Elk County Pennsylvania Fair Festival
In the second week of August, the Elk County Fair opens its gates in Kersey, in the Pennsylvania Wilds: livestock and horses shown under published animal-health rules, two exhibit halls of baking, needlework, paintings, photography and flowers, carnival rides beside a dirt track, and music from two stages. Families arrive for the queen crowning on Tuesday night, stay for the tractor pulls and the mud bog, and finish with the Saturday derby.
The fair’s own site announces the coming edition: the 52nd Annual Elk County Fair, Tuesday through Saturday, August 11 through 15, 2026. The state agriculture department’s 2026 fair guide lists the same dates, and that agreement matters, because a tourism blog layer prints a longer span running to a sixteenth day. The fair’s own dates govern. What the 2026 edition will contain beyond those dates is not yet published, and no item from an earlier year is promised here as part of 2026.
About the Fair
The Elk County Fair is the agricultural county fair of Elk County, Pennsylvania. Its published name forms are worth keeping separate: the event name in every layer is the Elk County Fair, while the fair’s own site and its 2026 animal-rules page carry the heading Elk County Fair, Inc. The added word in the queue title is queue wording only.
The first thing a visitor should get right is the distinction between host town and county seat. Ridgway is the county seat of Elk County, verified in the state archives county courthouses table and in the county’s own history, which records the seat offer accepted on December 16, 1844. Ridgway does not host this fair; the fairgrounds are in Kersey, a different Elk County community, and no Ridgway venue or event ground belongs to this title. Local press datelines its fair coverage from Kersey and places the fair at the Elk County Fairgrounds on Dietz Road in Kersey.
The grounds are compact. Exhibit Halls Number 1 and Number 2 stand connected by an interior walkway, and the Star Pavilion, the fair office, the horse barn, the 4-H horse ring, the Al Dietz Track, the George A. Swanson Stage and the Nava Stage complete the footprint. Six stalls were added to the horse barn in the 2025 plans.
For a useful comparison, see the Dauphin County Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Farm Show Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Fact |
| Event | Elk County Fair, the agricultural county fair of Elk County, Pennsylvania |
| Host town | Kersey, at the Elk County Fairgrounds on Dietz Road |
| Grounds address | 316 Dietz Road, Kersey, Pennsylvania |
| County seat | Ridgway, which does not host the fair |
| Organiser | Elk County Fair, Inc., and the Elk County Fair Board in its published forms |
| Documented 2026 span | Tuesday through Saturday, August 11 through 15, 2026, billed the 52nd Annual |
| Gate admission | No 2026 price published; ten dollars per person in 2023 and 2024; 2025 general price unpublished |
| Parking | No parking price published in any fair-side layer |
| Camping | No fair camping offer published in any fair-side layer |
| Programme | 2026 programme not yet published; 2025 is the fullest documented year |
How the Fair Grew
No source states a first-edition year or a founding year for this fair, and none is computed here. The edition billings are reported as billings only: the 52nd Annual in 2026 on the fair’s own site, the 50th annual in 2024 in local press, and the 42nd annual in 2016 in a report on new management. Subtracting backwards from any of those numbers to invent a founding year would be fabrication. The county’s own history is county history, not fair history: the county was created in 1843 and Ridgway was selected as the seat in 1844.
What the record does document is steady growth. Local press colour in 2019 observed that for more than four decades the fair had been known for promoting farming and agriculture through its dairy booths and livestock barns, and that Senior Citizen Night had been added to the schedule in 2018. The 2016 layer records a new executive board and a stated ten-year plan, and the years since have brought paving, a fair-office renovation, a metal roof, concrete floor and LED lighting for the Star Pavilion, the walkway joining the two exhibit halls, and new horse-barn stalls.
People appear only in their fenced layers: Jeremy Dorsey as Fair Board President in the 2023 through 2025 layers, Rita Gerber as treasurer in a 2019 layer, and Warren Stewart and Jessi Collar as board president and fair manager in the 2016 new-management layer only. Organiser forms stand unmerged: Elk County Fair, Inc. on the fair’s own site and legal-nonprofit form, and the Elk County Fair Board, the Elk County Fair Board of Directors and the ECF Board in local-press forms for the same body. An older filing form under the state association of county fairs is a filing layer, never a second organiser. The Elk County Farm Bureau is separate: it runs a booth and an ice-cream-eating contest at the fair, and its president in a 2019 layer is a Farm Bureau person only.
What to Expect
Livestock and the Exhibit Halls
Livestock and horse exhibition sit at the centre of the fair, shown under published animal-health rules, and the 2026 animal-rules page on the fair’s own site is a live operating layer. Around the barns, the exhibit halls carry the quieter competitions: baking, needlework, paintings, photography and flowers. The 2025 baking contests ran across the week: best dessert on Tuesday, homemade salsa on Wednesday, chocolate cake and junior baking on Thursday, blue-ribbon apple pie on Friday and angel food cake on Saturday.
Rides and the Track
Carnival rides run through fair week; in 2025 they were provided by American Amusement Rentals, weekdays five in the evening until ten at night, Saturday from noon until eleven. The Al Dietz Track carries the louder half: Power Wheels races and horse pulls, new in 2025, on Wednesday; Keystone Mini Rod Tractor Pulls on Thursday; the mud bog on Friday; and the Demolition Derby by Head-on Derby Promotions at seven on Saturday evening. A Saturday horse show from nine anchors the final day, alongside a sensory time from one to three.
Music on Two Stages
Music here is local and regional by design; the board president said in 2025 that it is provided by folks local to the region because the fair loves to showcase the talent in the area. The 2025 bill was Elvis by Scott Allegretto on Tuesday, Cousin Eddie Jo on Thursday, Midnight Revival on Friday on the Nava Stage, and 3 Shots Hot on Saturday. The 2024 bill differed: Night Train on Friday, and Grace Notes Studio Recording Artists from noon until four followed by Midnight Revival at six on Saturday. The same names recur in different slots in different years, so no lineup is presented as a standing one, and the 2026 bill is not yet published.
Food and Family Contests
Food is fair food in the familiar sense, sold by vendors and by the Farm Bureau booth, with the ice-cream-eating contest on Saturday as the week’s most cheerful competition. Charlie the Jester and mobile-arts live glassblowing entertained daily in 2025, and pig races ran through the week. In 2025 the opening ceremony and queen crowning took place at six on Tuesday evening on the George A. Swanson Stage, followed by fireworks at nine thirty.
Planning Your Visit
Getting There
Drive to Kersey and to 316 Dietz Road, where the fairgrounds stand. Older guides from 2016 through 2019 print the same grounds with a variant spelling, Deitz Road, recorded here only as a variant of the same address. An older nonprofit record gives a mailing form, PO Box 225 in Kersey, mailing only. Fox Township is geographic context for Kersey only, not part of the fair’s own published address.
Admission and What It Costs
Admission must be stated year by year, because the record is uneven. The fair’s own 2026 announcement publishes dates only and no price, so no 2026 admission figure is printed here. For 2025, no general-admission figure is stated in the schedule fetched, and the 2024 figure is never carried forward into 2025 copy. The documented 2025 price facts are two special nights only: Senior Citizen Night on Tuesday, August 5, at five dollars for any adult over 65, and Veterans Night on Thursday, August 7, with free entry for all veterans.
Earlier years are firmer. In 2024, general admission was ten dollars per person, as the fair’s own schedule reproduced in the 2024 Summer Fun Guide shows. In 2023, general admission was again ten dollars per person, with Family Fun Night on Wednesday at five dollars per person and Veteran Night on Thursday with free entry for all veterans. In 2022, a state tourism layer records general admission of eight dollars with children under four free.
Parking, Camping and Practical Notes
No parking price is published in any fair-side layer fetched, and this article asserts none. What is documented is parking’s existence and improvement only: paved parking areas exist at the grounds, including the newly paved area around Exhibit Hall Number 1. No fee, lot name, shuttle or capacity claim is documented.
No fair-side camping term exists in any source searched: not on the fair’s own site, not in its animal-rules or exhibitor layers, not in the state fair guide layer, and not in the local-press schedule layers. No tent, RV, camper, hookup or overnight term is published for this fair, so no fair camping offer is published. Nearby campgrounds around Kersey and Benezette are separate businesses, never this fair’s camping.
Fair hours follow the same year-by-year rule. In 2025 the fair was open Tuesday through Friday from four until ten in the evening, with rides from five until ten, and on Saturday the horse show began at nine in the morning with rides from noon until eleven at night. Hours for 2026 are not yet published.
A Sample Day at the Fair
A visitor aiming at the fullest documented year, 2025, could plan a Saturday like this: the horse show from nine in the morning, the exhibit halls, the sensory time from one until three, the Farm Bureau ice-cream-eating contest, rides as the evening builds, and the Demolition Derby at seven. A Tuesday visit in 2025 would have run differently: the queen crowning at six on the George A. Swanson Stage, fireworks at nine thirty, and the week’s first baking contest, best dessert, in the halls.
A Fair Beside Its Namesakes
A fair with a plain county name collects namesakes. The Elk County Fair in Kansas, at Howard, is a different state’s county fair, and none of its dates, entry systems, 4-H rules or prices cross into this article. The Elko County Fair in Nevada differs by a single letter and holds a Labor Day fair with horse racing; its admissions and history contribute nothing here, and its near-identical web address is the worst merge trap for this title. The Erie County Fair at Hamburg, New York, is likewise separate and contributes nothing. Ridgway’s other gatherings belong to Ridgway alone, and the region’s elk-viewing attractions around Benezette are a different draw: no source places free-roaming elk at the fairgrounds as a fair feature. The comparison that matters is the fair against itself across its documented years, where the music slots shift and the track programme keeps its shape.
Checklist for Fair Week
- Confirm the dates: Tuesday through Saturday, August 11 through 15, 2026, on the fair’s own announcement
- Head for Kersey and 316 Dietz Road, not Ridgway, the county seat only
- Budget from the fenced figures only: no 2026 admission price published
- Remember the 2025 special nights: Senior Citizen Night at five dollars for adults over 65, Veterans Night free for veterans
- Plan track evenings around tractor pulls, mud bog and the Saturday demolition derby
- Do not plan on fair camping: no fair camping offer is published
- Watch for the 2026 programme announcement
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Kersey sits in the Pennsylvania Wilds, and the fair’s week is a good reason to be in Elk County in August, but the fair itself is the destination. The county seat, Ridgway, is worth a visit on its own terms, with its own gatherings and history, none of which belongs to the fair.
Why the Fair Matters
A county fair like this one matters because it is where a county shows itself to itself. The livestock barns and the exhibit halls are not entertainment dressed as agriculture; they are agriculture, judged and displayed by its practitioners. The baking contests, the needlework, the photography and the flowers are the same kind of showing in a quieter key. The track events and the midway give the week its noise, and the queen court gives it a face. The fair has lasted more than four decades doing the same things well and improving its grounds a little each year, and its significance lies in the run of editions, year after year, in the same town, on the same road, under the same plain name.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Elk County Fair held?
The fair is held at the Elk County Fairgrounds on Dietz Road in Kersey, at 316 Dietz Road, Kersey, Pennsylvania. Ridgway is the county seat but does not host the fair.
What does admission cost?
Admission varies by edition. No 2026 admission price is published. In 2025 the general price is unpublished, with only two special nights documented: Senior Citizen Night at five dollars for adults over 65 and Veterans Night with free entry for veterans. In 2024 and 2023 general admission was ten dollars per person; in 2022 it was eight dollars with children under four free.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?
No fair camping offer is published. No fair-side layer contains any tent, RV, camper, hookup or overnight term for this fair.
Is the 2026 programme published yet?
Not yet. The fair’s own site announces the 52nd Annual Elk County Fair for August 11 through 15, 2026, and says more details will follow.
What to Expect From the Next Elk County Pennsylvania Fair Festival
How often is Elk County Pennsylvania Fair Festival held?
The fair is an annual August event, Tuesday through Saturday: August 11 through 15 in 2026, August 5 through 9 in 2025, August 6 through 10 in 2024, and August 8 through 12 in 2023.
When is the next Elk County Pennsylvania Fair Festival?
The next edition announced on the fair’s own site is the 52nd Annual Elk County Fair, Tuesday through Saturday, August 11 through 15, 2026, at the fairgrounds in Kersey.
Will the dates change?
The dates for each edition are published by the fair itself, and they have moved within August from year to year, so visitors should confirm the announced span rather than assume an earlier year’s dates will repeat.
The Elk County Fair does not ask to be the biggest fair in Pennsylvania. It asks only to be itself for five days in August: the barns and the halls, the track and the midway, the queen crowned on Tuesday night and the derby on Saturday night, in Kersey.
