Mifflin County Pennsylvania Youth Fair Festival
For one August week, a park in Reedsville belongs to the young exhibitors of Mifflin County. The Mifflin County Youth Fair is built around 4-H and FFA livestock and project exhibits, plus an Open Show open to the general public.
About the Mifflin County Youth Fair
The fair describes itself as a showcase of agriculture and agritourism, built around the Mifflin County Youth Fair, the Open Show and the 4-H and FFA programmes together. Penn State Extension runs the county 4-H programme, with ages eight to eighteen and Cloverbuds aged five to seven in Extension’s own layer, and FFA has exhibited alongside 4-H since 1958. Neither Extension, 4-H nor FFA is the organiser.
The organising names stand in their own layers. The About page says, in the present tense, that the Youth Fair Committee sponsors the Youth Fair. The June 16, 2026 livestock-sale letter speaks as the Mifflin County Youth Fair Board. The same letter carries a shorthand letterhead form, the 2026 Mifflin County Fair Board Committee, which belongs inside that letter only and is not evidence of a second, general fair. A tax-directory layer gives a further subordinate form, Pennsylvania State Association Of County Fairs, Mifflin County Youth Fair.
The fair’s home is Youth Park in Reedsville at 110 West Logan Street, Reedsville, Pennsylvania 17084. Mail goes elsewhere: the same homepage footer heads a separate mailing address through Penn State Extension in Lewistown, and that Lewistown address is a mailing and office layer only, never the fairgrounds. Lewistown is the county seat, verified from the Pennsylvania State Archives county courthouses table, which records Mifflin County created on September 19, 1789, and the seat does not host this fair. Reedsville hosts it.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Mifflin County Youth Fair, a youth-centred county fair |
| Host town | Reedsville, Pennsylvania, at Youth Park |
| County seat | Lewistown, Pennsylvania, which does not host the fair |
| Grounds | Youth Park, 110 West Logan Street, Reedsville, Pennsylvania 17084 |
| Organiser | Youth Fair Committee; Mifflin County Youth Fair Board in the 2026 sale letter |
| Season | August, in every documented modern year |
| 2026 span | Public days August 3 to 8, 2026 |
| Admission | Free to attend in the fair’s own FAQ layer; parking is the charge |
| Parking and camping | Parking five dollars per day, weekly-pass price unpublished; camping unverified entire |
History
The fair’s own About and History page states the beginning directly: the Mifflin County Youth Fair was established in 1954 at the Gardenview LES Center as a 4-H Roundup. That direct statement is the only founding statement the record offers, and it stands without any calculation from later edition numbers. The 1955 exhibition moved to the Kishacoquillas public amusement park, under the Mifflin County Junior Chamber of Commerce, known as the Jaycees, the Mifflin County Senior Extension Club and other organisations. The Jaycees sponsored the fair at Kish Park from 1955 to 1963, years when softball tournaments between community clubs stood alongside 4-H exhibits.
For a useful comparison, see the Mercer County Pennsylvania Fair Festival for another county festival.
The move to Reedsville came in the mid-1960s, and the record keeps two statements about it apart. The About page says that in 1964 the A. Reed Hayes family donated an eleven-acre plot in Reedsville, a Youth Park Committee was formed, and the first building was built for the 1964 fair, with the first all-season building following in 1965. The same page carries a volunteer’s recollection that 1966 was the first year the Youth Park was used to hold the fair. The recollection is a recollection layer; it does not displace the page’s own 1964 building and fair statements, and neither form is harmonised here.
The first livestock sale was held in 1966 at the Youth Park, with receipts of five thousand five hundred thirty dollars and thirty-seven cents. The current show barn was built in 1996, and the Open Show committee and certification through the Pennsylvania Association of County Fairs followed in the early 2000s, after a two-year probation programme that made the fair, in its own words, a certified county fair with access to Fair Funding.
Edition numbers are billing only. The June 16, 2026 board letter calls the livestock sale the 72nd Mifflin County Youth Fair Livestock Sale, and the fair’s own homepage bills the coming edition as the 73rd Mifflin County Youth Fair. Neither number is used here to work backwards to a founding year. The history page fetched states no cancellation year for this fair, and no continuous run from 1954 is asserted either. One later milestone sits in a royalty layer: the 2020 county Fair Queen, Grace Van Sciver, won the State Fair Queen title at Hershey.
What to Expect
Livestock and the Show Ring
Livestock showing runs through the public days, and the 2026 schedule gives the week its spine: Goat and Swine Shows on Monday, August 3; Dairy Feeder and Market Lamb Shows on Tuesday; Rabbit and Cavy plus Beef Heifer and Beef Shows on Wednesday; Poultry, Dairy and Cloverbud Livestock Shows on Thursday; and the Pee Wee Dairy Show, Supreme Showman Contest and Tractor Driving Contest on Friday.
Open Show and Project Exhibits
Beside the livestock, the Open Show gives the general public its own exhibiting ground. The 2025 Open Show book carries departments such as Department 17 Floral and Department 24 Antiques, with class premiums of six, five and four dollars and Best of Show awards of twenty-five and fifty dollars in the Antiques and Milk Bottles sections. Those figures are exhibitor prize scales in their book layers only, never admission money and never entry fees. The 2025 book also places a Benefit Auction on the Saturday of fair week at six in the evening in the Green Building, and the 2026 schedule places a Benefit Auction on the Saturday, alongside a Tuesday public auction of Open Show baked goods.
Evenings, Stage Acts and the Rodeo
Evenings belong to contests, music and the arena, and every name below belongs to 2026 alone. The 2026 schedule lists America’s Littlest Stars Baby Parade, a Celebrity Milking Contest, Barnyard Olympics, a Power Wheels Derby, Kiddy and Big Kid Pedal Tractor Pulls, blacksmith demonstrations and line dancing. Stage entertainment for 2026 only was Eric Koval on Monday, Six Whiskey Revival on Tuesday, The Logan Guards Drum and Bugle Corps and Velveeta on Wednesday, Chris Woodward and Shindiggin on Thursday, and Braden McDannell on Friday. The day themes were 2026’s own: Military and First Responders Day on Monday, Lake Auto Day on Tuesday, Big Valley Construction Day on Wednesday, Senior and Wellness Day on Thursday, Children’s Day and 4-H and FFA Alumni on Friday, and America 250, Stars of the Fair, with MKB day, on Saturday. The week ended in the arena with the Mifflin County Youth Fair Rodeo, presented by Rocky Ridge Ranch, on Saturday, August 8, at seven in the evening.
Planning Your Visit
Dates, and Three Different Spans
Three layers give three spans for 2026, and they are kept separate because the record keeps them separate. The fair’s own Schedule page is the governing fair-side layer: set-up on Thursday, July 30; the Fair Queen Contest on Saturday, August 1, at seven in the evening at the Youth Park; livestock check-in, weigh-ins and registrations on Sunday, August 2, from one to six in the afternoon; public fair days from Monday, August 3, through Saturday, August 8. The state agriculture department’s 2026 fair guide gives entry 66 as August 2 to 8, a guide form that brackets the check-in day with the public days. A tourism layer gives August 3 to 9 at Reedsville, a conflicting span that never governs. For 2025, only dated elements are documented: a Queen Pageant on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at Mifflin County Youth Park, with interviews from three in the afternoon, an on-stage portion at seven in the evening and crowning at about eight. No complete fair-side 2025 public span was extracted, so none is asserted.
Free Entry, Paid Parking
The fair’s own FAQ layer answers the money question plainly: attendance is free, and parking is the charge. A 2022 tourism layer rendering the fair free is corroboration only. Parking in that FAQ layer costs five dollars per day, or a weekly pass may be purchased; the weekly-pass price is not published in the layer fetched, so it is unverified and no figure is invented for it. The one ride price in the record is narrow and dated: the 2026 schedule gives a Children’s Day ride special on Friday, August 7, 2026, a fifteen-dollar wristband good for the entire day, during the two to five and six to ten in the evening windows. The FAQ layer separately lists a fifteen-dollar figure whose question text could not be extracted, so that figure is asserted here only as the 2026 schedule’s Children’s Day wristband. Season passes for entry, arena-event tickets and rodeo admission are likewise unpublished, so none is priced here.
Getting There and Staying Over
Navigation should aim for Youth Park in Reedsville, at 110 West Logan Street, not for the Lewistown mailing address, which will take a visitor to an Extension office rather than to the fairgrounds. On camping, the record is empty in a way that matters for planning: nothing on the fair’s homepage, About, Schedule, FAQ or Entertainment pages, in its 2025 Open Show book sections, or in the state guide entry offers, prices or regulates camping at Youth Park for this fair. Camping is therefore unverified entire, and no campsite, recreational vehicle, hookup, fee or exhibitor-camping claim is made. A separate Extension summer camp programme for Mifflin, Juniata and Perry 4-H members is not fair camping and contributes nothing here.
A Sample Day at the Fair
Take Saturday, August 8, 2026 as the model. Arrive for the nine in the morning livestock auction in the Show Ring and follow the sale order from rabbits through dairy feeders, steers, milk, lambs, hogs, poultry and goats. The day ends in the arena with the rodeo presented by Rocky Ridge Ranch at seven in the evening.
How It Compares
The sharpest comparison is also a warning against a false history. County-history layers record a Mifflin County Fair Association organised on November 19, 1874, which bought land east of Lewistown, held a first fair in the fall of 1875, and held fairs annually until 1879, when the society disbanded. That discontinued general fair is a different, defunct event: its Lewistown grounds, track and dates are never this Youth Fair’s history, founding or address, and no continuity between it and the 1954 Youth Fair is asserted. Generic directory and listicle layers placing a current Mifflin County Fair at Lewistown addresses join no fair-side, Extension or state guide record for a current general fair and contribute no facts here. Other counties’ youth fairs, such as the Sykesville Ag and Youth Fair in Jefferson County, are different events whose dates and terms transfer nothing.
Visitor Checklist
- Set navigation for Youth Park, 110 West Logan Street, Reedsville, never for the Lewistown mailing address
- Expect free attendance and budget for parking at five dollars per day, with no weekly-pass price published
- Check the current year’s span before travelling,
- Come early in the week for livestock judging and on Saturday for the livestock auction and rodeo
- On Children’s Day, look for the fifteen-dollar all-day ride wristband in that year’s schedule
- Give the Open Show buildings a full visit
- Do not plan on camping at Youth Park, because no fair-side camping term is published
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Youth Park sits in Reedsville, a borough whose fair week is the county’s agricultural showcase. Lewistown, the county seat, lies in the same county as a separate town to pass through, but it is not the fair town, and a visit built around Lewistown alone would miss the fair entirely.
Why This Fair Matters
This fair matters because it is where a county teaches its own agriculture to its own children in public. A young exhibitor who raises an animal, keeps its records, presents it in the show ring and then stands beside it at a Saturday auction has learned a complete agricultural cycle. The fair’s certification through the state association, after its two-year probation in the early 2000s, records that the wider fair world recognises the result as a county fair in full standing. The fair began as a 4-H Roundup in 1954, moved from a school centre to an amusement park to a donated park of its own, and still measures itself by its young exhibitors rather than by its midway.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the fair held, and does Lewistown host it?
The fair is held at Youth Park, 110 West Logan Street, Reedsville, Pennsylvania. Lewistown is the county seat, verified from the state archives county courthouses table, and it is also the Extension mailing town, but it does not host the fair.
Does it cost anything to get in?
Attendance is free in the fair’s own current FAQ layer, and parking is the charge, at five dollars per day. The only ride price in the record is the 2026 Children’s Day wristband at fifteen dollars for the whole day on Friday, August 7, 2026.
When was the 2026 fair, and what is announced for 2027?
The fair’s own 2026 schedule gives public days from Monday, August 3, through Saturday, August 8, 2026. The state guide gives August 2 to 8 for 2026, and a tourism layer gives August 3 to 9, and those spans stand unmerged with the fair’s own schedule. The fair’s own homepage announces the 73rd Mifflin County Youth Fair for August 7 to 14, 2027, with move-in day on Saturday starting in 2027, and that billing is a forward announcement.
Can visitors camp at Youth Park during the fair?
No fair-side layer in the record offers, prices or regulates camping at Youth Park for this fair, so camping is unverified entire. A separate Extension summer camp programme for 4-H members is not fair camping.
What to Expect From the Next Mifflin County Pennsylvania Youth Fair Festival
How often is Mifflin County Pennsylvania Youth Fair Festival held?
The fair is an annual August event. The exact days move from year to year, so the annual August pattern is the standing fact and the current year’s listing governs the dates.
When is the next Mifflin County Pennsylvania Youth Fair Festival?
The next edition announced on the fair’s own homepage is the 73rd Mifflin County Youth Fair, August 7 to 14, 2027, with move-in day on Saturday starting in 2027.
Will the dates change?
The exact days have shifted on this record, from August 3 to 10 in a 2024 state association layer, to public days August 3 to 8 in the fair’s own 2026 schedule, against a state guide span of August 2 to 8 and a tourism span of August 3 to 9 for the same year, so the current year’s listing governs.
The Mifflin County Youth Fair rewards a visitor who arrives for the young exhibitors first: the show ring in the morning, the exhibit buildings at midday, and the arena at night.
