Montgomery County New York Fonda Fair Festival

The Fonda Fair is Montgomery County’s own agricultural fair, staged by the Montgomery County Agricultural Society at the Fonda Fairgrounds in the Village of Fonda — and Fonda is not just the fair town, it is the county seat itself, so the seat hosts its own fair. The 2026 edition runs six days, Wednesday, September 2 through Labor Day Monday, September 7, billed as the 185th Annual. At heart this is a working farm fair: a printed premium book, daily livestock judging and a Monday livestock auction carry the week, with a carnival midway, an opening-night rodeo, demolition derbies and fireworks around that core. Two cautions: the fair’s own website publishes no gate ladder, so every admission figure is credited to the fair-side listing layer that carries it; and the young Fulton County exhibitors in the barns are guests here, because Fulton has no fair of its own — their presence never makes this anything but Montgomery County’s fair.

About the Fonda Fair

The Montgomery County Agricultural Society is the organiser named in the state fairs directory, in the fair’s own premium book and in the county-history account of the Society’s organisation; no other name form appears in the fair-side record. The Society operates the fairgrounds on the bank of the Mohawk River and keeps them a smoke and nicotine free environment, as its own site states. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Fulton and Montgomery Counties runs the 4-H machinery — its exhibitor handbook, its exhibit building on the grounds and the Monday livestock auction — as a programme partner, never as the organiser; the two counties in that Extension name describe its service area, not the fair’s ownership. Exhibitor money exists in the record — entry fees, exhibitor membership, Extension passes for 4-H volunteers and parents — and none of it is a public admission price.

Quick Facts

Item	Documented detail
Event	The Fonda Fair, an agricultural county fair
Organiser	Montgomery County Agricultural Society
Fair town	Fonda, a village in the Town of Mohawk
County seat	Fonda — the seat itself hosts the fair
Grounds	Fonda Fairgrounds, 21 South Bridge Street, Fonda
2026 dates	Wednesday, September 2 to Monday, September 7, 2026
Billing	185th Annual, as billed — billing only
General admission	Fifteen dollars in the fair-side listing network’s 2026 layer
Parking	Five dollars per vehicle, corroborated by the Extension layer
Camping	None published in any fair-side source

Two Beginnings in the Record

Two organisation accounts in the record disagree, and neither may be corrected into the other. The fairgrounds’ own published self-account says the society was organized on October 13, 1841, with the first fair held on the courthouse grounds on November 11 and 13 of that year. A nineteenth-century history of Montgomery and Fulton Counties instead records a meeting at the Fonda courthouse on September 20, 1844, the organisation completed that October 13, and a first fair at the courthouse on November 11 and 12 with receipts of four hundred seventy-one dollars and fifty cents. What both layers support is the shape that followed: early editions rotated among Fonda, Canajoharie, Fort Plain and Saint Johnsville until a Society convention on September 24, 1863 fixed Fonda as the permanent locality; the Society bought about thirteen acres of the Van Horne estate on the Mohawk bank that year, and the 1864 fair was the first on the new ground. The edition billings — the 180th in 2021, the 185th in 2026 — are consistent with each other yet may never be turned into a founding year: the 2021 press account itself records a cancellation in 2020 that breaks any straight count, and its further claims — that the fair began in 1841, that 2020 was its only cancellation ever — are that layer’s billing, carried here as exactly that. The modern record holds a weather chapter too: in 2011, flooding from Tropical Storm Irene delayed the opening by two days and shortened a planned seven-day fair; the sixty-plus acres in that year’s cleanup coverage is that press layer’s figure, not a fair-published size for the grounds today.

What Fills the Six Days

Judging Rings and Exhibit Buildings

Livestock and competitive exhibits are the fair’s spine. The fair’s own 2026 premium book covers judged classes with premiums — its dairy cattle entries closed on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 — and the week’s rhythm is plain in the fair-side press account: each day judges evaluate a different type of livestock. The Extension handbook adds the 4-H structure: poultry, livestock and non-animal classes from horticulture and plant science through visual arts, consumer and family science and communications, plus Cloverbud classes for the youngest exhibitors. Poultry showmanship opens the 4-H showing on Wednesday, September 2 at 11 a.m. in the handbook layer, and the showing builds toward a 4-H Master Showman of the Fair competition.

The Coleman Bros. Midway

The listing layer names Coleman Bros. Shows as the midway, with 2026 hours by day: Wednesday and Thursday 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday noon to midnight for a Midnight Madness session, Saturday and Sunday noon to 11 p.m., Monday noon to 9 p.m. Unlimited-ride wristbands sit in the same layer at thirty dollars a day, and grounds hours run 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For a useful comparison, see the Monroe County New York Rochester Lilac Festival for another county festival.

Grandstand Nights and Daily Shows

The Recorder, the fair’s hometown paper, previewed the 2026 fair with rodeo as the opening-day headline act, Wednesday, September 2 at 7 p.m., and the listing layer carries demolition derbies among the week’s grandstand draws. Circus Incredibles and the Agri Puppets perform daily shows in that 2026 preview, alongside a fireworks show, a Sunday of JVD Country in the afternoon and a disc jockey set into the evening, and a Monday closing with another disc jockey set and the karaoke contest finals. Motor pulling belongs here only with its year attached: tractor pulls on opening day, four-wheel-drive truck pulls on the Friday and a Thursday monster-truck slot are all documented in the fair-side account of the 2021 fair, and none is promised here as a 2026 fixture.

Pageants Before the Fair and the Auction That Ends It

The crowns are settled before the gates open: the Miss Fonda Fair and Princess Fonda Fair pageants were held on Saturday, August 29, 2026, in the Recorder’s layer — pageant at 3 p.m., Princess pageant at 5 p.m., crowning at 7 p.m. — a pre-fair event, recorded as such rather than as fair-week programme. The fair closes its livestock story on Labor Day with the fifth annual 4-H Livestock Auction on Monday, September 7, 2026, from the Extension’s own post: lot viewing at 10 a.m., the auction at 11 a.m.

Planning a Visit to Fonda

Admission, Honestly Labelled

No gate ladder appears on the fair’s own website. The figures visitors plan around come from the fair-side listing network’s 2026 layer: general admission fifteen dollars, children ages six to eleven five dollars, children under six free every day, unlimited-ride wristbands at thirty dollars. The Recorder’s preview corroborates the opening-day terms — children under fourteen free, seniors at five dollars on Wednesday — and the Extension’s auction post corroborates Monday’s free admission before noon and the five-dollar parking fee. A twelve-dollar general admission also circulates in an unsourced place listing with no year attached, and it should not be relied on as the price of any particular edition.

Working the Free Windows

Wednesday and Friday carry free admission for children under fourteen all day and five-dollar admission for senior citizens aged sixty-two and over, with backpack and bicycle giveaways at the main gate; the Friday repetition of the children’s special rests on the listing layer alone, while the hometown paper confirms the Wednesday terms. On Sunday the gate is free for everyone until 11 a.m.; on Monday it is free for everyone until noon, with military members and first responders in uniform or with identification free all day. Card payments are accepted in that layer’s account, and dogs are prohibited on the grounds, service animals excepted.

A Sample Opening Day

Wednesday rewards an early start. Arrive for the 9 a.m. opening, watch poultry showmanship at 11 a.m., then walk the exhibit buildings. The midway opens at 2 p.m.; the pedal tractor pull runs at 4 p.m., the giveaways follow at 6 p.m., and the talent show at 6:30 p.m. warms up the evening. Stay for the rodeo at 7 p.m. A child under fourteen pays nothing at the gate that day, so spending sits in rides, food and parking.

Parking, Pets and Where You Sleep

Parking costs five dollars per vehicle in the layer the Extension post confirms, and no parking is allowed by the barns under the handbook’s rules. The harder fact is lodging: no fair-side source — not the fair’s site, not the state directories, not the listing layer, not the Extension handbook — publishes any campground, recreational vehicle sites or camping rate for this fair. The handbook assumes exhibitors travel in daily, even selling a parent’s pass for the fairgrounds trips for animal care. Plan on ordinary lodging in Fonda or nearby Mohawk Valley towns and a daily drive in.

Not to Be Confused With

Two fairs share this fair’s calendar without sharing anything else. The Schaghticoke Fair in Rensselaer County runs the identical September 2 to 7 span in 2026; the New York State Fair in Syracuse overlaps the whole run and ends the same Labor Day. Same dates, different fairs — neither one’s prices or programme belong to Fonda. The county name travels further: Montgomery County fairs also exist at Dayton in Ohio, Gaithersburg in Maryland and Conroe in Texas, and none of their dates or prices describe this fair; even the village of Fonda in Iowa is not this Fonda. Closer to home, a stock-car speedway operates as a separate tenant on these same grounds in its own season, and nothing from its season is part of this fair.

Before You Go

• Check the fair’s own site before travelling — it publishes the premium book and fair news, but no gate ladder
• Budget fifteen dollars general admission and five dollars for ages six to eleven, from the listing layer’s 2026 figures
• Keep five dollars ready for parking per vehicle, and note that card payments are accepted
• Aim a family visit at Wednesday, when under-fourteens enter free and the rodeo headlines the night
• Come before 11 a.m. Sunday or before noon Monday if a free gate matters more than a full day
• Leave dogs at home, since only service animals are admitted to the grounds
• Do not plan on camping at the fairgrounds, because no fair-side source publishes any

Beyond the Fairgrounds

The grounds sit on the bank of the Mohawk River in a village that has been the county seat since the courthouse era, when the first fairs were held on the courthouse grounds themselves — a visit can take in that historic centre before or after the gates. The fairgrounds live a second life outside fair week, and the Society itself returns on Saturday, October 3, 2026 for its 185th Anniversary Fall Gala in the Kane Entertainment Building, a fundraising evening whose ticket, in the fair’s own layer, is a Society celebration price and not a fair admission.

Why This Fair Matters

Fonda has kept its seat-hosts-the-fair arrangement since the Society stopped rotating the fair among valley villages and settled it here in 1863. The fair also does a regional job: because Fulton County has no fair of its own in the current record, its 4-H families exhibit here through the joint Extension association, so one set of grounds carries two counties’ young exhibitors while remaining, unambiguously, one county’s fair. Its documented endurance runs through checkable chapters — a flood-shortened edition in 2011, a cancelled year in 2020, a return billed the 180th in 2021 — rather than any slogan: a small river village’s fair that two counties’ farm families plan their September around.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where exactly is the fair, and is the fair town really the county seat?

Yes. The fair is held at the Fonda Fairgrounds, 21 South Bridge Street, in the Village of Fonda, and Fonda is the county seat of Montgomery County — one of the cases where seat and fair town are the same place.

What will admission cost, and why are the prices labelled by source?

The fair’s own website publishes no gate ladder, so the working figures come from the fair-side listing network’s 2026 layer: fifteen dollars general admission, five dollars for ages six to eleven, under six free, thirty-dollar ride wristbands and five-dollar parking. The hometown paper and the Extension post each confirm parts of that layer in their own words; an unsourced twelve-dollar figure also circulates with no year attached, and that one is unreliable for planning.

Fulton County families show animals here — is this a two-county fair?

No. Fulton County has no fair of its own in the current record, and its 4-H exhibitors come to Fonda because the Extension association serves both counties. The fair’s name, organiser and ownership never change — it is the Montgomery County Agricultural Society’s fair, and Fulton’s presence in the barns is exhibitor context only.

Is camping available at the Fonda Fairgrounds?

Nothing in any fair-side source offers it — no campground, recreational vehicle sites or rate is published by the fair, the state directories, the listing network or the Extension handbook. Plan on lodging off the grounds and daily trips in.

What to Expect From the Next Montgomery County New York Fonda Fair Festival

How often is the Montgomery County New York Fonda Fair Festival held?

The Fonda Fair takes place once every year. The documented modern shape is a six-day run across the Labor Day weekend in early September, Wednesday through Monday, as both the 2021 and 2026 editions followed.

When is the next Montgomery County New York Fonda Fair Festival?

The next edition follows the 2026 fair, and the fair’s own site already says it is working on the details of its 186th Fonda Fair. No dates for that edition are published in the record used here, so expect the same early-September, Labor Day week slot rather than treating any specific day as fixed.

Will the dates change?

They can move at the edges. The September span has held in the documented editions, but the record includes a flood-delayed opening in 2011 and a cancelled year in 2020, showing the plan is not immune to events. Check the fair’s own announcements as the season approaches.

The Fonda Fair asks a little more of its readers than most fairs on this list: trust the premium book, label the gate prices by the layer that carries them, and leave the speedway to its own season. The reward is a six-day farm fair in a county seat that has hosted it since the courthouse era — Montgomery County’s fair, on its own record, and on nobody else’s.