Clinton County Pennsylvania Fair Festival
Late in July, when summer turns toward August in north-central Pennsylvania, the Clinton County Fair opens for a week at Mackeyville. The fairgrounds in Lamar Township fill with livestock barns, resident exhibits, 4-H and FFA projects, food vendors and carnival rides, while music rises from two stages and engines sound from the speedway and the pulling track.
About the Fair
The Clinton County Fair is the annual agricultural fair of Clinton County, Pennsylvania, held for about a week straddling the end of July and the start of August. Its home is the Clinton County Fairgrounds at Mackeyville, on a permanent site in Lamar Township. The fair’s own homepage bills the grounds with the phrase Celebrating 53 Years, and fair-side reportage bills the 2025 edition as the 52nd Fair and the 2026 edition as the 53rd Fair. Those billings are reported here as billings only, never used to calculate a founding year, and they do not alter the fair’s own history, which dates the first fair of the present organisation to August 1973.
Two stages carry the music, the Main Stage and the Auxiliary Stage, and the grounds also hold the Lower Horse Arena, the Pulling Track and the Clinton County Speedway, a separate year-round tenant operation, not the fair itself. The fair is organised by the Clinton County Fair Association, in the fair’s own history and in fair-side reportage. A nonprofit-directory layer prints a second form, Clinton County Fair Association Inc, standing in its own layer only, and the two forms are never merged here into a single settled legal name. Penn State Extension, 4-H and FFA run exhibitor programmes; they are not the organiser, and neither is the speedway, the midway provider or any sponsor.
Quick Facts
| Point | What the record shows |
| Event | Clinton County Fair, a week-long agricultural fair |
| Host town | Mackeyville, at the Clinton County Fairgrounds in Lamar Township |
| County seat | Lock Haven, which does not host the fair |
| Organiser | Clinton County Fair Association, in its published forms |
| Standing season | Late July into early August, about a week |
| Documented spans | July 26 to August 2, 2025; August 1 to 8, 2026 |
| Gate admission | Five dollars per person in the 2026 report; children 12 and under free |
| Parking | Two dollars per vehicle additional in the 2026 report |
| Camping | No fair-side camping rate or fair-week term published |
From a Two-Day Gathering to a Permanent Fairgrounds
The fair’s own history begins with a meeting, not a fairground. Citizens met in 1971 and early 1972 at Great Island Presbyterian Church to explore whether Clinton County could support an agriculture, 4-H and commercial fair. A Penn State Extension county agent was among the feasibility group, and the incorporated 4-H Leaders Organization organised the first event. That first Clinton County Fair and Round-up was held for two days in August 1973 on the Chambers family property near Pine Creek. The historical name belongs to that first fair only; it is never the modern event’s name.
The fair moved the following year. The 1974 fair, held August 7 to 10, 1974, took place at Mill Hall Park, where the fair stayed until 1979. It then used a leased site in Castanea Township and, from 1980, land near the Castanea Fire Hall. The Clinton County Fair Association was formed and incorporated during this period, and in December 1983 it purchased a 66-acre Lamar Township site for seventy-five thousand dollars, under the auspices of the Clinton County Commissioners, as the permanent grounds.
For a useful comparison, see the Clearfield County Pennsylvania Fair Festival for another county festival.
The same history records an earlier, separate fair, discontinued in the late 1940s or early 1950s, together with pre-1973 4-H round-ups at the old racetrack and livestock auction barns near Mill Hall. That predecessor differs from the fair founded in 1973, and its discontinuation says nothing about the modern fair, current and recurring in 2025 and 2026. Clinton County itself was created in 1839, a county date, never the fair’s date. Lock Haven is the county seat, verified independently from the Pennsylvania State Archives county courthouses table, which pairs Clinton County with Lock Haven and dates the county to June 21, 1839; Lock Haven does not host the fair, and Lock Haven addresses are never the fairgrounds address. The host forms are Mackeyville in reportage, Mill Hall in postal and places layers, and Lamar Township as the permanent site’s municipality. The places layer gives 98 Racetrack Road, Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, standing in its own layer, never silently rewritten as a Mackeyville street address.
What to Expect
Agriculture and Resident Exhibits
The exhibit halls and barns are the fair’s working centre. Clinton County resident exhibits stand beside 4-H and FFA projects, and the premium book governs the contests, including the Bale Decorating Contest in Department 22 of the fair’s own 2026 premium book, whose registration deadline in that document was July 20, 2026. Livestock, farm displays and home exhibits show the county’s agriculture directly.
Stages and Music
Music runs through the week on the Main Stage and the Auxiliary Stage, which are not interchangeable, and the programme changes yearly. In 2025, reportage billed 7 Bridges, The Ultimate Eagles Experience, as the Main Stage headliner on Saturday, August 2; Jack and Davis Reid on Monday, July 28; Bryan Clark in his Sinatra 2 Soul tribute with Flashback on Tuesday, July 29; Erich Cawalla and the Uptown Band on Wednesday, July 30; and the Dumm Duo, beside a motorcycle thrill show, dirt drag racing, bull riding and Figure 8 and demolition derby events. In 2026, reportage billed Music Box; Over the Influence on the Auxiliary Stage on Thursday, August 6; Rick K. Rock and Roll Review on the Main Stage on Friday, August 7; and Wayne and Alyssa Brewer in their Forever George and Tammy tribute with Kidz at Heart on Saturday, August 8. No act in either year is carried into the other year’s programme.
Speed, Pulls and the Arena
The motor programme is the fair’s loudest corner. The Clinton County Speedway hosts race nights and derby events during fair week, the Pulling Track hosts drag racing and pulls, and the Lower Horse Arena hosts bull riding. These are distinct spaces with distinct bills. In 2026, the Speedway hosted the Figure Eight and Demolition Derby on opening day, August 1, a four-division race night on Tuesday, August 4, and a five-division race night on Friday, August 7, while KOI Drag Racing ran on the Pulling Track on Monday, August 3, and Bullride Mania filled the Lower Horse Arena on Thursday, August 6. Race nights outside fair week are separate events, contributing no fact to the fair’s programme.
Planning Your Visit
Getting There and Finding the Grounds
The fairgrounds are at Mackeyville, in Lamar Township; navigate by the host town and the fairgrounds name rather than by any single address form. The reportage form is Mackeyville, the postal and places form is Mill Hall, and the municipality is Lamar Township. Fair-office opening days in the 2026 report, from July 26, 2026, are office mechanics, never added public fair days, and the public span for 2026 remains August 1 to 8.
Admission, Parking and Ticketed Events
Admission is documented only for 2026, and only that year’s ladder is printed here. In the fair-side report published July 25, 2026, daily gate admission during fair week is five dollars per person, starting at seven in the morning on weekends and after three in the afternoon during the week, and children ages 12 and under are admitted free. Discounted advance admission passes were sold through July 31, but their price is unverified, and no figure is printed for it. No 2025 gate figure was extracted, so the 2025 gate is unverified entire and must never be filled from 2026. Parking is also documented for 2026 only: an additional two dollars per vehicle in the same report, with advance parking passes sold through July 31 at an unverified price.
Three 2026 event tickets stand apart from the gate and from parking, and they are never gate money. Bullride Mania, on Thursday, August 6, 2026, in the Lower Horse Arena, cost ten dollars in advance through July 31 and fifteen dollars at the gate on the day. The Figure Eight and Demolition Derby, on opening day, August 1, 2026, at the Speedway, cost ten dollars, with children 12 and under free. KOI Drag Racing, on Monday, August 3, 2026, on the Pulling Track, charged no admission. Each figure belongs to its own event in 2026, and none of them is a general gate price.
Camping and Lodging Notes
No fair-side camping rate or fair-week camping term exists in the record fetched, and this article prints none. The fair’s own facilities document labels camping areas and 4-H camping areas on the grounds layout, but that layout publishes no rate, no hookup term and no fair-week rule, so fair camping money and terms are unverified entire. That absence is recorded as an absence, not as a prohibition and not as an offer.
A Sample Saturday
A 2026 Saturday: Spend the late morning among the barns and exhibits. Take the middle of the day for the vendors and the midway. On Saturday, August 8, 2026, the final day of the 2026 span, the reportage bills Wayne and Alyssa Brewer, in their Forever George and Tammy tribute, together with Kidz at Heart. That Saturday bill belongs to 2026 alone.
How This Fair Compares With Its Own Past
The modern fair is larger than the two-day gathering of August 1973, but the same organisation’s fair, grown rather than replaced. The first fair lasted two days near Pine Creek; the 1974 fair lasted four days at Mill Hall Park. The modern fair lasts about a week on a 66-acre permanent site bought in December 1983. The documented spans show the same season: the 2025 edition ran July 26 to August 2, 2025, and the 2026 edition ran August 1 to 8, 2026.
Other states also have fairs called the Clinton County Fair, and they are a standing trap for this title. The fairs of Wilmington in Ohio, Plattsburgh in New York, DeWitt in Iowa, Carlyle in Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan are separate events, each with its own grounds, organiser, dates and prices, and none of their facts belongs here. Their names match, and nothing else does. No date, price, programme item or camping term from any of those fairs is printed in this article.
Checklist for Fair Week
- Plan around one year’s span only: July 26 to August 2, 2025, or August 1 to 8, 2026, never a blend of the two.
- Navigate by Mackeyville and the fairgrounds name; the Mill Hall postal form is a different layer for the same grounds.
- Budget for the 2026 gate at five dollars per person, children 12 and under free, and parking at two dollars per vehicle additional.
- Keep arena and speedway tickets separate from the gate: the 2026 Bullride Mania and derby tickets are their own prices, and the 2026 drag racing charged no admission.
- Do not assume fair-week camping: no fair-side rate or term is published.
- Check the year’s own stage billing before travelling for an act: no act is carried across years.
- Remember Lock Haven is the county seat, not the host, and its addresses are never the fairgrounds address.
- Leave the other states’ Clinton County fairs out of every plan.
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Mackeyville and the surrounding Lamar Township countryside are the fair’s immediate setting. Lock Haven, the county seat, is a separate town, worth knowing as the seat rather than confusing it with the host.
Why the Fair Matters
The Clinton County Fair matters because it gives the county’s agriculture a public week. Resident exhibits, 4-H and FFA projects and livestock barns are the programme’s centre, letting the county see its own farm work gathered in one place. A fair begun in 1971 meetings and a two-day gathering in 1973, with its own ground bought in 1983, now holds a week of exhibits, races, concerts and arena events without losing that centre.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Clinton County Fair held?
The fair is held at the Clinton County Fairgrounds at Mackeyville, on a permanent site in Lamar Township. Reportage gives Mackeyville as the host form, postal and places layers give a Mill Hall form, and Lamar Township is the permanent site’s municipality. Those forms stand unmerged as layers for one fairgrounds, and Lock Haven, the county seat, does not host the fair.
What does the gate admission cost?
Only the 2026 ladder is documented in a fair-side layer. In the fair-side report published July 25, 2026, daily gate admission during fair week is five dollars per person, starting at seven in the morning on weekends and after three in the afternoon during the week, and children ages 12 and under are admitted free. Parking in the same report is an additional two dollars per vehicle. The 2025 gate and 2026 advance-pass prices are unverified, so no figure is printed for either.
Is camping available on the fairgrounds?
No fair-side camping rate or fair-week camping term is published in the record fetched. The fair’s own facilities document labels camping areas and 4-H camping areas on the grounds layout, but it publishes no rate, no hookup term and no fair-week rule. Fair camping money and terms are therefore unverified entire.
What happened to the earlier Clinton County fair?
The fair’s own history records a former Clinton County fair that was discontinued in the late 1940s or early 1950s, together with pre-1973 4-H round-ups near Mill Hall. That earlier fair is a different fair from the modern one, which began with a two-day gathering in August 1973 and bought its permanent Lamar Township site in December 1983. The earlier discontinuation is never evidence that the modern fair has ended, and the two histories are never merged.
What to Expect From the Next Clinton County Pennsylvania Fair Festival
How often is Clinton County Pennsylvania Fair Festival held?
The Clinton County Fair is an annual fair, held for about a week in late July into early August. The documented editions in the record are the 52nd Fair, July 26 to August 2, 2025, and the 53rd Fair, August 1 to 8, 2026, both at Mackeyville.
When is the next Clinton County Pennsylvania Fair Festival?
No span beyond the documented 2026 edition is printed here as a settled fact. The most recent documented edition ran August 1 to 8, 2026, and a visitor planning a future visit should check the fair’s own announcement for that year’s span before travelling.
Will the dates change?
The dates have already shifted between the documented editions, from a July 26 opening in 2025 to an August 1 opening in 2026, while staying inside the same late-July into early-August season. Future spans should therefore be checked year by year.
The Clinton County Fair, at Mackeyville, remains a county agricultural fair grown from a two-day gathering in 1973 into a week-long event on its own permanent ground.
