Clatsop County Oregon Fair Festival
The Clatsop County Fair is the annual county fair of Oregon’s northwestern corner, held in late July on Walluski Loop grounds carrying an Astoria address. Recent editions run four or five days, mixing livestock shows, exhibit buildings and concerts, and 2026 brought a carnival back onto the midway after an absence the county’s layers measure from 2021. Astoria, the seat named in the county charter, hosts the fair, whose own history dates its first running to 1905, beside the Astoria Regatta. Because spans, prices and programmes shift between editions, each year below keeps to its own documents.
About a Fair Run by a Citizen Board
The event’s plain name, across its own site, its 2026 fair book, the Extension layers, county bulletins and platform listings, is the Clatsop County Fair; one site layer’s header reads “Clatsop county FAIR,” that layer’s capitalisation alone. The grounds travel under a separate facility style, Clatsop County Fair & Expo, the venue’s name, never a second fair’s.
Management sits with the Clatsop County Fair Board. The fair site’s wording makes the board a seven member citizen committee appointed to three-year terms by the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, charged by Oregon law with managing the Fair & Expo and annual fair. A county news release of September 25, 2026 words the job as overseeing the fairgrounds’ operation and management with County Staff support, and a committees page adds a third wording; the three stand unmerged.
Support is not management: the OSU Extension Service and its Clatsop County Extension Office supply the 4-H schedule, entry forms and guidance from an office at 2001 Marine Drive, Suite 210, Astoria, never the fairgrounds. The 2026 fair book file sits on an Astoria FFA platform, a hosting fact rather than an organiser credit.
Venue wordings vary: Clatsop County Fair & Expo in the fair’s own materials, Clatsop County Fair & Expo Center in a 2026 bulletin line, Clatsop County Fairgrounds elsewhere. The grounds’ contact address is 92937 Walluski Loop, Astoria, OR 97103; the fair’s About text describes 109 verdant acres overlooking the Walluski River, three miles from Astoria. The pair stands unmerged; no downtown or city-limits claim follows from it.
For a useful comparison, see the Clackamas County Oregon Fair Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Point | What the record shows |
| Event | The annual Clatsop County Fair at Astoria, Oregon |
| County seat | Astoria, named as the seat of county government in the county charter |
| Grounds | 92937 Walluski Loop, Astoria, OR 97103, under the Clatsop County Fair & Expo name |
| Organiser | Clatsop County Fair Board, appointed by the county commissioners |
| Season | Late July; into early August in 2024 only |
| Documented spans | July 30 to August 3, 2024; July 30 to August 2, 2025; July 22 to 25, 2026 |
| Admission | A daily gate ladder is published for 2025 only; no other year’s figure appears |
| Camping | Fair-week camping is exhibitor-only; its nightly figures differ by year |
| First fair | 1905, as stated in the fair’s own published history |
A History Told by the Fair Itself
Every date in this section is the fair’s own About page speaking. The first Clatsop County Fair was held with the annual Astoria Regatta in 1905 at the Hedrick Theater at Twelfth and Duane streets in downtown Astoria. In 1911 the county granges brought the fair to Gearhart Park; by 1920 it had returned to downtown Astoria. It was held at the Port of Astoria from 1921 until 1941, when a fairground opened at Twentieth Street and Marine Drive, at the east end of Astoria, used through the 1994 season. In 1994 the county turned the old John Jacob Astor Experiment Station, more recently the community college farm, over to the Fair Board, and voters approved a bond of one million nine hundred ninety-five thousand dollars. The present grounds opened in August 1995, and in the page’s words the Fair & Expo has been in constant use there since. None of the pre-1995 sites hosts the fair today, and no age is borrowed from Astoria’s 1811 founding or the Regatta’s history.
What to Expect
Neon Nights and a Returning Carnival in 2026
The 2026 edition ran Wednesday, July 22 through Saturday, July 25 under the theme Neon Nights & Carnival Lights. Its headline change was the carnival’s return, in the county bulletin’s words: Rainier Amusements will fill the midway with rides, games, and bright carnival lights. A March 2026 county layer adds that it returned for the first time since 2021, that layer’s remark alone. Kameron Marlowe, with The Kruse Brothers, played Friday, July 24, in a year whose platform mix lists a Wednesday talent show at 6:00 p.m., a car show, vendors and daily live music. The Extension schedule separately sets out the 4-H programme for those days, from livestock shows and dog judging to archery, a costume contest, the fashion revue, awards and the Market Animal Auction at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, July 25: the youth programme, never the whole public one.
Stars, Stripes and Summer Nights in 2025
The 2025 fair ran four days, Thursday, July 30 through Sunday, August 2, under the theme Stars, Stripes, & Summer Nights, its platform layer promising live music daily, car shows, food, vendors, games and exhibits. Rodney Atkins, with special guest Thomas Mac, headlined Friday, August 1, outdoors, doors 6 p.m., concert 7 p.m. Jacquie Roar played Saturday, August 2, billed by the county bulletin as a free concert included with Saturday’s fair admission, an inclusion wording, never a gate term. An adaptive rodeo on Wednesday, July 30 welcomed participants with intellectual and developmental disabilities, free of charge, on registration. No layer claims a carnival return for 2025; the 2026 midway wording must not travel backwards.
A Timber and Agriculture Showcase in 2024
The 2024 fair ran five days, Tuesday, July 30 through Saturday, August 3, under the theme The Forest to the Farm: A Timber and Agriculture Showcase, shortened in some layers to Forest to the Farm. Its layers describe forestry and agriculture exhibits, an outdoor country concert on Friday evening, August 2, and a Latino concert on Saturday night, August 3. The performers behind those slots are named in no layer fetched, so none appear here.
Planning Your Visit
Dates That Refuse to Sit Still
Check the span for your year: the five-day 2024, four-day 2025 and four-day 2026 spans rest on their own layers, no edition borrows another’s closing date, and 2023 has no span in the record. Work before opening proves nothing about public days: in 2026 the Extension schedule fills July 9 with judging contests and July 12 to 21 with vet checks, pen setup, stall decorating, check-in and horse shows.
The Gate, in One Year’s Figures Only
A daily gate ladder exists in print for exactly one edition. The fair’s 2025 exhibitor camping form lists children six and under free, ten dollars for ages seven to fifty-four, five dollars for seniors fifty-five and over, and a family cap of forty dollars; its Booster Bands season pass costs thirty-five dollars for ages seven and up, entrance all days included, all of them 2025 figures. The 2026 layers say only that parking is free and admission options affordable, including a family cap and season pass, publishing no figure for either; for 2024 no gate figure appears. A zero in a ticketing-platform field is a field, not a price; nothing gathered makes the fair free to enter.
Concerts, Booths, Premiums and Rent
Concert tickets are a separate purchase, never gate money. For August 1, 2025, the fair-information layer priced Rodney Atkins with Thomas Mac at twenty-five dollars early bird general admission before June 1, 2025, twenty-nine dollars general admission from June 1, thirty-five dollars in concert week and forty-five dollars reserved, including fair admission that day only. The March 13, 2026 county bulletin published a Kameron Marlowe presale at thirty dollars general admission and forty-five dollars front-of-stage, fees excluded, warning of an unquantified fair-week rise. Vendor terms sit in vendor applications: a 2026 retail inline outdoor booth at two hundred dollars, a corner at two hundred fifty, badges at ten; 2026 nonprofit booths at fifty dollars; a 2025 nonprofit outdoor booth at fifty. Premiums have no published scale; the 2026 fair book states only an eligibility rule for adult-prepared exhibits, and the Extension guide describes small ribbon payments whose value is determined after fair. The rental sheet’s daily hall and arena prices are venue hire, never admission.
Three Campings That Never Merge
During fair week, camping at the grounds belongs to exhibitors: a companion form rule limits it to exhibitors with projects entered, plus programme staff, superintendents and leaders. The 2025 form prices it at sixteen dollars and fifty-eight cents a night, fifteen dollars plus ten and a half percent transient room tax, across the 2025 camping window, Saturday, July 26 through Sunday, August 3, a fifteen-dollar additional vehicle pass and at most three vehicles per campsite. The Extension Fair Info Guide for 2026 prices it at sixteen dollars and eighty-eight cents a night, fifteen dollars plus twelve and a half percent tax, with at most two vehicles per campsite, the same fifteen-dollar vehicle pass, a form deadline of Monday, July 6, 2026 and a one hundred dollar late fee after that date. Totals, tax rates and vehicle limits conflict and stand unmerged. Vendor applications price camping separately, at twenty-three dollars RV and eleven dollars tent per night in 2026, twenty-two and eleven dollars in 2025. The fair site’s facility layer prices general event camping at forty dollars a night with power or twelve without, for event participants and guests only, never a public fair-week campground.
One Saturday at the 2026 Fair
Take Saturday, July 25, 2026, from that year’s layers alone. Start among the exhibit buildings and barns while the 4-H shows work through their classes, break for the car show and daily live music, and give the afternoon to the returned midway, where Rainier Amusements’ rides and games ran under the Neon Nights & Carnival Lights theme. Stay for the Market Animal Auction at 4:00 p.m., the 4-H schedule’s closing fixture, and let the evening wind down rather than expecting the Friday headliner, who belonged to the night before.
Events and Fairs That Are Not This One
The same grounds host plenty that is not the county fair: the Astoria Warrenton Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival, the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival and Clash of the Cowboys, a bulls, broncs and barrels event on Saturday, November 14 with adult admission of twenty-five dollars advance and thirty dollars on the day, in a county vendor document, use the Fair & Expo without becoming fair programme, as do the grounds’ rodeos, swap meets and bazaars. The Astoria Regatta, beside which the first fair ran in 1905, keeps its own dates. Tillamook, Columbia, Lincoln and Washington counties hold separate fairs, as does the Oregon State Fair; a Tillamook County Creamery Association name among 2026 sponsors is sponsorship only, Clatsop 4-H horse gaming qualifications in neighbouring counties are an Extension logistics note, not a change of host, and resale listings evidence nothing.
Before You Go
- Confirm the span for your year; five days in 2024, four in 2025 and 2026
- Budget admission from that year’s own figures, never treating the 2025 ladder as a later price list
- Buy headline concert tickets early where presale tiers exist; fair-week rises may be unquantified
- Park in the lower field, which the 2026 layers describe as free
- Exhibitors, meet your year’s camping form deadline; the 2026 guide charged a late fee after July 6
- Leave public camping out of the plan; fair-week camping at the grounds is exhibitor-only
- Keep the November bull-riding event and the seafood festival in their own calendars
Beyond the Fairgrounds
The fair’s own description gives the grounds a setting worth the trip: 109 verdant acres overlooking the Walluski River. Astoria sits three miles away by that same description, so fair days pair naturally with time in the seat town; the county’s other named places, Warrenton, Seaside, Gearhart and Cannon Beach, appear in this record as communities, not fair hosts.
Why This Fair Carries Weight in Its County
A fair whose themes have showcased timber and agriculture, and whose barns fill with 4-H and FFA livestock, works as an annual argument for the county’s working landscape. A citizen board appointed by elected commissioners, charged under Oregon law, runs both an expo venue and the fair itself. The continuity claimed is the fair’s own, a first running in 1905 and a present grounds in constant use since August 1995.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly is the fair held?
At the Clatsop County Fair & Expo grounds, 92937 Walluski Loop, Astoria, OR 97103. The About text sets them on 109 verdant acres overlooking the Walluski River, three miles from Astoria, the two statements standing together as printed. Astoria is county seat and host.
What does admission cost?
Only the 2025 ladder is published, in that year’s exhibitor camping form: children six and under free; ten dollars ages seven to fifty-four; five dollars seniors fifty-five and over; a forty-dollar family cap; thirty-five dollars for the Booster Band season pass, entrance all days included. The 2026 layers confirm the cap and pass exist but print no figures; no 2024 gate price appears at all.
Can visitors camp at the grounds during the fair?
It is reserved for exhibitors with projects entered, plus programme staff, superintendents and leaders, at prices that conflict by year, sixteen dollars and fifty-eight cents a night in the 2025 form against sixteen dollars and eighty-eight cents in the 2026 Extension guide, unmerged. Vendor and general event camping are separate offers, none of the three public.
Who runs the fair, and how far back does it go?
The Clatsop County Fair Board runs it, a seven-member citizen committee appointed to three-year terms by the Board of Commissioners and charged by Oregon law with managing the grounds and the annual fair. Extension, 4-H and FFA support without organising. Its own history page dates the first fair to 1905, in downtown Astoria, and the move to the present grounds to August 1995.
What to Expect From the Next Clatsop County Oregon Fair Festival
How often is Clatsop County Oregon Fair Festival held?
Once a year: the site calls it the annual Clatsop County Fair, with documented editions standing separately for 2024, 2025 and 2026, each in late July.
When is the next Clatsop County Oregon Fair Festival?
The fair site’s calendar text prints July 28 to 31 beside the words 2027 Fair, a future-edition layer recorded as found and never used to date any other year.
Will the dates change?
Change is the documented pattern: five days, July 30 to August 3, in 2024; four days, July 30 to August 2, in 2025; four days, July 22 to 25, in 2026. Read each year’s span off its own layers.
The fair rewards readers who keep its years apart: board-run, river-grounded, documented from 1905, its carnival returned only in 2026, and its prices exist only where a document prints them.
