Morrow County Oregon Fair Festival
In the third week of August, the Morrow County Fairgrounds on Highway 74 at Heppner fills with livestock trailers and families who plan part of their summer around fair week. The Morrow County Fair is a small eastern Oregon county fair built around 4-H and FFA exhibits, livestock shows and the youth livestock auction that closes the week. Heppner is both county seat and host town, and the Morrow County Fair Board runs the event. Its record is unusually thin: no fair-owned website appears in the material gathered, no modern gate price is published in it, and no fair-side history page exists. Proof of a recurring fair comes from working documents — board minutes, a vendor contract, a camping form, an Extension handbook and a newspaper report — covering 2023, 2024 and 2026.
A Fair Known Through Its Paperwork
The standing name in county documents and in Oregon State University Extension’s 2026 fair handbook is Morrow County Fair. Two longer billings circulate and are never merged with it: a tourism rodeo roundup and the Heppner Gazette-Times’ 2024 headline both join the fair’s name to a rodeo, yet the rodeo stands on its own weekend in 2026, so the combined form is no settled name; and Morrow County Fair & Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo appears only inside the county’s 2023 non-profit vendor contract.
Organisation rests with the Morrow County Fair Board, named across the county’s meeting layers and in the sign-off of the 2026 camping form, whose own abbreviation is MCFB. The board’s 2026 layers name conflicting people: a March agenda lists Tylynn Cimmiyotti as Fair Manager, while the August 8, 2026 layer names Erin Heidemann and Sue Gibbs as Co Fair Managers, with Shelby Schoenfelder as Chair — persons in meeting documents, never the organiser itself.
Supporting bodies are never promoted into organisers: the Livestock Growers Association sponsors the youth sale, 4-H and FFA members exhibit, the rodeo organisation is a separate body, and the Chamber of Commerce handles parade entries, not the fair.
Quick Facts
| Detail | What the record shows |
| Event | Morrow County Fair, an annual county fair built around 4-H and FFA exhibits |
| Host town and county seat | Heppner, Oregon |
| Grounds | Morrow County Fairgrounds, 74473 Highway 74, Heppner, Oregon 97836 |
| Organiser | Morrow County Fair Board |
| Season | Mid-to-late August, the third week |
| Recent editions on record | August 16 to 19, 2023; 2024 held, span unrecorded; 2026 opening day disputed |
| Admission | No modern gate price published anywhere; a free gate is documented for 2019 only |
| Fair-week camping | 2026 only, on the football field; one form gives two conflicting weekly figures |
| Founding | Unverified beyond a garbled county history sign whose legible words give a first fair in 1912 |
What the History Sign Can and Cannot Say
No fair-side history page, board statement or edition billing was found in any layer, so the founding rests on one fragile source: a county-hosted history sign whose text extraction is heavily garbled. Its legible sequence says the first Morrow County Fair was held in 1912 on Main Street in Heppner, where the city park now stands; names Wallace Smead; gives L V Gentry as manager in 1922, when the rodeo was organized; and records intermittent years before the fair became annual on moving to the present grounds on Hinton Creek. Because the extraction is garbled, 1912 is carried here with its limits stated, never upgraded into a clean founding claim, and the move is never dated.
For a useful comparison, see the Marion County Oregon Oregon State Fair Festival for another county festival.
Gazette-Times history layers add only that a county fair with a pavilion, a 4-H Club Fair and a Wool and Grain Show existed by the 1930s. The county’s creation in 1885 and Lexington’s 1880s seat rivalry are county history, not fair history. Heppner’s seat is verified independently: the State Library’s Morrow County Resource Atlas states County Seat: Heppner, and an Extension-sponsored county planning layer places the seat almost in the exact center of the county.
What to Expect at the Heppner Fairgrounds
The 2026 Fair as a 4-H Programme
For 2026 the only programme in the record is Extension’s handbook exhibitor programme — a 4-H programme, not a public entertainment bill. Livestock classes cover beef, dairy, goats, sheep and swine, with weigh-ins on Tuesday, August 18 for sheep and meat goats and Wednesday, August 19 for swine and beef. Small animals appear through poultry, cavies, rabbits and pocket pets; the dog show runs that Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; horse classes, judging and showmanship follow. Static exhibits span fiber arts, photography, foods, clothing, horticulture, science and technology, and the Public Style Revue takes the County Fair Main Stage on Wednesday, August 19. The climax is the Morrow County Youth Livestock Show and Sale on Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., selling Swine, Beef, Goat, Sheep, sponsored by the Livestock Growers Association. No 2026 public entertainment or carnival programme was found in any layer, and none is back-filled from earlier years.
Exhibition Halls and a Thursday Tasting in 2024
A Heppner Gazette-Times report of August 21, 2024 proves the 2024 edition held, describing the preceding week: festivities kicked off on a Wednesday, halls held photographs, baked goods, Legos, flowers, drawings and quilts, members showed pigs, chickens, rabbits, steers and sheep, the animal auction closed the week, and Thursday night brought Murray’s Beer and Wine Tasting with live music. All of it belongs to that newspaper layer alone.
The Fuller Programme of 2019, and a 2023 Parade
The richest programme belongs to 2019, in a Gazette-Times schedule layer: ventriloquist Vikki Gasko on stage, the Perry Gerber Band, a free Ice Cream Social, a Chili Cook-off and a Greased Pig Contest. Saturday brought the fair and rodeo parade at 10:00 a.m. downtown and the Youth Livestock Auction in the Wilkinson Arena at 2:00 p.m. Rodeo performances sat inside that week on Friday and Saturday evenings, with a separate local rodeo on Sunday — a 2019 fact only. From 2023, one fragment survives beyond the contract billing: a parade on Saturday, August 19, 2023, entries through the Chamber.
Planning Your Visit
Finding the Grounds, and the Addresses That Are Not the Grounds
Aim for the Morrow County Fairgrounds at 74473 Highway 74, Heppner, Oregon 97836. One county agenda prints that address with a Lena locality suffix; that suffix is one document’s own form, never merged into the address or treated as a second host town. The fair office’s mailing address, Post Office Box 464, Heppner, Oregon 97836, appears in the 2023 contract and the 2026 camping form, and a mailing address is never the street address. The Bartholomew Building, Extension box and Chamber box in the record belong to those bodies alone.
Which Days Count as Fair Days
The county’s 2023 vendor contract schedules the fair for August 16 to 19, 2023, booths in place by the set-up deadline and released the Sunday after. Its set-up line calls that day Monday, August 15th, although August 15, 2023 fell on a Tuesday — a wrong weekday recorded as printed, never silently corrected. For 2026 the layers conflict by one day and stand unmerged: a listing gives August 18 to 22, handbook contest days sit inside it, and a rodeo queen layer gives August 19th to 22nd. Move-in, pick-up and removal days around the span are working days, never public days. A 2019 agenda’s August 18 to 22, 2020 was a planned span only, never proven held.
The Gate Question Nobody Can Answer
Gate admission for 2023, 2024 and 2026 is unverified: no gate price appears in the contract, board layers, handbook or camping form, and the absence of a figure in exhibitor documents is never evidence of free admission. The only free-gate evidence belongs to 2019, when the Gazette-Times schedule headed Friday, August 16 with the words GATE ADMISSION FREE and board minutes of June 12, 2019 planned to publicise a free year. Neither statement may be carried to a modern year, and a listing note that tickets are still to be announced is a placeholder, not a price. Parking and carnival terms are likewise unverified, no carnival provider or figure appearing in any Oregon layer.
Camping on the Football Field
Fair-week camping is documented for 2026 only, in the county’s own Camping Space Reservation Form, which prices the week twice, unreconciled: forty dollars per camper on its face, seventy-five dollars in its camper letter. Both figures stand as printed, never averaged or chosen between, and neither may be carried to another year. Registration falls due August 12, 2026; campers come in August 16 and 17, 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., onto flagged, numbered spaces on the football field, out by Sunday, August 23. No power or water is available on the field or in the bus barn, and generators may run only between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. A tourism layer’s year-round RV sites with full hookups at the grounds publish no rate and no fair-week availability; that layer never converts the football-field term into full-hookup camping, and other years’ fair-week camping is unverified.
Money That Belongs to Exhibitors and Vendors
The few prices in this record sit inside exhibitor and vendor documents and are never gate money. The 2023 contract offers non-profit organisations an Exhibit Hall space for ten dollars; the commercial vendor rate is unverified. Premiums in the 2026 handbook run on points, not dollars — blue ten points, red eight, white six — each point’s value set after the show, so no dollar figure may be attached to any ribbon. Figures in a garbled 1984 premium book belong to 1984 only.
The Shape of Fair Week
The 2026 handbook lets a visitor trace the week’s skeleton. Campers roll onto the football field on the Sunday and Monday beforehand. Tuesday, August 18 opens with the dog show and the sheep and meat goat weigh-ins; Wednesday, August 19 brings the swine and beef weigh-ins and the Public Style Revue. Saturday, August 22 gathers everyone for the Youth Livestock Show and Sale at 2:00 p.m., the week’s one fixed public hour, and Sunday is exhibit pick-up and camper removal.
Fairs and Festivals That Are Not This One
The record’s largest trap sits in Ohio: the obvious web name built from this fair’s name belongs to the Morrow County Fair at Mount Gilead, with its own agricultural society, memberships, harness racing, midway hours and camping rules. None of its dates, prices, programme items or edition claims is an Oregon fact, and its university’s county pages are foreign too — OSU there means Ohio State, never Oregon State University, and the two are never merged. Closer to home, the Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo is a separate sanctioned event at these grounds on August 28 and 29, 2026, with 7 p.m. performances and slacks on August 27 and 28; its dates, entry fees and programme are the rodeo’s, and older combined billings never prove it sat inside the 2026 fair. The local rodeo of the 2019 Sunday is a rodeo form in that year’s layer, never merged with the Pro Rodeo. Morrow exhibits may advance to the Oregon State Fair at Salem under the handbook’s entry rules — a qualification pathway, never a merger. The Umatilla County Fair, Sherman County Fair and Pendleton Round-Up are named only; Heppner’s Saint Patrick’s Festival, Harvest Festival and Watermelon Festival contribute nothing.
A Short Checklist Before You Set Out
- Plan around the third week of August, and confirm the opening day before travelling; the 2026 layers disagree by one day
- If you camp, expect the football field, no power or water, and generator hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Keep the rodeo weekend of August 28 and 29, 2026 separate in your diary; it is not fair week
- Search county and Extension documents, not the web address carrying this fair’s name, which is Ohio’s
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Heppner itself is the first stop beyond the fence: the county seat set almost in the exact center of the county, and the town of the garbled sign’s first fair. The fair still spills into town in parade years, with its Saturday parade downtown in 2019 and 2023. Around it lies wheat and livestock country with small communities such as Boardman, the county’s largest city in secondary layers, and Lexington, Heppner’s old seat rival. Visitors arriving for Heppner’s other festivals are attending different events entirely.
Why This Modest Fair Matters
For Morrow County’s young exhibitors, the fair is the finish line of a year’s feeding, fitting and record keeping, and its Saturday sale turns that work into next year’s project money. The documents behind it are not publicity but the operating record of volunteers and county staff keeping an annual promise. Its endurance, proven by documents written for use rather than for visitors, is the significance: Heppner’s fair survives as a working institution first and an attraction second.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly does the fair take place?
At the Morrow County Fairgrounds, 74473 Highway 74, Heppner, Oregon 97836, in the verified county seat. The office box is a mailing address only.
What does it cost to get in?
Nothing in the gathered record answers that. Gate admission for 2023, 2024 and 2026 is unverified: no gate figure appears in any county or Extension layer, and exhibitor-document silence never proves free entry. A free gate is documented for 2019 only.
When are the fair days?
The season is the third week of August: August 16 to 19 in 2023, an unrecorded span in 2024, and a disputed 2026 week opened on August 18 by one listing and August 19 by a rodeo queen layer, both closing August 22. Move-in and removal days are working days.
Is the rodeo part of fair week?
Not in 2026: the Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo is a separate sanctioned event at the same grounds on August 28 and 29, 2026, a week after the fair. Rodeo performances did sit inside the 2019 fair week, a fact of its own year that never moves the 2026 rodeo into the fair.
What to Expect From the Next Morrow County Oregon Fair Festival
How often is Morrow County Oregon Fair Festival held?
The fair returns to Heppner once every year. County and Extension layers prove editions in 2023, 2024 and 2026.
When is the next Morrow County Oregon Fair Festival?
No future edition’s dates appear in the record gathered; the latest documented edition is the 2026 fair. Mid-to-late August is the season to watch, exact days confirmed nearer the time in county and Extension documents.
Will the dates change?
They have shifted before, and the record disagrees about them: the 2026 opening day is stated two ways, and the 2023 contract mislabels a weekday. Working days around the fair move with each year’s forms, so any single layer’s span should be checked against the newest county documents.
Those documents show a small, durable, youth-centred fair at Heppner, run by its county fair board, surrounded by gaps — an unpriced gate, a disputed opening day, a camping form arguing with itself — left open here rather than filled.
