Clearfield County Pennsylvania Fair Festival

For nine days in mid-July, the borough of Clearfield hosts the Clearfield County Fair at its driving park, livestock barns, harness racing, stage shows and grandstand concerts that the fair’s manager describes as drawing between 100,000 and 120,000 visitors a year. That figure is the manager’s own statement in his layer, not a counted total. Clearfield is both the county seat of Clearfield County and the fair’s host, two roles proved separately, neither inferred from the other.

The modern edition is a nine-day fair: the manager’s account of 2024 says the fair moved to July 12 to 20 that year and expanded to nine days, replacing a seven-day run in late July and early August.

About the Fair

The board that runs this fair appears, across two decades of layers, under six printed names: the Clearfield County Fair and Park Board, the Clearfield County Fair & Park Board, the short forms Fair and Park Board and Fair & Park Board, the Clearfield County Fair Board in the 2025 and 2026 parade layers, and the Clearfield Volunteer Fire Department Fair and Park Board in 2006 and 2007 governance layers. No layer dates a change between forms, so they stand unmerged; a 2025 layer’s count of eighteen board members belongs to that layer, not to any name.

The Clearfield Agricultural Society belongs to the beginnings, never to present management, and Penn State Extension and 4-H run only the youth exhibitor programme. The midway changes hands across the layers — James E. Strates Shows historically from 1937, C & L Shows in the 2022 book, Powers & Thomas in some 2024 to 2026 layers and Thomas and Powers, the same names reversed, in others — all providers, never the organiser. Manager Greg Hallstrom, spelt Hallstorm in one 2023 layer, is a person, not an organisation.

The grounds answer to several printed names — Clearfield County Fairgrounds, Clearfield County Driving Park, the short form Driving Park, and Clearfield County Park in one concert-listing layer — and its Grove Stage is printed both David H. Litz and, in older premium-book layers, David E. Litz.

For a useful comparison, see the Clarion County Pennsylvania Fair Festival for another county festival.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Event	Clearfield County Fair, an annual county fair in Clearfield, Pennsylvania
County seat	Clearfield borough, which also hosts the fair
Grounds	Clearfield County Driving Park, also printed Clearfield County Fairgrounds
Published address forms	5615 Park Street; 5616 Park Street; 5215 Park Drive, unmerged
Organiser	The fair and park board, in six unmerged name forms
Modern span	Nine days in mid-July since the 2024 format move
Gate admission	Five dollars per person, gate only, in the 2023 to 2025 layers
Parking	Five dollars in the 2024 and 2025 layers; four dollars in 2019 and 2022
Camping	Park campground documented, no published rate; fair-week terms unverified

From a Society’s Beginnings to the Driving Park

This fair’s beginnings cannot honestly be given as one year, because its own record keeps two datings side by side. One history layer dates the fair back more than 160 years to 1852, beginning under the original name Clearfield County Fair and Industrial Exhibition with the organization of the Clearfield Agricultural Society. A visitors-guide timeline instead records the first fair in October 1860; a further timeline item lists the steps separately — society organized in 1852, first fair on October 16, 17 and 18, 1860, on Old Town Road. The datings stand unmerged, each in its layer.

The timeline explains how Clearfield became the site: the town out-raised Curwensville, five hundred ten dollars against four hundred eighty-eight dollars and fifty cents. Curwensville is the defeated rival of 1860, never a modern host, and DuBois, the county’s largest city, is neither seat nor host in any layer.

The timeline moves the fair to the Driving Park in 1870, sends it to Grampian Park in 1895 and 1896 only, and brings it back in 1897. Held irregularly in the early 1900s, the fair was suspended in 1935 as the Great Depression bit and was not held in 1944 or 1945 either, owing to the Second World War. No continuous run can be printed across those documented breaks.

The Clearfield Volunteer Fire Department took over management in 1938, organized the first firemen’s parade, and in the late 1970s the board took over the grounds’ management. The edition numbers — 160th in 2020, 162nd in 2023, 163rd in 2024, 164th in 2025, 165th in 2026, 166th for 2027 — are billing only: they agree with neither dating once the suspensions are counted, and no founding year is computed from them.

What to Expect

Grandstand Nights, Year by Year

Each year’s grandstand bill belongs to that year alone. In 2023 the fair’s own ticket order form priced Tesla’s Wednesday concert at thirty-five dollars and the Thursday Truck & Tractor Pull at fifteen dollars, its parade and harness racing free in the grandstand, with Granger Smith and Cooper Alan on the Friday and Ted Nugent on the Saturday, the concerts at 8 p.m. In 2024 Warren Zeiders played the opening Friday, Rick Springfield the second Friday and Riley Green the closing Saturday. In 2025 Zach Top played the Sunday, Tucker Wetmore and Corey Kent the Friday, and a new rodeo arrived on the Wednesday. No 2026 concert bill was extracted, and none is invented here.

The Grove Stage and the Free Grounds Acts

The board’s 2023 announcement folded daily Grove Stage and Expo II Plaza entertainment into the gate itself, and the 2024 premium book lists free grounds acts in Sea Lion Splash, The Little Mermen and the magic of Clive Allen and Heather Lynn. The 2025 preview adds a Corner Concert Series on the Litz Grove Stage for Preview Day and Ryan Pelton’s Elvis tribute on the Saturday. For 2026, the fragments hold only a Pennsylvania Blue Ribbon Beard Championship on the Grove Stage on July 18, in America 250 planning layers.

Racing, Pulls and the Monday Parade

Harness racing on the half-mile track is fenced to its years: the Tuesday in 2023, a Derby Hat Day card on the Tuesday in 2024, and a Saturday-to-Tuesday run in 2025, Derby Hat Day falling on the Tuesday Kids’ Day. The parade keeps its own annual date and never borrows another year’s — Monday July 31 in 2023, Monday July 15 in 2024 and Monday July 14 in 2025, each followed by fireworks, and Monday July 20 in 2026, routed in the board’s lineup down Market Street and Weaver Street to the grandstand.

Livestock, Exhibits and the Queen Contest

The board’s 2023 announcement itemizes the gate’s contents that year: livestock exhibits, commercial and non-commercial vendors, art and photography exhibits, needlework and baked-goods exhibits and agricultural exhibits. The Fair Queen Contest holds its day within its edition only — Sunday July 30 in 2023, Sunday July 14 in 2024 as the Queen Competition, and the Friday in 2025, moved to the main stage on Preview Day in the preview layer.

Planning Your Visit

Dates First: Two Calendars, Never Blended

The 2023 edition ran July 30 to August 5 in the fair’s own ticket form and premium book, and the 2022 stands in its layers as a late-July week. The 2024 edition moved to July 12 to 20; the 2025 edition ran July 11 to 19, opening with a Preview Day on the Friday; and the state guide and the board’s parade layer place 2026 at July 17 to 25. The span planned for 2020, August 2 to 8, belongs to an edition that never opened, the board having cancelled the 160th fair over COVID-19 concerns, and no span crosses the 2024 move.

The Gate, Before and After 2023

Admission changed its meaning in 2023; the two systems must never share terms. The fair’s own 2019 premium book set the gate at eight dollars daily for ages four and up, including all-day access to the mechanical carnival rides; the 2022 book repeats it, rides included, and both books price parking at four dollars. Their free windows stand in their layers: seniors sixty-five and over free Tuesdays and Thursdays, ten to six, with proof of age; a Friday Military Day window; and a free Tuesday gate, nine to eleven in the morning, in the 2022 book.

From 2023 the gate fell to five dollars per person and stopped buying rides: no longer pay one price, a separate ride pass is bought inside. The 2023 basis, age four and older, and the 2024 book’s basis, thirty-six inches and over, stand unmerged. The 2024 book opens the gate free on Friday July 12, Preview Day, keeping senior and military windows from noon to six; the 2025 preview prints the same five-dollar gate and parking. Ride money and vendor fees are unverified; premiums exist only as department scales in the books.

The Family Value Pass is six gate passes for the cost of five in the board’s 2023 layer, and six gate-only admissions for twenty-five dollars in the 2024 preview layer; neither is a daily price. For 2026 the fair’s own republished social post offers an Unlimited Access Pass at twenty dollars plus applicable fees, for gate admission only — not parking, rides or main-stage events. The 2026 daily gate is verified nowhere in the record, and the pass must never be printed in its place.

Finding the Grounds

The park’s published address refuses to settle: county-tourism and places layers print 5615 Park Street; a tourism-search layer prints 5616 Park Street; the fair’s own 2025 visitors-guide advertisement prints 5215 Park Drive, all in Clearfield, Pennsylvania 16830. Post Office Box 101, on the 2023 ticket order form, is that form’s mailing address only, never the grounds.

Camping at the Driving Park

The county’s visitors guides list the Driving Park among its campgrounds, with hook-ups and a May to October season, and the fair’s own 2025 advertisement counts a campground among the park’s facilities. No rate is published anywhere and no fetched document states fair-week terms, so fair-week camping is unverified entire; camping wording attached to other events at this park is theirs alone.

A Sample Day at the 2025 Fair

Build the day from the 2025 preview layer alone. Come in on Monday, July 14, under that layer’s five-dollar gate and parking, and spend the morning among the livestock exhibits. Hold the evening for the centrepiece: the parade at 6 p.m. and its fireworks, grandstand seating free once the gate is paid. Harness racing belongs to that edition’s Saturday-to-Tuesday run, so trotters mean another day of the same week.

Two Fairs in One Record

The 2019 and 2022 premium books describe a seven-day, late-July fair whose eight-dollar gate bought the rides; editions from 2024 onward are nine-day, mid-July fairs whose five-dollar gate buys entry and listed grounds entertainment, rides separate. The county’s other fair, at Westover, is a separate event, and Clearfield towns in Utah and Iowa share only a name with this record.

Checklist for Fair Week

• Carry five dollars per person for the gate in the 2023 to 2025 layers; rides cost extra inside.
• Check the edition’s age basis: age four and older in 2023, thirty-six inches and over in 2024, unmerged.
• Note parking by year: four dollars in the 2019 and 2022 books, five dollars in 2024 and 2025.
• Fix the parade date from the edition’s own layer: July 31 in 2023, July 15 in 2024, July 14 in 2025, July 20 in 2026.
• Treat any 2026 daily gate figure as unverified; the twenty-dollar pass is a promotion, not the gate.
• Leave camping plans open: a campground is documented, with no rate and no fair-week terms.
• In 2023, concert tickets bought before July 21 included the gate; later ones did not.

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Clearfield borough’s double identity in this record rests on two different proofs. Its seat status comes from the Commonwealth’s own historical-commission layer, which records Clearfield, the county seat, incorporated as a borough on April 21, 1840; its host status comes from fair documents placing the fair at the Driving Park inside the borough. DuBois is the largest city and nothing more here; Curwensville keeps its 1860 role as the rival that lost. Other events at the Driving Park are separate productions whose terms are not used here.

Why This Fair Matters

Scale is part of the answer, and even the scale keeps its fence: the manager’s figure of 100,000 to 120,000 visitors a year would place this fair among the largest county fairs in Pennsylvania, behind nine days of livestock competition, half-mile harness racing and a parade tradition reaching back to 1938. Its survival through a Depression suspension, a wartime gap and a modern cancellation is recorded break by break, never smoothed into continuity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Clearfield the county seat as well as the fair’s host town?

Yes, on separate evidence: the Commonwealth’s historical-commission layer calls Clearfield the county seat, incorporated on April 21, 1840, and fair documents place the fair at the borough’s Driving Park. DuBois is neither.

Does the five-dollar gate include the carnival rides?

Not from 2023 onward: the board’s announcement that year ended pay one price and moved rides onto a separate pass bought inside, while the eight-dollar gates in the 2019 and 2022 books did include all-day mechanical rides. No ride-pass price for 2023 to 2025 appears in the record, so it is unverified.

In which year was the Clearfield County Fair founded?

The record allows no single answer: one history layer dates the fair to the society’s organization in 1852, the visitors-guide timeline records the first fair in October 1860, and the billings agree with neither once the suspensions are counted.

Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds during fair week?

A campground at the Driving Park is documented in the county guides and in the fair’s own advertising. No rate is published anywhere, and no fetched document states fair-week terms, so fair-week camping is unverified rather than promised.

What to Expect From the Next Clearfield County Pennsylvania Fair Festival

How often is Clearfield County Pennsylvania Fair Festival held?

The fair is annual, in its modern nine-day mid-July shape since the 2024 move, after seven-day weeks on the older calendar and the cancellation of the planned 2020 edition.

When is the next Clearfield County Pennsylvania Fair Festival?

The fair’s own site forward-publishes July 16 to 24, 2027, under its 166th billing, in that layer only.

Will the dates change?

They have changed before — the move and lengthening of 2024, and a 2020 span cancelled before it opened — so the forward-published 2027 span, like every later one, stands by its own documents.

This is, on its own record, a nine-day July fair run by a board whose name will not sit still, on grounds whose address will not sit still either. What the record settles — seat, host, grounds, gate and gaps — it settles firmly; the rest stays as open as the documents leave it.