Union County Ohio Fair Festival
Each July, Marysville hands its fairgrounds over to the Union County Fair for a Sunday-to-Saturday week of harness racing, livestock judging and midway rides at 845 North Main Street. Marysville is the county seat of Union County and also the host city, two facts the record proves separately rather than assuming one from the other. The fair is staged by the Union County Agricultural Society, a corporation formed under Chapter 1711 of the Ohio Revised Code, and the fair’s publications call the event the Union County Fair. Its own 2024 fair book anchors the record with a complete gate ladder and full programming; no fair-side ladder for later years appears in the material gathered here.
The Society Behind the Fair
The Union County Agricultural Society is the organiser in every organiser-side and state layer of the record. State auditor reports describe it as a Chapter 1711 county agricultural society corporation whose members must be Union County residents paying an annual membership fee. The reports disagree on board size and are not merged here: 21 directors in the fiscal 2019 and 2020 layer, 20 in 2016, 22 in 2007 and 18 in 2002. The fair’s own 2024 book shortens the name to Union County Ag Society on its board pages and to UCAS on its policy pages, its officers layer naming President Jared Kuhlwein, Vice President Trent Judy and Secretary Chris Will. Ohio State University Extension in Union County runs the junior-fair machinery with the Junior Fair Board and the Junior Fair Livestock Committee, partners in the book’s welcome, never the organiser; the Sheriff’s Office supplies security in the book’s layer; Big O’ Amusements provides the midway rides on the 2024 map, a vendor in its layer. The week’s halves are styled the Union County Senior Fair and the Union County Junior Fair in the book’s headings and the extension layers.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Union County Fair |
| Organiser | Union County Agricultural Society |
| Venue | Union County Fairgrounds, Marysville, Ohio |
| Fair office | 845 North Main Street, Marysville, Ohio 43040, in the fair’s 2024 book |
| Mailing address | P.O. Box 678, Marysville, Ohio 43040 |
| Season | July, one Sunday-to-Saturday week in every dated layer |
| Documented 2026 run | July 26 to August 1, 2026 |
| Gate admission | Ten dollars Sunday to Tuesday, fifteen Wednesday to Saturday in the 2024 book; grandstand included, rides separate |
| Harness racing | Listed for the Monday and Tuesday of the 2026 fair week in the racing bodies’ own schedules |
| Camping | Two areas labelled Camping on the 2024 book’s grounds map, no terms published |
Two Foundings and One Billing
The fair’s early history arrives in two layers that refuse to sit together. The state auditor’s reports give the first: the Society was founded in 1846 to operate an annual agricultural fair, the Society’s year in the state record, never a settled first-fair year here. A county history published in the early twentieth century tells it a year later: the society organized in 1847, its first organizing meeting held in the old court house that summer, and the second week of the following October chosen for the county’s first fair. It places that fair in Marysville’s public square, the old court house displaying the fabrics, with less than one hundred exhibits, then follows it two squares south on Main Street until 1852 and records thirteen acres bought on the Marion road at fifty dollars per acre. Neither account overrules the other here. The history’s October date belongs to its era alone, since every modern layer puts this fair in July, and a 2026 press account describing the fair as dating back to 1846 merely adopts the auditor’s year. The fair’s own 2024 book bills that year as the 178th Union County Fair, a third kind of claim. The billing stands in its layer only: it steps with neither founding account under any plain count, no edition number for 2025 or 2026 appears in the record, and nothing gathered proves an unbroken run.
What to Expect
Sulky Racing on the Documented Cards
The state auditor’s reports word it that during the fair, harness races are held, culminating in the running of the Union County Fair Harness Race. The fair’s own 2024 book schedules racing on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday at 11 a.m., with colt and filly trot and pace classes in that layer. For 2026 the state schedule asterisks the Marysville dates for racing, and the racing bodies list this fair on Monday, July 27 at 5 p.m. and Tuesday, July 28 at 11 a.m. Racing is documented for 2026, with no unbroken run claimed, because no layer supports one.
Grandstand Evenings in the 2024 Book
The fullest evening card in the record is the 2024 book’s alone. Sunday closes with a Mud Bog Run at 7 p.m. and Monday follows with a Garden Tractor Pull. Tuesday is motocross, practice at 6 p.m. and racing at 7 p.m., Marysville Motorsports and Honda in that layer. Wednesday’s Route 4 Farm Tour Showcase fills 7 p.m., its page noting the fair ticket includes concert entrance. Thursday brings the rodeo, bull riding and girls barrel racing, Friday the Union County Fair Pull under National Tractor Pullers Association sanction, and Saturday a demolition derby at 7 p.m., War Racing Promotions in that layer. None of it is offered as another year’s programme.
For a useful comparison, see the Tuscarawas County Ohio Ohio Swiss Festival for another county festival.
The Junior Fair Inside the Same Week
The extension junior schedule walks the 2024 week day by day; its 2026 layers run junior horse shows from July 26 to July 31, with the Showman of Showmen decided on Friday evening. Livestock shows and skillathons fill the barns across the week, royalty is crowned, and the junior livestock sale closes the junior programme on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the 2024 layer. Open-class judging opens the 2026 week on Sunday, July 26.
Barns, Tents and the Midway Between
The 2024 book’s grounds map draws the fair’s fabric: horse barns and harness horse barns with a speed office, a horse show arena, beef, swine, sheep and goat, and rabbit and poultry barns, a livestock show arena, the T-Building, a pavilion, and the senior and junior fair offices, around the grandstand and its infield track. The Animal Wonders Tent hosts presentations by the Ohio Wildlife Center, the Bug Man and Reptile Adventures in that book, a chainsaw art show by David Crego runs three times daily, and the Kids Zone is free in the 2024 book, sponsored by Agape’ Marysville in its layer. Wednesday doubles as Senior Day and Thursday as Veterans Appreciation Day, each with pavilion programming in that book, whose Marysville Art League open art class runs to 26 categories.
Planning Your Visit
The Gate Ladder in the Fair’s Own 2024 Book
The only complete fair-side price ladder in the record is the 2024 book’s, governing 2024 only. Gates that year ran 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; the book states plainly that gate admission does not include rides, and it took cash and cards, card fees applying in that layer. Admission cost ten dollars Sunday through Tuesday and fifteen dollars Wednesday through Saturday, grandstand entertainment included, with children ages five and under free. On Senior Day, Wednesday, visitors aged sixty and over entered free until 4 p.m.; on Veterans Appreciation Day, Thursday, a veteran and one guest entered free. A regular weekly pass cost seventy dollars, likewise excluding rides. Rides were priced apart: wristbands at fifteen dollars, or tickets at one dollar, three to five per ride, the midway running from 2 p.m. Sunday and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closing from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. for dinner. Parking was free, described as limited, and entered from Route 4 or Route 31. Memberships stood at ten dollars each in that book. The fair’s site footer adds the mailing form P.O. Box 678 and the phone number (937) 644-8736. One city calendar layer prints a different street name against the same number; the fair’s own publications govern here, and the conflict is recorded rather than merged.
Prices the Record Leaves Open
For 2025 the record holds dates alone: July 20 to July 26 on the state schedule, with no fair-side book, ladder or programme card gathered. For 2026, no fair-side gate ladder appears either, and outside accounts contradict each other flatly about that gate, one describing it bundled with rides, the other a free gate with separately ticketed grandstand events, each also contradicting the 2024 ladder’s shape. Neither is fair-side, so no 2026 figure is printed here; take the current price from the fair’s own site or office, and treat the press layer’s own concert billing for opening Sunday as its layer’s claim, not a fair-side fact.
Exhibitor Money in the Fair’s Own Rules
Under the fair’s own 2026 open class rules, entering cost five dollars per item, entries of six or more capped at thirty dollars, each entry receiving one general admission ticket, first place paying ten dollars in that layer. Entries were due July 22, 2026, with drop-off July 25 through the Route 31 entrance and judging on Sunday, July 26. The rules prove a general admission ticket existed in 2026 but state no gate price, and the 2024 book’s derby entry, fifty dollars including fair entrance, is likewise a competitor’s fee in its layer, never a spectator price.
Camping Only as Far as the Map Goes
The 2024 book’s grounds map labels two areas as Camping, and that is the whole fetched record: no camping price, hookup detail, reservation term or public offer appears in any layer gathered. Terms are unverified here; ask the fair office what the current year offers, nothing being borrowed from other fairs or the grounds’ rental activity.
A Sample Opening Sunday, Drawn From the 2024 Book
Take the 2024 book’s opening Sunday as the week’s template. Come through the gate after its 8 a.m. opening and spend the morning between the barns and the open-class exhibits, then watch harness racing at 11 a.m. Eat along Midway Road, ride from 2 p.m., the midway’s Sunday opening hour in that book, watch the opening ceremony at 5 p.m., and end at the grandstand, where the Mud Bog Run takes the 7 p.m. slot. Every time there is the 2024 book’s.
Two Fairs Sharing One Week
The fair’s senior and junior halves reward different attention. The senior, or open, side is built on open-class competition: farm and garden exhibits, the art league’s 26-category open art class and the grandstand programme. The junior side is built on formation: young exhibitors showing livestock they have raised, testing themselves in skillathons, competing for showman honours, and selling their animals at the Saturday livestock sale. A visitor who only walks the midway misses both halves.
Visit Checklist
- Confirm the current year’s span on the fair’s own site before booking travel.
- Treat the 2024 book ladder as a guide to price structure, not the current gate.
- Bring cash alongside a card; the 2024 book accepted both, with card fees.
- Use the Route 4 or Route 31 entrances the book names for its free but limited parking.
- Time a Sunday arrival for the midway’s 2 p.m. opening in the 2024 book.
- Ask the fair office directly about camping, because the record prints no camping terms.
- Enter open-class items ahead of the rules deadline; drop-off uses the Route 31 entrance.
- Keep Saturday morning free for the junior livestock sale if young exhibitors are your draw.
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Marysville rewards a walk after the fair day ends. The Union County Courthouse stands at 215 West Fifth Street, David W. Gibbs’s 1883 building in the courthouse record, still housing the Court of Common Pleas. The fairgrounds keep a second life outside fair week, since the fair’s own events pages programme year-round rentals such as art and horse shows, weddings and private events, the state record adding facility, track and stall rental, flea markets and craft shows. None of that activity is part of the fair.
Why This Fair Matters to Union County
A county fair is the one week when a county’s farm economy shows itself to itself, and Marysville’s version carries that role fully. The Society running it is a membership body of county residents, accountable through state audit, joining an open-class programme for adult exhibitors to a junior fair that trains the next generation. Harness racing ties the week to Ohio’s wider fair racing circuit in its documented years.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the fair take place?
The fair runs each July, Sunday to Saturday in every dated layer: July 21 to July 27 in 2024, July 20 to July 26 in 2025 and July 26 to August 1 in 2026.
How much does admission cost?
The fair’s own published ladder here is the 2024 book’s: ten dollars Sunday through Tuesday and fifteen dollars Wednesday through Saturday, grandstand entertainment included, rides charged separately, and children ages five and under free. No later fair-side ladder appears here, and outside accounts of the 2026 gate contradict each other, so confirm current prices with the fair.
Is harness racing part of the fair?
Yes, in its documented layers. The 2024 book schedules racing on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday at 11 a.m., and the racing bodies’ schedules list Marysville on the Monday and Tuesday of the 2026 fair week, at 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. The state record names a Union County Fair Harness Race in its wording, though no unbroken run is claimed.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?
The published record does not settle that. The fair’s own 2024 book map labels two areas as Camping on the grounds, but no price, hookup detail or reservation term for fair-week camping appears in any layer gathered here; ask the fair office what the current year offers.
What to Expect From the Next Union County Ohio Fair Festival
How often is Union County Ohio Fair Festival held?
One running in each year: a July week, Sunday to Saturday, staged by the Union County Agricultural Society at the Marysville fairgrounds.
When is the next Union County Ohio Fair Festival?
The most recent documented run ended August 1, 2026, so the next fair follows in July of the following year, its exact dates to be announced by the fair. No 2027 dates appear in the material gathered here, and dated search results for that year belong to other states’ same-name fairs.
Will the dates change?
The exact span has moved within July, landing on July 21 to 27 in 2024, July 20 to 26 in 2025 and July 26 to August 1 in 2026, while the season and the Sunday-to-Saturday shape held steady. Expect a July week, and confirm the precise dates with the fair before travelling.
Meet the fair on its record’s terms, the 2024 book as firm ground and the fair’s own announcements as the guide to the current year, and Marysville’s week gives back what county fairs exist to give: livestock in the barns, sulkies on the track, neighbours in the grandstand, and a county briefly gathered in one place.
