Armstrong County Pennsylvania Dayton Fair Festival

The Dayton Fair is the annual agricultural fair of Dayton borough in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Its mid-August week gathers 4-H and FFA livestock, open-class exhibits, harness racing, grandstand motorsports and concerts, a midway and the Junior Livestock Auction. This Dayton is a small Pennsylvania borough; nothing here belongs to Dayton, Ohio, whose county fair is separate. Armstrong County’s seat is Kittanning, host of the county government, not this fair.

The fair answers to several billings: its site and books say Dayton Fair, and county news layers say The Great Dayton Fair and Great Dayton Fair, the forms standing unmerged.

About the Fair and Who Runs It

No layer names a formal organiser: no association, agricultural society or incorporated body appears as a legal name, and the premium books’ generic references to the Association are a common noun there, never a title. The 2018 book prints President Larry Marshall, Vice President John Strate, Secretary Alice Ferringer and Treasurer Tammy Dalessio, followed by a Board of Managers of nine managers; the 2015 book prints the same structure with Doris Kimmel as secretary, a difference standing unmerged by year.

A 2024 news layer calls Marshall the longtime fair board president, and fair board is the closest organiser-side description in the record, a descriptive phrase, never a legal name. Supporting bodies never organise: the Commissioners’ proclamation of August 11 to 17, 2024 as Great Dayton Fair Week is recognition in its layer; 4-H and FFA are exhibitor programmes; C&L Shows provides the midway in the entertainment-schedule layer; the Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen’s Association publicises the racing; named grandstand promoters present individual shows; day sponsors sponsor days only.

Quick Facts

Detail	What the record shows
Event	Dayton Fair, billed in news layers as The Great Dayton Fair and Great Dayton Fair
Host	Dayton borough, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
County seat	Kittanning, which does not host the fair
Organiser	The fair’s officers and Board of Managers; no formal association name in the record
Grounds	Dayton Fairgrounds; no fair-side street address published
Standing season	Mid-August
Admission	Ten dollars a day in the 2015 and 2019 books and 2022 news; fifteen-dollar pay-one-price in 2023 and 2024 news; fifteen-dollar grandstand wristband in the 2026 schedule
Camping	Camper and tent spaces documented only in the 2015 and 2018 books

Roots in an 1880 Proclamation

2024 layers, reporting an Armstrong County Commissioners’ proclamation, trace the fair’s roots to April 1880, when plans began for a fair in Dayton that took place from September 28 to October 1 that year. The same proclamation declared that the fair celebrates the rich agricultural heritage of Armstrong County and claimed more than 25,000 people each year, that layer’s figure alone.

For a useful comparison, see the Allegheny County Pennsylvania Three Rivers Arts Festival for another county festival.

No fair-side history page or incorporation statement was found in any layer, so any founding date beyond the April 1880 planning and the September 28 to October 1, 1880 fair is unverified. The billings cannot fill the gap: the 2015 book’s 135th Annual and the 2024 layers’ 143rd year do not reconcile or yield an 1880 first fair, and neither may be subtracted into a founding year or used to correct the proclamation.

What to Expect

Harness Racing at Midday

Harness racing’s slot moves by year: noon Wednesday and Thursday in the 2023 entertainment schedule, Wednesday noon and Thursday 5 p.m. in 2024 news layers, Wednesday 11 a.m. and Thursday noon in the fair’s own 2026 schedule.

The 2026 Grandstand, From the Fair’s Own Schedule

Monday brought Rhett Walker’s Christian concert with the Harvest Worship Band; Tuesday belonged to KOI Drag Racing. Wednesday paired 11 a.m. harness racing with a Flying B Rodeo at 7 p.m.; Thursday doubled noon racing with the Junior Livestock Auction at 6:30 p.m. and a 7 Mile Run Concert at 7 p.m. Friday’s Demolition Derby ran at 7 p.m., and Saturday closed with Ag Olympics, a woodcarving auction, hog calling and the Full Pull Productions Tractor Pull and Dayton Fair Truck Pull under Starfire fireworks. The 2026 rodeo is Flying B’s, and no earlier promoter’s name carries into 2026.

Earlier Grandstands, Kept in Their Years

The 2018 book lists Danny Gokey’s Monday Christian concert, truck and tractor pulls, drag races, a demolition derby and a Saturday-night Rafter Z Rodeo followed by fireworks, the Hobbs Sisters before the rodeo. In 2023, tribute bands, a Johnny Cash tribute and Bon Journey, opened Tuesday; Power Pulling Productions presented the Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League on Wednesday; drag racing ran Thursday; the Demolition Derby ran Friday at 7:30 p.m.; and the Hobbs Sisters played Saturday at 5 p.m. That Saturday’s rodeo stands unmerged, Rafter Z with fireworks in the schedule layer and Bull Ride Mania on August 19 in the news layer. 2024 news layers give Tenth Avenue North’s Monday Christian concert, Tuesday KOI Drag Racing, Wednesday Lucas Oil pulling under Power Pulling Productions, a Friday Demolition Derby at 7 p.m. and a Saturday lumberjack competition, woodcarving auction, hog calling and Bullride Mania Rodeo with fireworks.

Livestock, Exhibits and the Midway

4-H and FFA members and open-class exhibitors fill the Livestock Show Complex, the Horse Arena and the Dairy Arena and Dairy Barn, and the Main Exhibit Building takes the exhibits. The Junior Livestock Auction anchors Thursday evening, as the Armstrong County 4-H Junior Livestock Sale in the 2018 book and at 6:30 p.m. in the 2023, 2024 and 2026 layers. C&L Shows provides the midway in the entertainment-schedule layer. The fullest daily roster, the 2022 news layer’s, runs from the Kountry K-9 Dog Show and High Flying Pages Thrill Show to the Pennsylvania WoodMobile, from Thursday to Saturday, and Magic Man T.J. Hill.

Planning Your Visit

Dates, Edition by Edition

Each edition keeps its own mid-August span. In 2022 a layer set the fair from Monday, August 15 to Saturday, August 20, with pre-fair events on August 13 and 14. In 2023 the schedule and news forms run Tuesday, August 15 to Saturday, August 19, Sunday, August 20 being release day in the schedule layer. In 2024 news layers opened Fair Week on Sunday, August 11 through Saturday, August 17, the proclaimed span, the antique tractor pull on Saturday, August 10 sitting a day early as a pre-fair event, never a fair day. No 2025 span was found in any layer; the 2026 schedule’s crowning of a 2025 Dayton Fair Queen proves a 2025 edition in that layer’s form, supplying no dates. For 2026 the fair’s schedule receives entries from Friday, August 14 and livestock across August 15 and 16, then declares 1 p.m. on Monday, August 17 the official opening, public days through Saturday, August 22 and release on Sunday, August 23. The state guide’s August 17 to 22 agrees; a secondary guide’s August 16 to 22 stands unmerged beside it.

Admission, Model by Model

The pricing model itself changes across the record. The fair’s 2015 and 2019 books set admission at ten dollars, children two years and under free, free parking and no admission refunds. Their advance tickets, a week pass at forty-eight dollars and a day pass at eight dollars, are advance forms, never the gate price. The 2018 book keeps the ten-dollar form and adds a ten-dollar ride and evening-grandstand pass for pass holders. A 2022 layer repeats the ten-dollar day, children two and younger free, in its own form. News layers then change the model: 2023 reports a fifteen-dollar pay-one-price covering parking, gate admission, all shows and rides, with buy-one-get-one-free admissions on Tuesday and Thursday in that layer; 2024 reports fifteen dollars a day including carnival rides and grandstand entertainment, plus Thursday free grounds admission for seniors over 62 and active-duty and military veterans, grounds-only in that layer. The fair’s 2026 schedule documents a different instrument: a fifteen-dollar wristband for grandstand shows after 3 p.m. daily, and on Thursday, August 20, free grounds-only admission for ages 62 and older, active military and veterans, who must still buy the wristband for evening grandstand activities, rides or other activities requiring admission. No general 2026 gate ladder stands in any layer, so the 2023 and 2024 pay-one-price may not be reprinted as the 2026 gate; an entertainment-schedule footer demanding a ten-dollar stamp for grandstand shows after 3 p.m. stands in its own layer only. The whole 2025 gate is unverified.

Passes, Permits and Premiums

Weekly grounds bracelets cost twenty dollars in the 2015 and 2018 books, and the 2018 book tops up an exhibitor’s pass voucher to that cost where entry fees fall short. Each vendor receives two wristbands under the 2018 pass policy, but no vendor or concession fee is published in any layer: vendor money is unverified. A commercial delivery permit cost fifteen dollars in the 2015 book only. Premiums live in the 2015 book’s class ladders, where youth handcraft divisions pay three dollars, two dollars fifty cents, two dollars, one dollar fifty cents and one dollar; no premium total or modern scale was extracted. Parking carries no price: the books print free parking, and the 2023 ticket included it.

Camping Under the Old Books

Camping is a premium-book system, documented only in the 2015 and 2018 books. Both price a camper or tent space at two hundred dollars per space, with a fifty-dollar rebate tied to the livestock entry’s arrival. Spaces were limited to livestock exhibitors until August 8, 2015 in the first book and August 4, 2018 in the second, the fee was paid in advance with entry fees, and a permit was required. Campers could not enter before Thursday, August 13, 2015 or Thursday, August 9, 2018. Their rules cover bracelets, fires, generators, dogs, trailer sleeping and carts. No camping term appears in the 2026 schedule or any modern layer, so modern terms are unverified and the two-hundred-dollar figure is never a current price.

Finding the Fairgrounds

The grounds are the Dayton Fairgrounds in Dayton borough, in eastern Armstrong County. Its spaces, the Grandstand, the Livestock Show Complex, the Horse Arena, the Dairy Arena and Dairy Barn, the Main Exhibit Building and the Free Stage, are places on the grounds rather than addresses. No fair-side layer prints a street address. Secondary layers conflict and stand unmerged: a fairs guide and a parcel layer give 104 Fairground Road, while a place layer gives 1249 PA-839; neither may be printed as the fair’s official address. The books print officers’ home addresses in towns including Smicksburg, Dayton, Kittanning and Punxsutawney, some from outside Armstrong County; those are person layers, never the venue’s address.

A Week at the 2026 Fair

The weekend before opening is exhibitor country, with the antique tractor pull Saturday and horse and pony pulling, Vespers and the queen crowning Sunday. Monday’s 1 p.m. opening leads to the Rhett Walker concert; Tuesday is KOI Drag Racing; Wednesday pairs racing with the evening Flying B Rodeo; Thursday is for livestock, with the auction at 6:30 p.m. and the 7 Mile Run Concert after it; Friday is the Demolition Derby; and Saturday closes with Ag Olympics, the woodcarving auction, hog calling and the tractor and truck pull under fireworks.

Not the Other Daytons

Dayton, Ohio is a major city in Montgomery County, Ohio, and its Montgomery County Fair is a fully separate event; any source placing this fair in Ohio is a wrong-place source entire. The Great Darke County Fair at Greenville, Ohio shares the word Great and an August span, never evidence of a connection. The Dayton Rodeo at Dayton, Iowa, a professional rodeo over Labor Day weekend at Oak Park, is likewise never this fair’s rodeo. The Ox Hill Community Fair, the Cookport Fair and the Indiana County Fair sit beside Dayton in state fair guides, and adjacency in a guide is never a shared fact: none of their dates, prices or programme items belongs here.

Checklist

• Check the fair’s schedule before travelling; spans and gate models change
• Treat any Dayton, Ohio or Dayton, Iowa listing as a different event
• Ask the Fair Office about camping; the old book terms may not still apply

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Dayton borough is the fair’s setting: a small borough whose fairgrounds hold the spaces the schedules name. The borough hosts the fair, while the county’s government sits at Kittanning, the borough a state layer records as incorporated on April 2, 1821, whose events are not this fair’s.

Why the Dayton Fair Matters

For a borough of a few hundred people, the fair is the county-scale gathering the proclamation layer describes. Its value sits in the working core: generations of 4-H and FFA exhibitors selling on Thursday evening, harness racing kept on the programme across every documented era, and a board of officers and managers running the fair without any formal association name in the record. Its endurance since the proclamation layer’s 1880 first fair needs no history from any larger Dayton.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is this Dayton Fair held?

At the Dayton Fairgrounds in Dayton borough, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Kittanning is the county seat and does not host it, and it is not the Montgomery County Fair at Dayton, Ohio.

What will admission cost?

The fair’s 2026 schedule documents a fifteen-dollar wristband for grandstand shows after 3 p.m. and free grounds-only admission on Thursday, August 20 for ages 62 and older, active military and veterans, with no 2026 gate ladder published. Earlier layers use ten dollars a day and a fifteen-dollar pay-one-price in theirs.

Is there a formal organisation behind the fair?

No formal association, society or incorporated organiser name appears in any layer; the books name the fair’s officers and a Board of Managers, and a 2024 layer calls its president the longtime fair board president.

Can visitors or exhibitors camp at the grounds?

Only as an exhibitor system in the 2015 and 2018 books: camper and tent spaces, limited first to livestock exhibitors, under permit and bracelet rules, at two hundred dollars per space with a fifty-dollar livestock-arrival rebate. No modern camping term is published; those are historical book figures, not a current price.

What to Expect From the Next Armstrong County Pennsylvania Dayton Fair Festival

How often is Armstrong County Pennsylvania Dayton Fair Festival held?

It is an annual event, returning yearly to the Dayton Fairgrounds in mid-August; documented editions run through 2026, though the 2025 edition’s dates could not be documented.

When is the next Armstrong County Pennsylvania Dayton Fair Festival?

The recent edition ran under the fair’s 2026 schedule, which opened Monday, August 17, 2026 and ran through Saturday, August 22. No dates for the following edition appear in any layer gathered here.

Will the dates change?

They have moved before and can move again: the 2024 edition opened on a Sunday, the 2022 and 2026 editions on Mondays after receiving days, and the 2023 span began on a Tuesday. Treat any future span as provisional until the fair publishes that year’s own schedule.

The gate, camper terms and next span stay open in the fair’s documents, and this account leaves them open rather than fill them from Ohio, Iowa or another year’s book.