Blair County Pennsylvania Hollidaysburg Community Fair Festival
Each September, the sports building behind Hollidaysburg Senior High School fills with judged vegetables, canned goods, quilts, photographs and baked goods. Pennsylvania fair lists call the event the Hollidaysburg Community Fair; the show’s own record registers it as the Hollidaysburg Community Farm Show, shortened in its own pages to the farm show. Neither published name corrects the other, and both describe one indoor show. There are no fairgrounds behind this title and no midway: the whole exhibition happens under one school roof in Hollidaysburg, the county seat and host borough.
One Show, Two Names, a Single Purpose
The show gives its purpose in its own words: to exhibit products which show progress in agriculture and home economics — in fuller phrasing, a show of crops, garden produce, fruits and flowers, fine things to eat and to wear, and objects of utility and beauty produced by home craftsmen, in a spirit of people working together. Its own layer classifies it as a Class D fair, whose premiums awarded must exceed a minimum of three thousand five hundred dollars a year — a classification threshold in that layer, never a premium total or visitor charge.
Quick Facts
| Item | What the record shows |
| Published names | Hollidaysburg Community Fair in fair lists; Hollidaysburg Community Farm Show, the registered name in the show’s own record |
| Host and county seat | Hollidaysburg, the Blair County seat, hosting the show indoors |
| Venue | Hollidaysburg Senior High School Sports Building, behind the Senior High School Building, next to the baseball field |
| Organiser | The show’s own officers and board of directors, per its 2025 Premium Guide |
| Season | September, with documented spans in 2009, 2023, 2025 and 2026 |
| Most recent documented span | September 21 to 24, 2026, announced on the show’s own website |
| Visitor admission | No visitor price or free-entry statement published in the show’s own record |
| Exhibitor premiums | Paid per class in the Premium Guides, in different figures in the 2020 and 2025 books |
| Camping | No camping, RV or overnight term published for this indoor show |
Run by Its Own Officers and Board
The organiser of record is the show itself, governed through the officers and board in its own Premium Guide, whose pages record that the Officers and Board of Directors of the Hollidaysburg Community Farm Show voted to have the Farm Show this year. No incorporated, association or society name appears in any layer, and none can be supplied. The people named in the 2025 Guide belong to that document alone: President Apryl Smith, Vice President Ken Smith and Executive Secretary and Treasurer Roberta Crist, with the board members and the Scoring, Arrangement and Clean-Up and Premium Catalog committees. Supporting bodies never become the organiser: the Hollidaysburg Area School District owns the sports building, a venue fact only; the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture subsidized the building through a grant; 4-H and Vocational exhibitors fill Department 10 without running anything.
A Beginning in 1934, and an Edition Number That Does Not Add Up
The show’s own website gives its founding directly: from the beginning in 1934, the theme of the show basically was a show of farm related items, and in time it has grown to include additional areas. That beginning rests on that statement alone; the site’s fair-facts list adds only that the show has continued for eighty-plus years, the sole continuity claim the record supports. The 2025 Guide bills that edition the eighty-eighth annual show, yet counting forward from 1934 would yield far more than eighty-eight editions by 2025, implying missed years no layer enumerates. The billing stands as 2025 billing only: it cannot be subtracted into a founding year, does not correct 1934, and supports no claim of an unbroken run. The building’s history is thinner: the sports-building home was subsidized by a Department of Agriculture grant, with no year published for the grant or any move indoors, and no earlier venue documented anywhere. The 2025 Guide’s funding warning — the board’s vote to hold the show that year while the future waited on a state-budget review — is a contingency statement in that document, not a cancellation, and the 2026 announcement postdates it.
What to Expect Inside the Building
Thirteen Departments of Exhibits
The 2025 Premium Guide’s departments map the building: Department 8 Poultry, meaning eggs; Department 10 for 4-H and Vocational youth; Department 11 Youth Exhibits, for those under nineteen; Department 12 Hay, Grain and Silage; Department 13 Vegetables; Department 14 Fruits and Nuts; Department 15 Home Products, spanning baked goods, canning, jellies, preserves, butters and honey; Department 17 Floral; Department 18 Needlecraft; Department 19 Arts, Crafts and Photo; Department 20 Group Exhibits; Department 22 Major Contests; and Department 23 Apiary and Maple Products.
For a useful comparison, see the Bedford County Pennsylvania Fair Festival for another county festival.
Contests Built for Participation
Department 22’s list in the 2025 Guide runs to twenty competitions: Cornhole in adult and youth and junior and senior sessions, a Milk Drinking Contest, a Pie Eating Contest, a Hay Bale Throwing Contest, a Farm Poster Contest, a Premium Book Cover Contest, a Coloring Contest, a Chocolate Cake Contest, the PA Preferred Cookie, Brownie and Bar Contest, the Blue Ribbon Apple Pie Contest, an Angel Food Cake Contest, an Apron Contest, an Anniversary Quilt Block Contest, a Cupcake Decorating Contest, a Gob Contest, a Pumpkin Decorating Contest, a Zucchini Decorating Contest, a Canning Jar Decorating Contest, an Adult Canning Ring Decorating Contest and a Scarecrow Contest. Two looked beyond 2025: the Apron Contest and a Quilt Patch Contest belonged to advance planning for Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary in 2026, the patches to be sewn into a quilt for a silent auction at the 2026 show — planning only, never a documented 2026 programme, which beyond its span and Premium Book is undocumented.
Judging Days, Viewing Hours and Ask-the-Master Sessions
Exhibits entered Monday, September 15, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., after committee preparation, and Tuesday, September 16, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.; judging followed Tuesday from 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. behind closed doors; viewing opened at 3 p.m., running Wednesday, September 17, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday, September 18, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., removal following 7 to 9 p.m.; Friday, September 19, was cleanup and pickup only, one morning hour, never a public day. Tuesday’s sessions were Ask the Master Gardener and Ask the Master Canner, 3 to 7 p.m., the Milk Drinking Contest, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and the Pie Eating Contest, 7 to 8 p.m.; Wednesday added Ask the Master Gardener, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., junior and senior Cornhole with Hay Bale Throwing, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., and Silver Creek Ministries’ Mini Horses, 5 to 7 p.m.; Thursday returned both sessions, 4 to 7 p.m.
Premiums, Best of Show and the Bake Sale
Premium money here is exhibitor money, printed per class, differing between books. In the 2020 Guide, the Growers’ Exhibit paid nine, seven and five dollars; a half bushel of apples paid five, four and three dollars; yeast bread paid three dollars seventy-five cents, three dollars twenty-five cents and two dollars seventy-five cents; crabapple, peach, pear and plum classes stood in three-dollar, two-dollar-and-fifty-cent and two-dollar forms. In the 2025 Guide, herb and mushroom classes each paid four, three and two dollars; Best of Show gave ribbons to both the Adult and the Youth Exhibitor plus a five-dollar premium. None is a single show prize, and none may be carried between books. The same Guide lets judged baked goods, with the entrant’s approval, be sold in its bake sale from Tuesday onward, at unprinted prices.
Planning Your Visit
Finding the Sports Building
The 2025 Guide’s directions page gives the venue’s only street form: 1510 North Montgomery Street, Hollidaysburg — the school property address in that layer, not a fair office or mailing address. Approaches run from North Juniata Street via Belair Drive, across from Legion Park’s entrance, and from Penn Street (Route 36) via Hart Street, onto the property past the Tiger Monument and the auditorium entrance toward the baseball field and the blue building. Legion Park is a landmark only; no American Legion body organises, sponsors or hosts this show in any layer. Handicapped parking and an entrance sit close to the building in the programme.
The Admission Question the Record Leaves Open
On cost, the record leaves an honest gap: the website and both Premium Guides publish no visitor admission price and no statement that a visitor is admitted without charge, and a full-text search of the 2025 Guide finds no admission term in it at all. Visitor admission is therefore undocumented for every year. The one phrase that sounds like a gate is not one: the Guide’s rule that all entries are free is an exhibitor-entry term among its entry-card and judging rules. Parking stands the same: accessible parking is mentioned, but no parking price, free or otherwise, is published.
Entering, Removal and Sleeping Elsewhere
For exhibitors, the 2025 Guide’s working hours are the plan: entry Monday evening and Tuesday morning, judging closed to the public late Tuesday morning and midday, removal Thursday evening after viewing closes; collecting an exhibit on Friday morning is cleanup, not a fifth show day. Camping plays no part in the record: no campground, recreational-vehicle, tent or overnight term is published anywhere in it, and no other Blair County event’s camping terms may be borrowed to fill the silence.
A Visitor’s Week Shaped on the 2025 Guide
A visit shaped on the 2025 pattern starts Tuesday afternoon: arrive after 3 p.m., walk the vegetable and fruit tables while ribbons are fresh, and question the Master Gardener or Master Canner before the Milk Drinking Contest at 5:30 p.m. and the Pie Eating Contest at 7 p.m. Wednesday adds the Master Gardener in the morning and cornhole, hay bale throwing and the mini horses toward evening. Thursday, the last viewing day, runs to 7 p.m. with both advice sessions in the late afternoon.
Not the Other Shows on the Same Lists
Similar names crowd Blair County’s lists; the record keeps them apart. The Morrisons Cove Dairy Show at Martinsburg and the Morrisons Cove Community Fair in the Roaring Spring and Martinsburg area are separate events; the Cove is a valley region, never this show’s host or organiser. The Sinking Valley Farm Show (Altoona and Skelp in guide layers, Tyrone in the state list’s form) and the Williamsburg Farm Show are likewise separate. The Pennsylvania Farm Show at Harrisburg, the state’s January indoor farm show in Dauphin County, shares only two words with this one. The American Legion County Fair in Ebensburg, Cambria County, contributes nothing despite the word Legion in this show’s directions; Altoona’s attractions — its baseball club and ballpark, Lakemont Park, the railroad museum — are that city’s events, and the Blair County Convention Center campus is a separate venue too. Hollidaysburg’s Halloween and WinterFest parades are the borough’s own events, their billings the parades’ own.
Exhibitor and Visitor Checklist
- Read the current Premium Guide first, since departments, contests and premiums change between books
- Bring entries inside the published entry windows, Monday evening or Tuesday morning in the 2025 pattern
- Plan viewing from Tuesday afternoon onward, because Tuesday judging is closed to the public
- Carry cash cautiously, because the show publishes no visitor admission or parking figure
- Try a Major Contest, whether cornhole, hay bale throwing or a decorated zucchini
- Collect exhibits only inside the Thursday-evening removal window or the Friday cleanup hour
- Arrange lodging away from the school grounds, since no camping term exists for this show
- Keep Altoona in its place as the larger neighbour city, not the seat or the show’s home
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Hollidaysburg itself is the setting: a borough on the Juniata River, five miles south of Altoona in the borough layer’s own measure, holding Blair County’s seat of government. The courthouse on Allegheny Street and Borough Hall on Blair Street are civic anchors only; neither stages the exhibition. Legion Park, whose entrance orients drivers on Belair Drive, gains no role in the show from being mentioned, and the town’s parade calendar runs separately from the September week.
Why an Indoor Show Still Matters
A show with no gate to advertise survives on entries. It keeps a formal place where a household’s tomatoes, preserves, needlework and photography are judged under published rules, premiums small enough to be symbolic, ribbons not. Its Class D classification ties that machinery to a state framework, and its spirit of people working together makes a school sports building the county’s shared pantry, garden and gallery each September.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Altoona the county seat for this show?
No. Hollidaysburg is Blair County’s seat, as the Commonwealth’s State Archives courthouse table confirms, and it hosts the show. Altoona, five miles north, is the county’s largest city and lends its name to the metropolitan area, but it is not the seat, the host or the show’s location.
How much does it cost to walk in?
The show’s own record does not say: its website and guides publish neither a visitor price nor any statement that visitors enter without charge, so admission is undocumented for every year. The Guide’s rule that all entries are free concerns exhibitors’ work, never a visitor gate.
Where exactly is the show held?
Inside the Hollidaysburg Senior High School Sports Building, behind the Senior High School and next to the baseball field. The 2025 Guide’s directions page heads the property as 1510 North Montgomery Street, Hollidaysburg — the school’s address in that layer, not any fair office address.
Can visitors camp at the show?
None is documented: the website and guides publish no campground, tent or overnight term, and other Blair County events’ terms cannot be transferred. Anyone staying over must arrange lodging or camping independently, away from the school grounds.
What to Expect From the Next Blair County Pennsylvania Hollidaysburg Community Fair Festival
How often is Blair County Pennsylvania Hollidaysburg Community Fair Festival held?
The show is annual, held each September in the record’s modern editions. The 2025 Guide records its board voting to hold the show that year, and the website went on to announce the following year’s edition.
When is the next Blair County Pennsylvania Hollidaysburg Community Fair Festival?
The most recent span in the record is September 21 to 24, 2026, announced on the show’s own website, its Premium Book linked from the same page. Its programme beyond that span is undocumented; that edition’s departments and contests belong to its own book alone.
Will the dates change?
The dates have shifted before: a Farm Progress schedule placed the show on October 6 to 8 in 2009, outside the September season; a mirrored fair list prints a September 16 to 19 span whose year cannot be verified; and modern spans run September 18 to 21 in 2023, September 15 to 18 in 2025 and September 21 to 24 in 2026. The season is steady; the exact week is each year’s own announcement.
Its durability is the plainest fact: a 1934 beginning in its own account, a school building full of judged work each September, and two names the county knows the show by, either one.
