Rutland County Vermont Vermont State Fair Festival
For five days in mid-August, the Vermont State Fairgrounds in the City of Rutland fill with dairy cattle, show rings, a midway and a grandstand bill. It is Vermont’s state fair, held in Rutland County and managed by the Rutland County Agricultural Society.
A State Fair in the City of Rutland
The Vermont State Fair is an annual five-day agricultural fair in mid-August, held at the Vermont State Fairgrounds in the City of Rutland, Tuesday through Saturday in its standing season. Its programme families cover dairy cattle, livestock and 4-H shows, horse shows and pulls, ox pulls and tractor pulls, culinary and produce competitions, the midway, Wee Wee Piggy and Goat Racing, bingo, and grandstand motorsports and concerts.
The fair is managed by the Rutland County Agricultural Society, and that name must be kept exactly as published. The Society’s own 2026 program carries the president’s letter signed for the Rutland County Agricultural Society and the Vermont State Fair, and the same manager form appears in the Chamber history layer and in the DigInVT layer. A separate form, the Rutland County Agricultural Society Foundation, appears in the president’s 2026 letter as the recipient of donations for the Save the Gatehouse initiative. That foundation is never the fair’s manager. Officers named in the 2026 program’s board page are persons in that layer only, never the organiser, and neither the State of Vermont, Rutland County nor the City of Rutland is the organiser on this record.
Vermont uses shire towns, and the City of Rutland is Rutland County’s shire town, proven from the Vermont Statutes alone, Title 24, section 12. Here, and here only in this Vermont run so far, the shire town does host the fair: the grounds at 175 South Main Street are in the City of Rutland. Rutland town is a separate municipality surrounding the city, and no layer fetched places the fair in Rutland town. Say the City of Rutland, never bare Rutland, for host and shire town.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Vermont State Fair, Vermont’s state fair |
| Host city | The City of Rutland, which is also the shire town |
| Grounds address | 175 South Main Street, Rutland, VT 05701 |
| Manager | Rutland County Agricultural Society |
| Standing season | Five days, Tuesday through Saturday, in mid-August |
| 2026 edition | August 18 to August 22, 2026, billed the 180th |
| 2027 edition | August 17 to August 21, 2027, billed the 181st |
| 2026 gate | Seven dollars on Tuesday, with day-by-day tiers in the fair’s own program |
| 2026 parking | Free Parking, in the fair’s own 2026 program wording |
| 2026 camping | Full hook-ups sixty dollars per night, in the fair’s own 2026 camping form |
From a Society to a State Fair
The fair’s own 2026 program history traces its roots to 1845, when the Rutland County Agricultural Society was formed to encourage better farming practices and to organise an annual exhibition. The first Rutland Fair was held the following year, in 1846, near Castleton. 1845 is the Society’s formation year in that layer, never the first fair. The Chamber and DigInVT history layer tells the same opening differently: it calls the original event the Rutland State Fair in that layer only, says the first fair took place in a field near Castleton as a one-day event, and names Fredrick Button as the first president of the Society in that layer.
For a useful comparison, see the Orleans County Vermont Fair Festival for another county festival.
Then the permanent-home question splits the record, and the split must be left open. The fair’s own program history says the fair found a permanent home in 1859 on land just south of the city, with a deed requiring an annual agricultural fair. The Chamber and DigInVT layer says the fair was given a permanent home in 1856, and names the land at 175 South Main Street in the City of Rutland as originally known as Rutland County Park. The years 1859 and 1856 conflict between the fair’s own layers, and neither may be printed as settled.
During the 1918 influenza epidemic, public gatherings were prohibited, making 1918, in the program’s own words, the only year the fair was completely cancelled. In the Second World War, officials preserved the annual tradition by hosting one-day 4-H and Victory Product Shows in 1942 and 1943, until the full fair returned in 1944. No layer fetched documents the 2020 edition either way, so nothing about 2020 may be asserted. In 1972, the Rutland Fair officially became the Vermont State Fair in both history layers.
What to Expect
The barns and the show rings
The livestock and 4-H programme is the daily heart of the fair, and the fair’s own history bills the 4-H program as a fair within a fair. In the 2026 program’s daily schedules, the 4-H Building, the Horse Barn, the Dairy Barn and the Small Farm Animal Exhibit open from ten in the morning until nine in the evening each day.
The midway and the grounds acts
The 2026 program’s daily bill names the Hocus Pocus Magic Show, Lew-E’s Comedy Circus, Diving Dogs, Arestovs Acrobatics, Pirate Man Dan, Wee Wee Piggy and Goat Racing, and bingo.
The grandstand, night by night
The 2026 grandstand bill is day-mapped. Wednesday brings the DNA Demolition Derby to the grandstand at seven in the evening. Thursday brings tractor pulls to the grandstand at seven in the evening. Friday brings SOS Motorcycle Racing to the grandstand at half past six in the evening. Saturday brings country artist Charlie Marie to the Sugarhouse Stage and Aaron Lewis and The Stateliners to the grandstand at eight in the evening. No separate grandstand ticket price was published in a fair-side layer fetched. The 2025 bill in listing layers, including Oliver Anthony Music on Saturday, August 16, 2025, stands in 2025 only.
Planning Your Visit
Getting in: the 2026 gate, day by day
Admission must be read year by year, because the fair’s own record publishes a complete gate schedule for 2026 and nothing comparable for any other year. The fair’s own 2026 program, on its Fair Hours and Admission Prices page, gives the complete schedule: Tuesday, August 18, Seven Dollar Day, seven dollars for ages six and over; Wednesday, August 19, Children’s Day, fifteen dollars for adults thirteen and over, seven dollars for seniors sixty-five and over, ages twelve and under free; Thursday, August 20, Veteran’s Appreciation and Senior Day, fifteen dollars for adults, seven dollars for children six to twelve, ages five and under, veterans and seniors free; Friday and Saturday, fifteen dollars for adults, seven dollars for seniors and children six to twelve, ages five and under free. Children five and under and military with identification are free every day in that program’s rules, and credit card fees apply.
The 2025 gate stands in a thinner layer. Happy Vermont’s fair-supplied layer for 2025 gives only a range, admission seven to fifteen dollars, with children five and under admitted free every day and military in uniform admitted free every day. The two military wordings must never be merged: military with identification belongs to the 2026 program, and military in uniform belongs to the Happy Vermont 2025 and 2026 listing layers. The 2027 gate is unverified.
Parking and camping
Parking is free in the fair’s own 2026 wording, with the words Free Parking on the Fair Hours and Admission Prices page of its own 2026 program, and that edition’s fair-side term must not be stretched. No fair-side free-parking promise exists for 2025.
Camping is documented in full for 2026 and for no other year, in two differently labelled layers that must never be merged. The fair’s own 2026 Camping Registration Form documents fairgrounds camping with categories for Vendor, Ag-Cattle, Ag-Horse, Ag-4H and Patron. A Patron category exists on the form, so camping is not exhibitor-only on this record. The form’s tiers are full hook-ups, water, sewer and electric, at sixty dollars per night; water and electric hook-ups at fifty dollars per night; and dry camping, no utilities, at thirty dollars per night. Generators are prohibited, all camping on the fairgrounds is by permit and payment in full is required in advance, one vehicle per unit, pets leashed in the camping area only, quiet time midnight to seven, no awnings. The rental page’s second table, differently labelled, gives sixty dollars for electric and water, fifty dollars for electric, and thirty dollars for no electric and water, with no per-night wording. The two tables stand unmerged.
A Sample Itinerary
A first-time visitor with one full day at the 2026 fair could start at ten in the morning in the barns, moving from the Dairy Barn to the Horse Barn and the Small Farm Animal Exhibit while the judging rings are working. The afternoon is the time for the pulling arena and the horse shows, and for the daily grounds acts on the Sugarhouse Stage and around the grounds. The evening should be kept for the grandstand, whichever night’s bill the visitor has chosen, with the midway after the show.
How This Fair Compares
The comparison with other Vermont fairs turns on scale and status rather than on shared details. The Champlain Valley Fair and Exposition at Essex Junction is a different Vermont event, not a state fair, and none of its dates, prices or camping terms may cross into this record. This fair is a state fair held in a county, managed by a county-named society. Same-grounds rentals, horse shows and markets are not the fair.
Checklist
- Aim for the City of Rutland, at 175 South Main Street, and remember that Rutland town is a separate municipality that hosts nothing on this record.
- Treat the fair as a state fair, managed by the Rutland County Agricultural Society, and never shrink it into a smaller event.
- Use the 2026 gate schedule only for the 2026 edition, and wait for the fair’s own program before assuming any price for a later year.
- Plan barn and exhibit time between ten in the morning and nine in the evening, and keep an evening free for the grandstand bill.
- If camping, use the 2026 form’s tiers and rules only, with permit and payment in full in advance, and keep the rental page’s table separate.
- Expect no verified account of a 2020 edition, and do not claim an unbroken run of full fairs against the program’s own cancelled and reduced years.
Beyond the Fairgrounds
The City of Rutland rewards a longer stay than the fairgrounds alone. The city grew up around the fair’s grounds and the railways that once added cars for fair visitors, and the South Main Street address sits in a city whose shops and streets are the natural complement to a day among the barns. None of those places is the fair.
Why the Fair Matters
The Vermont State Fair matters because it has survived, in one form or another, from a society formed in 1845 to a five-day mid-August event billed for its 181st celebration in 2027, and because it has done so by staying an agricultural fair rather than becoming a generic festival. It is a state fair managed by a county-named society, in a city that is also the county’s shire town, and that precise combination, proven from the statute and the fair’s own record rather than assumed, is what makes it worth the trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a state fair or a local fair?
It is Vermont’s state fair, held at the Vermont State Fairgrounds in the City of Rutland and managed by the Rutland County Agricultural Society. No fair-side layer calls it a county fair.
Where exactly is the fair, and who hosts it?
The fair is at 175 South Main Street, Rutland, VT 05701, in the City of Rutland. The City of Rutland is Rutland County’s shire town under Title 24, section 12 of the Vermont Statutes, proven from the statute alone, and in this case the shire town does host the fair. Rutland town is a separate municipality and hosts nothing on this record, and the mailing form, Post Office Box 10, Rutland, Vermont 05702, is mailing only, never the grounds address.
What did admission cost in 2026?
The fair’s own 2026 program gives the complete gate schedule: Tuesday, seven dollars for ages six and over; Wednesday, fifteen dollars for adults thirteen and over, seven dollars for seniors sixty-five and over, ages twelve and under free; Thursday, fifteen dollars for adults, seven dollars for children six to twelve, ages five and under, veterans and seniors free; Friday and Saturday, fifteen dollars for adults, seven dollars for seniors and children six to twelve, ages five and under free. Children five and under and military with identification are free every day in that program’s rules.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?
Camping is documented in full for 2026 only, in the fair’s own 2026 camping form, with full hook-ups at sixty dollars per night, water and electric hook-ups at fifty dollars per night, and dry camping at thirty dollars per night, for Vendor, Ag-Cattle, Ag-Horse, Ag-4H and Patron categories, by permit and payment in full in advance, with generators prohibited, one vehicle per unit, pets leashed, quiet time midnight to seven, and no awnings.
What to Expect From the Next Rutland County Vermont Vermont State Fair Festival
How often is Rutland County Vermont Vermont State Fair Festival held?
The fair is held annually for five days in mid-August, Tuesday through Saturday in its standing season. Its own program bills the 2026 edition as the 180th and the president’s letter in that program bills the 2027 edition as the 181st celebration, but those ordinals are billing only and no founding year may be back-calculated from them.
When is the next Rutland County Vermont Vermont State Fair Festival?
The next edition billed in the record is August 17 to August 21, 2027, in the president’s letter in the fair’s own 2026 program, billed there as the 181st celebration. Gate, parking and camping terms for 2027 are unverified.
Will the dates change?
The dates have changed before, and they may change again. The fair once ran nine to ten days in early September in reference layers, and the dates were changed to a five-day mid-August fair in 2016 in those layers. Recent spans are August 12 to August 16 in 2025, August 18 to August 22 in 2026, and August 17 to August 21 in 2027 as billed.
The Vermont State Fair endures because it has never stopped being an agricultural fair, even when fire, epidemic and war forced it to cancel, shrink or rebuild.
