as a published product. The Society’s own 2026 fair map marks a junior fair campgrounds area and a board camping area labelled not for general admission, and the 2022 programme’s map labels campgrounds beside a gate name belonging to a neighbouring property, Friendship Acres, never documented as part of this fairgrounds. No camping fee, hook-up term, rule set or public reservation offer was found in any fair-side layer, so the fair-week camping price stands unverified.
One Thursday, Taken Slowly
A visitor building a day from the documented 2026 layers could start with the junior shows in the morning. Midday belongs to the merchants and exhibit buildings and to Equipment Row, where the chain saw carving runs Tuesday through Saturday. Food booths and the midway fill the afternoon, and evening gathers at the grandstand, where the debut truck, semi and tractor pull takes over at 7 p.m. on the Thursday of the 2026 fair.
Where the Layers Will Not Agree
Set the record side by side and its disagreements are plain. The constitution and the auditor’s earlier reports count twenty-one directors while the auditor’s 2014 and 2013 report counts eighteen. The billing chain counts from 1859 while the Society’s own page holds its first fair in 1858 and celebrated a hundredth anniversary, not a hundredth edition, in 1958. The state record founds the Society in 1803, a year no fair-side layer repeats. None of these conflicts is settled here.
Before You Set Out
- Navigate to Randolph and its Fairground Road fairgrounds, and leave Ravenna, the county seat, out of the route.
- Take the 2026 specials as the county paper printed them: five dollars before 3 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, seniors and veterans free on the Saturday.
- Ask the fair office for the current gate price rather than budgeting from the 2022 programme’s eight-dollar ladder.
- Give the Thursday evening of fair week to the grandstand, where the debut five-class truck, semi and tractor pull runs at 7 p.m.
- Make lodging plans off the grounds, since the mapped camping areas serve the junior fair and the board.
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Randolph itself is a township community rather than a county town of offices, and the fair is its largest annual gathering. Ravenna, the seat, holds the courthouse, built in 1960 on West Main Street in the state courthouse record, and the Extension office that partners with the fair’s junior programme. The county’s name reaches back to the old Portage Trail between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers in that same record. Atwater and Rootstown host no part of this fair in any layer behind this article.
Why This Fair Holds Its Ground
An independently owned fairgrounds run by a county society under a double name is a survivor’s arrangement, and Randolph’s version has kept a six-day August fair alive for generations by the Society’s own telling. Its centre of gravity is the junior fair, where 4-H and FFA exhibitors show, sell and earn scholarship support in the same week, and its grandstand keeps reinventing itself. The fair’s paperwork may argue with itself about directors, dates and old prices, yet the argument itself is evidence of a fair documented by the people who run it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the fair held in Ravenna, the county seat?
No. The Portage County Randolph Fair takes place at Randolph, and Ravenna hosts no part of it in any layer behind this article, even though the courthouse stands there.
How much does admission cost?
The fair’s own record publishes no current gate price, so no regular admission figure can honestly be quoted for the present season. The county paper’s 2026 preview documented specials of five dollars before 3 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday and free entry for seniors and veterans on that week’s Saturday; the newest complete ladder in the Society’s own publications is the 2022 programme’s.
Is there harness racing at the Randolph fair?
The state schedule’s line for this fair carries no harness-racing mark in 2024, 2025 or 2026, and no racing section appears in any fair-side publication behind this article; the documented horse programme is saddle-horse shows, draft-horse shows and pulling, and horse and pony pulling.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?
The fair’s own map labels a junior fair campgrounds area and a board camping area marked not for general admission, and no public camping offer was found in any fair-side layer. Camping here is a junior-fair and board arrangement, not a visitor product.
What to Expect From the Next Portage County Ohio Fair Festival
How often is Portage County Ohio Fair Festival held?
The fair is an annual event, held across six days each August in its documented modern shape.
When is the next Portage County Ohio Fair Festival?
The Society’s own forward announcement gives the 2027 fair as August 24 to August 29, 2027, at the fairgrounds in Randolph.
Will the dates change?
The August placing has held since the Society’s History page says the fair settled on that month in 1963 and reached six days in 1975, although the exact span moves with the calendar each year, so the fair office’s current announcement governs any given season.
A fair that began with produce in a schoolhouse and a ten-cent gate now fills eighty-five acres in its Society’s telling, on its own land, in a town that is not the county seat. Visitors who take prices from the fair office rather than from old programmes will find the week exactly as documented: junior exhibitors at the centre, horses pulling rather than racing, and a grandstand that still finds room for something new.
