Carroll County Ohio Fair Festival
Fair week in Carrollton begins before the fair officially does. On the Monday of its July week, exhibits arrive at Horticulture Hall, flags rise in front of the grandstand, tractors pull under the lights, and royalty are presented in the Ashton Event Center, yet the books reserve the words officially opens for Tuesday morning. That two-step opening captures the character of the Carroll County Fair: a working agricultural week, run by the Carroll County Agricultural Society, in which the Junior Fair’s livestock programme supplies the centre of gravity and everything else, from pari-mutuel harness racing to a Sunday demolition derby, wraps around it.
A Fair Run by a Society Dated to 1850
The event’s published name is the Carroll County Fair, and its organiser is the Carroll County Agricultural Society, the name carried on the officers page of the fair’s own 2024 book and in the state auditor’s record of the Society. Working forms appear in their own layers and are kept separate here: a Carroll County Fair Board greets visitors in the 2024 book, a Senior Fair Board appears in the junior fair book’s pages, and a conduct code styles the organiser with a dba form that belongs to that code and replaces nothing. None of those forms renames the Society, and the Junior Fair’s own board and committee are youth machinery under the senior structure, never the fair’s organiser.
Carrollton is both the county seat of Carroll County and the town that hosts the fair, two facts verified from different records rather than assumed from each other. The grounds are the Carroll County Fairgrounds on Kensington Road, where the fair office sits under the grandstand. No acreage for those grounds is published in any layer gathered for this guide, so none is offered here.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Carroll County Fair |
| Host town | Carrollton, Ohio |
| County seat | Carrollton |
| Organiser | Carroll County Agricultural Society |
| Grounds | Carroll County Fairgrounds, 160 Kensington Road Northeast, Carrollton, Ohio 44615 |
| Season | July; a Monday opening with a Tuesday-to-Sunday official run in the current books |
| Most recent documented run | July 20 through July 26, 2026, in the fair’s own junior fair book |
| Admission for 2026 | No gate or pass price published in the layers gathered here |
| Society founding | 1850, documented as the Society’s own founding year |
Two Beginnings the Record Refuses to Merge
The honest history of this fair starts with a date that belongs to the Society rather than to any single fair. The state auditor’s record, the 2024 fair book’s cover and a 2025 history feature in the county paper agree that the Carroll County Agricultural Society dates to 1850. What happened next is where the layers part company. One county-history compilation places a first agricultural fair at the courthouse in Carrollton in October 1849, a year before the Society existed, while the county paper’s own history feature calls an October 15, 1852 gathering the county’s first documented fair, two years after it. Both accounts cannot be settled from what survives in print, so this guide settles neither: the Society dates to 1850, and early fairs were held in Carrollton in the years around that founding.
The season moved at some point that no gathered layer dates. The same history feature says the fair was originally held in the fall and later shifted to a summer event that now takes place each July. Because no year for that move is published, none is invented here. Edition billings are likewise printed only where they were printed: the 2019 senior fair book styled that fair the 169th, the 2024 book billed its fair the 174th annual, and the county paper’s 2025 preview billed that year’s fair the 175th annual. No edition number for 2026 appears in any layer gathered, and the missing ordinal is not supplied by counting forward from 2025.
For a useful comparison, see the Butler County Ohio Fair Festival for another county festival.
Continuity has a human face in the county paper’s profile of Jim Long, who joined the Fair Board in October 1975, marked fifty years on it in 2025 and entered the Ohio Fairs Hall of Fame in 2018. His vice presidency in the 2024 book’s officer list, beside President Mike Lozier, Secretary Mary Piatt and Treasurer Melissa Schaar, belongs to that book alone and is not carried into any other year.
What to Expect in Fair Week
Monday Sets Up, Tuesday Opens
The 2026 schedule in the fair’s own junior fair book opens on Monday, July 20 with Horticulture Hall items received during the afternoon. At six that evening, members of Carrollton American Legion Post 428 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3301 raise the flag, the Carroll County Tractor Pulls take over the track, and at eight the opening ceremony and Fair Royalty Presentation fill the Ashton Event Center, before the Back to the Barn Glow Run and Walk closes the night at half past nine. Only on Tuesday at half past eight does the book declare the fair officially open.
Colts at Noon, Fillies at Five
Tuesday is the harness racing day in the 2026 book, with pari-mutuel colt racing at noon and filly racing at five, the Flower Show opening in between and the wiener dog races claiming the grandstand at seven. An older state record ties this Society’s harness racing to a named stakes, but that name stays in its audit layer, since the current books bill colt and filly cards without it.
Pulls All Week, Then the Derby
Engines take over from Thursday onward in the 2026 book, beginning with dead-weight pulling in the morning and NTPA sanctioned truck and tractor pulls in the evening. Full Pull Productions brings its pulls on Friday night, the pony pull anchors Saturday morning, and Mod Rod Pullers open Sunday before the demolition derby closes the fair at five that afternoon. Saturday evening’s seven o’clock grandstand slot is billed simply as TBA in the 2026 book, and it is left exactly that way here, because no act for it is documented anywhere in the record.
The Junior Fair at the Centre
From Tuesday through Saturday the livestock week rolls through the Ashton Event Center, the Small Animal Barn, the Rosebud Mining Complex and the Horse Ring, covering poultry, dairy, swine, goats, sheep, rabbits, beef and horses. Super Showmanship gathers the week’s best young exhibitors on Friday morning. The large animal sale follows on Friday evening and the small animal sale on Saturday morning, with a still project auction on Saturday afternoon; a farm paper’s report of the 2026 sales put the two days’ total at nine hundred seventy-eight thousand six hundred thirteen dollars and fifty cents across 408 lots, a figure belonging to that report and to no other year.
Planning Your Visit
Which Dates to Trust
Plan around July, and let each year’s book fix the days. The pattern in the current books is a Monday opening followed by a Tuesday-to-Sunday official run: in 2025 the fair opened on Monday, July 14 and ran officially through Sunday, July 20, while in 2024 the book’s week ran July 15 through July 21 with the same Tuesday declaration. State listings tend to print the official run only, which is why a schedule may show a Tuesday start that the fair’s own book contradicts by a day; the book’s fuller week is the safer planning basis.
Prices Belong to Their Year
No admission price for 2026 is published in any fair-side layer gathered for this guide, so no current gate figure can honestly be quoted. The two most recent priced layers disagree in instructive ways and are set side by side in the comparison below rather than blended. This fair has historically bundled much of the grounds into its ticket: the 2025 preview headlined that admission included all grandstand events and parking, while other years’ schedules carry a five-dollar track seat charge for the Thursday and Friday pulls, a component price that is never a gate price. Confirm the new book before budgeting.
Camping Under Permit
Camping terms survive only in the 2024 fair book, whose seasonal admission page sets the fee at at least two hundred dollars for each space, with more charged if a camper is in place early. That wording is a floor rather than a price, and the same phrasing stood in the 2018 book without becoming current for any later year. The 2024 terms also require a permit before set-up and a membership or fair pass for everyone staying in a camper. No camping price for 2025 or 2026 was found in any layer gathered, so those years’ terms remain unverified here.
Getting to Kensington Road
The fairgrounds address carried in fair-side and county-press layers is 160 Kensington Road Northeast in Carrollton, although the fair books themselves print no street address in the pages gathered. Year-round events at these grounds, from a March sportsman fundraiser to a June charity tractor pull, are Society business on the same soil, not part of the fair itself.
A Fair Week, Day by Day
A first-time visitor could take Monday gently, walking the halls as exhibits arrive and staying for the flag raising, the tractor pulls and the royalty presentation after dark. Tuesday rewards an early start, with judging in the halls, both harness racing cards and the wiener dog races by evening. Wednesday suits families, between the pedal pull, the tractor games and the Enduro races under the lights. Thursday belongs to the beef judging and the sanctioned evening pulls, while Friday builds toward Super Showmanship and the large animal sale. Saturday spreads widest, from the pony pull and small animal sale to the still project auction and the square dance, and Sunday closes with the trophy presentation and the five o’clock demolition derby.
Two Ladders That Refuse to Blend
Set the 2024 fair book beside the county paper’s 2025 preview and the two documents agree on exactly two numbers. Both put a single day’s admission at fifteen dollars, and both put the advance figure at twelve dollars fifty cents. Everything about passes contradicts. The 2024 book makes its thirty-dollar membership pass a weekly pass without rides, sells a separate weekly pass at the same thirty dollars, and prices an exhibit hall ticket at fifteen dollars, with tickets required from age four upward. The 2025 preview instead prices membership at one dollar for voting only, sells a weekly pass without rides at forty dollars, and adds a sixty-dollar weeklong pass including rides that the 2024 book never offers, with children aged three and younger admitted free without rides. No honest single ladder can be assembled from these two layers, which is why each stands in its own year throughout this guide.
Visitor Checklist
- Check the new fair book for the current year’s Monday opening day rather than relying on a state listing’s Tuesday start
- Budget from the newest published ladder you can find, knowing no 2026 price is published in this record
- Arrive before six on opening Monday for the flag raising in front of the grandstand
- Give Tuesday to the harness racing cards at noon and five if the horses are your reason for coming
- Keep Thursday and Friday evenings free for the sanctioned pulls and the Full Pull Productions show
- Watch at least one sale, Friday evening or Saturday morning, to hear the Junior Fair’s week turn into results
- Leave Sunday afternoon open, since the demolition derby closes the fair at five
- Secure a camping permit before setting up, with a membership or fair pass for everyone staying
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Carrollton itself is the first extension of the fair, a county seat village whose courthouse square has its own place in the early-fair layers, since one county history puts a fair at the courthouse in 1849. Everything official, though, happens inside the fairgrounds fence on Kensington Road, whatever village halls appear in press layers around the week. The surrounding townships supply the fair’s directors, exhibitors and livestock.
Why Carroll County Keeps This Week
The fair endures because it is where the county’s farm year becomes public. Young exhibitors spend months feeding and fitting animals for a few minutes of judging, gardeners time plantings toward Horticulture Hall, and drivers build machines for one Sunday of sanctioned destruction. The Society that stages it has documented roots in 1850, and its sales ring moved close to a million dollars of youth livestock across a single weekend in the 2026 report.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Carroll County Fair take place?
The fair is a week-long July event in Carrollton whose current books open on a Monday and declare the official run from Tuesday through Sunday. In the fair’s own 2026 junior fair book that week ran from Monday, July 20 through Sunday, July 26, while state listings showed the official run beginning on July 21.
What did admission cost in the most recent priced years?
The newest priced layers are the 2024 fair book and the county paper’s 2025 preview, agreeing only that a single day cost fifteen dollars and an advance ticket twelve dollars fifty cents. Their pass prices conflict outright, and no 2026 price is published in any layer gathered here.
Is the Junior Fair a separate event from the county fair?
No separate event exists in the record, because the Junior Fair is the youth division of this same fair, running under the senior structure inside the same week. Its shows, sales and contests fill the Ashton Event Center, the Small Animal Barn and the Rosebud Mining Complex from Tuesday through Saturday.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds during fair week?
Camping is documented only under the 2024 book’s terms, which set each space at at least two hundred dollars and required a permit before set-up plus a membership or fair pass for every camper. No camping price for 2025 or 2026 appears in the layers gathered, so present terms should be confirmed with the fair office.
What to Expect From the Next Carroll County Ohio Fair Festival
How often is Carroll County Ohio Fair Festival held?
The fair is held once each year, in a single week-long run that the current books shape as a Monday opening followed by a Tuesday-to-Sunday official programme, a rhythm held across the 2024, 2025 and 2026 books gathered here.
When is the next Carroll County Ohio Fair Festival?
The next fair after the July 2026 run documented here would fall in July of the following year, on days not yet published in any layer gathered. Watch for the new book’s Monday opening date, remembering that state listings may print only the official run.
Will the dates change?
Individual days have shifted slightly between years, since the 2024 week began on July 15, the 2025 week on July 14 and the 2026 week on July 20 in their respective books. The July season and the Monday-to-Sunday shape are the stable features to plan around.
A fair that opens twice, once for the work and once for the public, asks its visitors to arrive curious about both. Come for the racing, the pulls and the derby, but stay for a judging ring or a sale, because that is where Carroll County explains itself.
