Cameron County Pennsylvania Fair Festival

For five public evenings in the first full week of August, the Cameron County Fair gathers Pennsylvania’s least populous county on fairgrounds outside Emporium: exhibits in Beaver Hall, a tractor parade before the opening, coronations to close the week. Its record is thin in proportion: the fair’s own pages carry a schedule, a theme and royalty notices, but no gate page, no premium book and no history of its own telling, so each fact here names its layer, and gaps stay empty.

Emporium is both host and county seat: the state historical commission records Emporium, the county seat, incorporated on October 13, 1864. The grounds stand on Rich Valley Road, and public days open at 5 p.m.

About the Cameron County Fair

This is the Cameron County Fair, the only name the Pennsylvania record gives it: it appears on the fair’s own site, in the state fair guide’s entry, in regional guides and in the local paper. Longer fair-and-livestock-show titles belong to a Texas Cameron County fair; nothing from its papers is used here.

A 2026 regional layer states the mission in its own words: a week-long event held annually the first full week of August, whose mission is to promote and improve the agriculture, industry and home life of the community while encouraging conservation of natural resources. That is that layer’s statement, not a second name.

The organiser is the Cameron County Fair Association, in forms standing unmerged: the plain form in the paper and a history retelling; Cameron County Fair Association Incorporated, the legal form in tax-directory layers, whose mailing box is a mailing form only, never the grounds address; and Cameron County Fair Board Association, in one paper article alone. Supporting bodies, never the organiser, include Penn State Extension and the county 4-H programme, its history-layer partner; the Conservation District, Cameron County Outdoor Youth Activities and the National Wild Turkey Federation, organisers of the 2025 schedule’s conservation event; the CCHS Music Boosters; and the Cameron County Community Chest.

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

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Event	Cameron County Fair, county fair of Cameron County, Pennsylvania
County seat	Emporium, the county seat and host borough
Grounds	Cameron County Fairgrounds, Rich Valley Road outside Emporium
Season	First full week of August
Documented span	August 2 to 8, 2026 (state fair guide); no day-by-day schedule gathered
Organiser	Cameron County Fair Association, in several record forms
Gate admission	None published by the fair; the paper’s standing wording reports no charge, free parking
Camping	No fair-side camping term documented

Two Beginnings Separated by Fifty Years

A county history, the History of Cameron County (1991 edition), records that Keystone Park was the first known location of the Cameron County Fair and the first fair was held around 1901. Around 1901 is that book’s approximation, quoted as such. It ran under the Cameron County Agricultural Association, each September until 1917, when war and a severe flu epidemic halted it. A retelling spells the sponsor Cameron County Agriculture Association and sets Keystone Park near the GKN Sinter Metals plant; the spellings stand unmerged, neither the modern association’s name.

No fair appears in the record between 1917 and 1967, and no continuity claim crosses that gap; the early fair’s September season is not the modern fair’s.

The second era is a formation, not a founding: in 1967 the association formed as a committee of the Emporium Jaycees, in the retelling’s form as a branch of them. It showed at the Pine Street Field, partnered closely with 4-H. When the field was sold to Motor Coils in 1970, Henry Zimmer offered land formerly occupied by the Smokeless Powder and Picric Acid Plant, and Paul Abriatis loaned bulldozers to prepare it. The year 1967 forms the present association only; no edition number exists in the record from which any age could be computed. The grounds grew piecemeal: a concession stand, a 4-H building, an exhibition hall, an animal display barn and a 160-foot open-front exhibit area. Beaver Hall, the largest hall, is named after fair director Beaver Williams; none of it dates the fair or the grounds’ opening.

What to Expect

Beaver Hall and the Working Grounds

In the fair’s own 2025 schedule, competitive exhibits are accepted on the patio of Beaver Hall and displayed through the public evenings before collection at the week’s end. The 4-H building, animal display barn and stage stand around it, and royalty are crowned in coronation ceremonies closing the public week.

The 2025 Evenings, As the Fair’s Own Schedule Prints Them

The fair’s own 2025 Schedule page is the record’s fullest programme document; its window runs Saturday, August 2 to Saturday, August 9, the public fair inside it shorter. Monday, August 4: the tractor parade at 5 p.m., then the Official Opening and Dedication of the 2025 Cameron County Fair at 6 p.m., on Emergency Volunteer Appreciation night, with the Goodies Auction, and Rock-N-Roll Pet Store and Legacy. Tuesday, Small Business Appreciation: Phaser, Redneck games of milk chugging, root beer chugging and pizza eating, and Cameron County Has Talent. Wednesday: the ninth annual Jan Hampton Conservation Event, in the schedule’s own numbering, the seventeenth annual Chili Cook Off judging and sale, Bwana Jim strolling, and Off the Cuff on stage. Thursday: the Music Boosters Taste table, the Animal Science Pet Show and a Celebrity Goat Milking Competition. Friday, Family Night: the Beautiful Baby Contest winner announced, the coronation ceremonies and karaoke with the royalty.

Bills From 2019, 2010 and 2008

Earlier programmes survive in the paper’s layers, fenced to their years. Its August 2019 layer lists the tractor parade, the opening and dedication, A New Legacy on stage, the Music Boosters taste table, the Jan Hampton Memorial Zucchini Parade, Bwana Jim’s exotic wildlife display and a third annual Jan Hampton Memorial Conservation Event; that numbering and 2025’s ninth annual stand unreconciled in their layers. The 2010 schedule had Legacy and CHAZ on stage, a fourth annual chili cook-off in that layer, the coronations and eating contests. Reportage of 2008 adds Cowboy Larry Zwickel’s Wild West Show, a chili and barbecue cook-off and the first Survivor: Cameron County. Visitors guides of 2012 to 2019 add colour only, carnival rides, a tractor pull, a talent show and a horseshoe tournament, never a dated programme; the tractor pull appears in no fair-side schedule, 2025’s included.

Planning Your Visit

Which Days Are Public Days

In 2025 the window ran Saturday, August 2 to Saturday, August 9, but the public fair was Monday’s opening through Friday, evenings from 5 p.m. The first Saturday was exhibit acceptance at Beaver Hall, noon to 7 p.m.; Sunday was judging behind closed doors, with Vesper Services at 7 p.m.; neither was a public day. The closing Saturday brought the twenty-first annual Harvey Gribble Memorial horseshoe tournament at 8:30 a.m. and exhibit pick-up by noon, after which the fair officially closed. For 2026 the state guide and regional layer agree on August 2 to 8, but no day-by-day schedule was gathered, so no 2026 opening day can be stated. Older spans stand in their layers: August 5 to 10 in 2019, and August 3 to 9 in 2008.

Finding the Grounds on Rich Valley Road

Regional guides for 2017 to 2019 print 1043 Rich Valley Road, Emporium; a places listing gives the same number under the township name Shippen, never a second host town or rival seat. A 2022 local-events layer prints 1021 Rich Valley Road. Older layers give a route form, on or along Route 46 near Emporium (2012 guide; a 2014 article). The forms stand unmerged; navigate by the road. Neither the courthouse and Extension address at 20 East Fifth Street nor the association’s Post Office Box 345, a mailing form, is the grounds address.

Money: What Is Priced and What Is Not

The local paper’s articles carry standing wording, as always, there will be no admission charge and parking will be free, including in its August 2019 layer; a 2014 article states the same. The fair’s own 2025 schedule and 2026 home page publish no admission or parking statement, so the modern gate is unverified fair-side, and the silence is not proof the practice ended. A benefit concert by Almost Practical charged a five dollar entrance fee in one paper layer, on the acceptance Saturday, never a gate price; Survivor: Cameron County entry cost five dollars per applicant aged sixteen and over in 2008; the talent show’s prizes carry no amounts. No premium scale appears in any layer, and ride and vendor money is undocumented, guides listing carnival rides without pricing them.

Sleeping Over

No camping rate, rule or offer for fair week, for public, exhibitors or vendors, appears in any layer gathered; the absence is recorded as absence only, never as prohibition and never as availability. A metal-detecting hunt at the same grounds publishes camper rules for its own weekend, limited electric and no sewage or water connections among them; those terms are that event’s, and its donation wording does not make it a fair event. Separate facilities, such as Sizerville State Park and Pennsylvania Wilds campgrounds, serve campers.

A Sample Evening, Drawn From the 2025 Schedule

Built entirely from the fair’s own 2025 schedule, an opening Monday runs like this. Be downtown for the 5 p.m. tractor parade, decorated bicycles among its elements, then follow the crowd out Rich Valley Road for the Official Opening and Dedication at 6 p.m. Spend an hour in Beaver Hall, where exhibits accepted Saturday and judged Sunday are displayed, then cross to the 4-H building and the animal display barn. On Emergency Volunteer Appreciation night the Goodies Auction runs, and the stage belongs to Rock-N-Roll Pet Store and Legacy.

A Small Fair Among Larger Namesakes

Against the state guide’s other Pennsylvania fairs, Elk, Jefferson, Potter and McKean among them, this fair’s record is unusually fragmentary: no premium book, gate page or fair-side history page was gathered, and those neighbours’ dates, prices and programmes are theirs alone. The sharpest risk sits far away: Texas has a Cameron County Fair and Livestock Show, with its own January entry calendar, sharing nothing but a county name; one Texas document carries a copied paragraph describing this fair, dates and free-admission line included, and remains a Texas document entire. Cameron in Missouri is a city, not a county. Emporium’s Weekend in the Wilds, a July downtown event, is separate again.

Checklist for Fair Week

• Read the fair’s own schedule first, separating public evenings from acceptance, judging and pick-up days.
• Bring exhibits on the acceptance day; in 2025, Saturday, August 2 at Beaver Hall.
• Budget without a published gate price; the fair prints none, and the paper’s wording reports no charge and free parking.
• Arrange lodging or a campsite off the grounds; no fair-week camping term is published.
• Be downtown for the tractor parade before the opening, as in 2025 and 2019.
• Keep Friday evening for the coronation ceremonies, the close of the public week.

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Fair week is reason enough to linger in Emporium. Its name is Latin for market or trade center, fitting a seat town whose courthouse stands at 20 East Fifth Street and whose Fourth Street carries the tractor parade downtown. Arrive a few weeks early and Weekend in the Wilds is running downtown in July, Emporium’s own separate summer event, not a fair preliminary, giving a different look at how the county gathers.

Why the Fair Matters in Pennsylvania’s Smallest County

In the state’s least populous county, few institutions gather the whole community, and the fair is plainly one. Its mission reaches beyond agriculture into industry, home life and conservation: a conservation event run with the Conservation District, outdoor youth activities and the wild turkey federation sits near the centre of the 2025 schedule, with school and charity networks woven in by the Music Boosters and the Community Chest. Coronations give its young people a public role, and its halls judge households’ work. Its persistence is striking: a fair stopped by war and epidemic in 1917, and an association formed fifty years later by Jaycees who borrowed bulldozers to level a powder-plant site. The eras are not one continuous story, and that so small a county produced both is the point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the fair charge admission?

The fair’s own pages publish no gate statement, so the modern gate is unverified fair-side. The local paper’s standing report is that there will be no admission charge and parking will be free; read that as the paper’s report, not a price the fair published.

Which days can the public actually attend?

In 2025, five evenings: the Monday, August 4 opening through Friday, August 8, from 5 p.m., inside an August 2 to 9 window whose edges were acceptance, judging and pick-up days. For 2026 the guide gives August 2 to 8, no day-by-day gathered.

Where exactly are the fairgrounds?

On Rich Valley Road outside Emporium; the road is certain, the number is not. Guides for 2017 to 2019 print 1043 Rich Valley Road, a places listing gives the same number under the township name Shippen, and a 2022 layer prints 1021. Navigate by the road; the courthouse address and the association’s mailing box are not the grounds.

Are premiums or ride prices published anywhere?

Not in any layer gathered. The fair’s pages document exhibits, departments and, for 2026, new online registration, but no premium scale; a state guidelines book in searches is a general document, not this fair’s scale. Guides list carnival rides for 2017 to 2019 with no prices, and no wristband or vendor figure appears. The record’s only prices are small fragments in the paper’s layers.

What to Expect From the Next Cameron County Pennsylvania Fair Festival

How often is Cameron County Pennsylvania Fair Festival held?

In the first full week of August, as the 2026 regional layer states and spans from 2008 to 2026 bear out. The September season of the 1917-ended fair is not merged with it.

When is the next Cameron County Pennsylvania Fair Festival?

The most recent edition in the record is the 2026 fair, placed by the state guide and regional layer at August 2 to 8, its home page carrying the theme. No later edition’s dates appear in any layer, so the next span cannot be quoted; expect the first full week of August, detailed nearer the season in the fair’s own schedule.

Will the dates change?

The frame is steadier than the days: documented spans include August 3 to 9 in 2008, August 5 to 10 in 2019 and August 2 to 8 in 2026, the Saturday acceptance, Sunday judging and Monday opening repeating in 2010 and 2025. Within its August frame a future edition may shift days, and its public evenings will likely remain a subset of its window; trust the edition’s own schedule.

The fair asks little beyond an August evening. It returns the whole county on grounds a Jaycee committee levelled half a century ago; for a fair documented in fragments, that is a substantial thing to have kept.