Perry County Pennsylvania Community Fair Festival

In the middle of August, a small borough in the Juniata Valley fills with the sounds of a working county fair: livestock weighed at dawn, produce and antiques lined up for judging, a tractor parade, and families moving between the animal barns and the stage. That is the Perry County Community Fair at Newport, an agricultural community fair that has kept its character close to the farm, the 4-H club and the exhibit hall rather than chasing a midway spectacle. Its own published names are the Perry County Community Fair and, in short form, the Perry County Fair, and those forms are kept apart here.

Newport is the fair town, and the distinction matters. New Bloomfield is the county seat, verified from the Pennsylvania State Archives county table, and it does not host the fair. The fairgrounds carry the name Perry County Fairgrounds, and the address published in the fair’s own book and repeated in a 2025 community listing is 248 Fairground Road, Newport. No other Newport street address for the grounds appears in the Pennsylvania record, and the personal and mailing addresses printed elsewhere in the book are not the fairgrounds address.

About the Perry County Community Fair

The fair is an annual agricultural community fair, held in mid-August, and its programme is built from the things a farming county actually shows: 4-H, FFA and open livestock shows, a market sale, produce and antiques exhibits, carnival rides sold by armband, a tractor parade, a horse pull, stage entertainment, a fair queen pageant, a chili cook-off and a fair crock and quilt auction.

The fair’s own 2023 book is headed by the Perry County Fair Board, which lists its officers, persons in that book’s layer only. A separate form, the Perry County Fair Association, appears in the book’s scholarship passage, while a state association listing gives the form Perry County Community Fair Assn with a Newport mailing address, and nonprofit-directory layers expand that form to Perry County Community Fair Association. The forms are not merged here, because each belongs to its own layer. Penn State Extension and Perry County 4-H take part through exhibits, shows and clubs throughout the book, but they do not organise the fair, and the Extension office in the Courthouse Annex at New Bloomfield is an office address, never the fairgrounds.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Event	Perry County Community Fair, the annual mid-August agricultural community fair
Host community	Newport, Pennsylvania, a borough; New Bloomfield is the county seat and does not host
Grounds	Perry County Fairgrounds, 248 Fairground Road, Newport
Organiser	Perry County Fair Board, in the heading form of the fair’s own book
Documented 2026 dates	August 18 to 22, 2026, in the state fair guide
Documented 2025 dates	August 12 to 16, 2025, in two fenced community layers
Documented 2023 book	Monday, August 14 through Saturday, August 19, 2023, with a pre-fair service Sunday, August 13
Admission	No general gate price is published in the fair’s own 2023 book; later years unverified
Parking	Five dollars per car, in the 2023 book layer and the 2025 community listing layer
Camping	No Pennsylvania fair-side camping term exists in the record; camping is unverified

A Revival, Not a Founding

The history of this fair cannot be told as a single founding date, and the record is honest about why. The only history statement in the Pennsylvania record is a state release from 2017, which describes a family committed to the fair since it was revived in 1971, with the 2017 Friend of the Fair, Edgar Byers of Millerstown, a fair-board member since 1993 who oversaw parking operations during the fair. A revival follows a lapse: the fair had an earlier existence, went away, and came back. The release publishes no original founding year, and none is supplied here.

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

Two billing layers sit beside that revival statement and must not be used to manufacture a founding year. The fair’s own 2023 book carries a forward line billing the next year as the 53rd Annual Perry County Fair, August 13 to 17, 2024, while a 2025 community newsletter bills the 54th Annual Perry County Fair, August 12 to 16, 2025. The two billings are consecutive as billing, but billing and revival are different kinds of statement, and no year is back-calculated from either of them. The 2024 span itself is a forward billing only in the record fetched, since no fair-side 2024 book was available to confirm the held span.

One more piece of association history belongs in its own layer. The Fair Association’s scholarship programme was first awarded in 2008, funded from quilt-sale money, with the Raymond Britcher Memorial Scholarship endowed by a fifty thousand dollar gift. That is the history of an association programme, not the founding of the fair.

What to Expect

Animals at the Centre

Livestock is the heart of the fair, and the 2023 book shows how thoroughly the week is organised around it. Monday is given to weigh-ins for swine, sheep and goats and steers, together with produce, antiques and 4-H exhibit entry and judging. Through the week the show ring carries dairy goats, dairy cattle, rabbits, breeding and market steers, market swine, market goats and breeding sheep and market lambs, with a dog show, a supreme showmanship contest and the market sale on Saturday.

Exhibits, Rides and Stage Nights

Alongside the animals, the fair runs the full exhibit-hall programme: produce, antiques and 4-H entries judged at the start of the week, a baked-goods sale, with 4-H running Farmer for a Day all week. Carnival rides run by armband in the evenings, and the stage carries a different kind of entertainment each night in the 2023 book, from a variety entertainer and a bluegrass band to a tribute band closing Saturday.

Contests That Belong to the County

Three contests give the fair its local flavour. The Miss Perry County Fair Pageant, open in the 2023 book to Perry County residents ages sixteen to twenty, crowned its queen on Tuesday evening, with prizes of five hundred, three hundred and two hundred dollars. The 15th Annual Chili Cookoff filled Saturday afternoon in the same book, and the Fair Crock and Quilts auction closed Saturday evening. A cornhole tournament, horseshoe pitching, antique tractor games and a lumberjack contest round out a hands-on Saturday.

Planning Your Visit

When to Come

The documented spans, each fenced to its own layer, are August 13 to 19, 2017 in a state release; Monday, August 14 through Saturday, August 19, 2023 in the fair’s own book, with a pre-fair church service on the stage on Sunday, August 13, 2023; August 12 to 16, 2025 in two agreeing community layers; and August 18 to 22, 2026 in the state fair guide. The August 13 to 17, 2024 span is a forward billing printed in the 2023 book, not a confirmed held span in the record fetched. Visitors planning a future edition should confirm the current year’s span from the fair’s own announcements.

What It Costs, and What It Does Not

This is the part of the record where precision matters most, because search results mix this fair with other states’ fairs that share its name. The fair’s own 2023 book publishes no general gate-admission price: no daily gate charge appears in the book fetched. The one fair-side free layer is Wednesday, August 16, 2023, billed as free admission with free ridebands for that day’s programme, with rides starting at six in the evening on free armbands. On the other 2023 days, ride armbands cost eighteen dollars, from six in the evening to closing on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and from four in the afternoon to closing on Saturday, August 19, with half-price armbands to the first 325 customers on Tuesday and Thursday. A general free-admission statement for the 2025 fair exists only in a community-listing layer, not in a fair-published price sheet. Gate, armband and pass prices for 2024, 2025 and 2026 are unverified, and no figure from another state’s Perry County fair belongs here.

Parking, and the Absence of Camping Terms

Parking is documented in two layers that agree: five dollars per car in the fair’s own 2023 book, and five dollars to park in the 2025 community listing. No other year’s parking price, and no pass, shuttle or preferred-parking term, is published in any Pennsylvania fair-side layer, and parking is never described here as free. Camping is a different case: no Pennsylvania fair-side camping rate, hookup, reservation, permit or camper rule appears in the record for the Newport grounds, so on-site camping at this fair is unverified in its entirety. Visitors needing overnight stays should arrange them separately, not treat nearby parks or private campgrounds as a fair camping offer.

A Sample Day at the 2023 Fair

A Saturday in 2023 began at eight in the morning with horseshoe pitching, a forty-dollar-per-team cornhole tournament, antique tractor games and a lumberjack contest. The afternoon brought the 15th Annual Chili Cookoff, the Fuller Family Singers and Huffy the Clown, before the evening market sale. The night closed with OLE ’97, a Johnny Cash and June Carter tribute band, the Fair Crock and Quilts auction, and prize drawings.

How the Perry County Fair Compares

Pennsylvania’s county fairs range from large shows with published gate ladders to small community fairs whose books publish no gate price at all, and this fair sits firmly in the second group. Its 2023 book is rich on programme and thin on visitor pricing: the rides, the pageant prizes and the parking charge are all printed, while the gate itself is not. That is not a gap to be filled from elsewhere. Other states have Perry County fairs with their own books, prices and camping rules, and every one of them is a different fair in a different state; none of their figures, dates or rules crosses into Newport. Its week is organised around 4-H and FFA showing, an open exhibit hall and a market sale.

Visitor Checklist

• Confirm the current year’s dates from the fair’s own announcements before travelling
• Head for Newport, not New Bloomfield: the fairgrounds are at 248 Fairground Road, Newport
• Do not budget from another state’s Perry County fair: its prices and camping rules are not this fair’s
• Plan parking at five dollars per car on the documented layers; never assume free parking
• Treat Wednesday’s free admission and free ridebands as a 2023 layer only
• Arrive early on Saturday for the market sale, chili cook-off or crock and quilt auction
• Do not plan on-site camping on this record: no fair-side camping term exists
• Keep the 2023 armband prices in their year: eighteen dollars on priced days, half price to the first 325 on Tuesday and Thursday

Beyond the Fairgrounds

Newport sits in a farming county where the fair is one week in a longer agricultural year, and the grounds carry that continuity in the historical society’s permanent displays. A visitor with time beyond fair week can follow the same landscape the fair celebrates: the farms that supply the show ring, the small towns along the Juniata Valley, and the county seat at New Bloomfield, whose courthouse annex houses the Extension office. None of those places is the fair, but together they explain why a borough fair still draws the whole county.

Why This Fair Matters

The Perry County Community Fair matters because it refuses to be generic. Its book does not publish a gate price, its history is a revival rather than a founding myth, and its programme is organised around young exhibitors who have spent months preparing animals and exhibits for one August week. The market sale, the pageant, the chili cook-off and the crock and quilt auction are all county-made events. In a search landscape where identically named fairs in other states crowd out the Pennsylvania record, getting Newport right — host town, grounds, dates, prices and quarantines — is itself a service to the reader, and to the exhibitors whose work the fair exists to show.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Perry County Community Fair held?

At the Perry County Fairgrounds, 248 Fairground Road, Newport, Pennsylvania. Newport hosts the fair; New Bloomfield is the county seat and does not host it.

Is there a general admission charge?

The fair’s own 2023 book publishes no general gate-admission price, so no gate charge is asserted for that year. Wednesday, August 16, 2023 was billed in the book as a free admission and free ridebands day, and a 2025 community listing describes free admission generally for that year, but that listing is not a fair-published price sheet. Gate prices for 2024, 2025 and 2026 are unverified.

How much are the rides and the parking?

In the 2023 book, ride armbands cost eighteen dollars on the priced days, from six in the evening to closing on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and from four in the afternoon to closing on Saturday, with half-price armbands to the first 325 customers on Tuesday and Thursday; Wednesday was free. Parking cost five dollars per car in the 2023 book and in the 2025 community listing. No later-year ride or parking price is documented from a fair-side source.

Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?

No Pennsylvania fair-side camping term exists in the record for the Newport grounds — no rate, hookup, reservation, permit or camper rule — so on-site camping at this fair is unverified in its entirety and should not be planned on. Nearby parks and private campgrounds are separate offers, not fair camping.

What to Expect From the Next Perry County Pennsylvania Community Fair Festival

How often is Perry County Pennsylvania Community Fair Festival held?

The fair is an annual mid-August event, documented in 2017, in the fair’s own 2023 book, in 2025 community layers and in the state fair guide for 2026. No discontinuation or suspension appears in the record fetched.

When is the next Perry County Pennsylvania Community Fair Festival?

The latest documented span in the record is August 18 to 22, 2026, in the state fair guide. A future edition beyond that span is not documented in the layers fetched, and its dates should be confirmed from the fair’s own announcements when they are published.

Will the dates change?

The fair has sat in mid-August in every documented layer, from August 13 to 19 in 2017 through August 18 to 22 in 2026, but the exact days have moved within the month from year to year, and the 2024 span in the record is only a forward billing. The month is stable; the exact dates should always be checked for the current year.

The Perry County Community Fair at Newport is, at its best, exactly what its name promises: a community fair, organised by its own board, shown by its own young people, and priced — where prices are published at all — in the plain figures of its own book.