Susquehanna County Pennsylvania Harford Fair Festival
The Harford Fair is the annual August agricultural fair of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, held in the village of Harford, and it is the event this title names. Its own Fair Info page calls it one of the few truly agricultural country fairs which exists today: twenty-three departments of judged exhibits and livestock at the centre. The fair runs for six days in the third week of August, with documented spans of August 11 to 16, 2025, and August 17 to 22, 2026. Two gaps shape any visit: no visitor gate price or parking term for 2025 or 2026 was published fair-side, so both are unverified, while camping is documented in detail, although the camping fee figure itself was never published. Harford hosts the fair; Montrose, the county seat, does not; and New Milford is only the postal town in the grounds address.
About the Harford Fair
The fair’s own account describes a six-day fair with twenty-three departments: handcrafts, school projects, agricultural items, fruits, vegetables, baked goods, animals, photography and artwork. The same Fair Info page carries the fair’s own scale characterisations, approximately sixty thousand visitors and grounds of one hundred seventeen acres, in that page’s layer only.
The organiser throughout is the Harford Agricultural Society, the name the Fair Info page gives with the words officially known as the Harford Agricultural Society, and the same name runs through its entry blanks, its general rules and its camping page. Penn State Extension, Susquehanna County 4-H and the Master Gardeners run programme held at the fair, but they are a programme layer and never the organiser, and no named individual from a department layer is ever a current organiser name.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Event | Harford Fair, the annual August agricultural fair of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania |
| Host community | The village of Harford, in Harford Township |
| County seat | Montrose, which does not host the fair |
| Grounds | 485 Fair Hill Road, New Milford, Pennsylvania 18834, New Milford being the postal town |
| Organiser | Harford Agricultural Society |
| Most recent documented dates | August 11 to 16, 2025, and August 17 to 22, 2026 |
| Admission | No visitor gate price for 2025 or 2026 published fair-side, so the modern gate is unverified |
| Parking | No visitor parking price or term for 2025 or 2026 published, so modern visitor parking is unverified |
| Camping | Documented fair-side for 2026, with sections, deadlines and service rules, but the fee figure unpublished |
History: From Church Sheds to a Six-Day Fair
Officially known as the Harford Agricultural Society, the fair held its first event on November 9, 1858, with seventy-six members, in the sheds around the First Congregational Church in the town of Harford. The one-day event moved to October a few years later, charging a ten-cent entrance fee. The fair became a two-day event in 1865, and by 1880 the one-hundred-seventeen-acre grounds hosted one thousand teams of oxen and three thousand five hundred people.
What the history does not support is any unbroken line from 1858 to today. A reference layer summarising the fair’s record states plainly that there was no fair in 1917 to 1918, in 1942 to 1945, and in 2020, and those gaps defeat any continuous-run claim. The anniversary billings across the layers count years since 1858, not fairs held: a one hundred sixty-seventh anniversary in 2025, a one hundred sixty-eighth fair in 2026, a one hundred fiftieth billing in 2007, one hundred fifty-ninth and one hundred sixtieth billings in 2016 and 2017, and a one hundred sixty-fifth billing in 2023. Those billings do not sit on one reconciled count, so no edition number, founding-derived age or continuous run is ever stated beyond the fenced layers. The fair’s own direct statement, a first fair on November 9, 1858, is the only founding fact, and Susquehanna County’s creation on February 21, 1810, from Luzerne County, is a county date verified from the Pennsylvania State Archives courthouse table, never the fair’s date.
For a useful comparison, see the Sullivan County Pennsylvania Eagles Mere Arts & Crafts Festival for another county festival.
What to Expect
Livestock and Judged Exhibits
The fair’s own 2025 department documents fence the held 2025 week through animals entering on Sunday, August 10, and sheep judging on Friday, August 15; the 2026 Horse page fences 2026 through stock entering Sunday, August 16, after half past one in the afternoon, staying through Sunday, August 23, 2026, with an August 1 entry deadline and a horse entry fee of twenty dollars per animal, exhibitor money only. Beef entry in the 2025 layers is three dollars per animal, sheep, swine and goat entries two dollars per animal, and Parent Pass wristbands ten dollars each in the general-rules layer.
The Main Arena and the Pavilion
The fair’s own Fair Info page, an undated fair-side layer, names three nights of tractor and truck pulls, the rodeo, the horse pulls, the woodsman’s contest and the demolition derby as the main-arena highlights, with equestrian events in the horse arena at the grounds’ north end. Alongside the arena: daily demonstrations including chain saw carving, auctioned on Saturday afternoon, Shade Pavilion acts through the week, the first- and second-place pie and cake contest winners auctioned on Monday afternoon to the Scholarship Fund, and Farmer for a Day with honey and goat-milking demonstrations. No published modern grandstand bill exists beyond those standing families: no named 2026 arena act, concert or grandstand bill was published fair-side, so the named 2026 programme beyond the standing families is unverified, and VisitPA’s 2026 mentions of a turkey calling contest and a livestock skill-a-thon stand in the VisitPA layer only.
Programme Through the Years
The 2025 Penn State Extension layer records the Harford Fair Demonstration Garden and Education Exhibit at the held fair, with a pollinator and agriculture theme. The 2023 Green Pages and Susquehanna County 4-H Roundup layer records the 4-H Roundups held at the fair, including the Dairy Goat Roundup on the Monday of Fair Week at three in the afternoon. The 2016 bill, preserved in Abington Journal layers, stands in those layers only, never as a modern programme: Sunday, Draft Horse and Pony Show, Preliminary Queen Competition, Official Opening, twenty-fifth Annual Queen Coronation, Good News music, fireworks; Monday, Horse Pulling Contest, Baked Goods Auction; Tuesday, Tractor Pull Day; Wednesday, Baby Show, Senior Citizen’s Day; Thursday, twenty-fifth Annual Kiddy Tractor Pull, Chris Janson and Old Dominion concert at half past seven in the evening; Friday, Woodsman’s Contest, Dave Martin’s Championship Rodeo; Saturday, Chainsaw Carving Auction, Jackpot Demolition Derby, with opening ceremonies on Sunday evening, August 21, in the same layers.
Planning Your Visit
Getting There and the Grounds
The grounds form in the fair’s own record is 485 Fair Hill Road, New Milford, Pennsylvania 18834. New Milford is the postal town of that address, and VisitPA and the Pennsylvania guide derivative list the fair under New Milford as a listing shorthand, but neither makes New Milford the host town. No separate mailing address was published fair-side, so the 485 Fair Hill Road form serves as both grounds and entry address.
Admission: What Is Known and What Is Not
No visitor gate price for 2025 or 2026 was published fair-side, so no modern gate figure can be budgeted from the fair’s own record. VisitPA’s 2026 layer states only that visitors can ride all the midway rides for free with the price of admission, a ride-inclusion term with no figure attached, in that layer only. The older gate figures each belong to their own year: the fair’s own truck-pull rules document, uploaded in 2021, requires all truck passengers to pay a gate fee, twelve dollars at the gate or eight dollars presale, corroborated by a 2022 Southern Tier layer in its 2022 frame only. The 2016 layers carry that year’s money alone: six dollars for ages twelve and over, a brochure coupon for half off gate admission on Monday, August 22, two dollars off the ride wristband, five dollars for anyone over sixty on Wednesday Senior Citizen’s Day, free admission on the Sunday opening day in a companion layer, and a 2017 layer’s free parking and admission for those eleven and under. Ticket resale sites contribute nothing here: their generic admission language and demolition-derby sales copy are quarantined entire.
Parking
No visitor parking price or term for 2025 or 2026 was published in a layer fetched, so no free-parking promise and no parking price may be asserted for a modern visit. Free parking stands in the 2016 reportage layers only, including the Sunday opening day in a companion layer. The camping page’s no-parking-passes term is a camping term only.
Camping on the Grounds
The fair’s own Camping Information page, in its current form headed for 2026, requires reservations by July 1, 2026, with payment in full with the form; later reservations are wait-listed and placed only if space remains at the price of that space, the page’s wording; the fee itself is unverified. Camping Sections are A, B, C, D, G, and H, the West Side being the fairgrounds side and the East Side the parking-lot side. Air conditioners may only be run in Sections D, G, and H, which have thirty-amp service, and never in Sections B or C. Campers enter at Gate 3 and must be on the grounds by six in the evening on Sunday, August 16, 2026. No water or electric is available for tents or in the Rustic Ridge Lot, and there is no sewer hookup. No admission passes, exhibitor wristbands, vendor admission passes or parking passes are included with the camping fee. Exhibitors and vendors have priority over vacation campers, permits from the Secretary’s Office must be displayed at all times, no pets are allowed, with a service animal and exhibit exception, and West Side campers may not move out until Sunday after the fair. The 2025 layer differs: its deadline was July 1, 2025, its campers were in by six in the evening on Sunday, August 10, 2025, its air-conditioning rule covered Sections G and H only, and its lot name was the Orchard.
A Sample Day at the Fair
A Saturday visit shows the fair at its fullest. Start among the judged exhibits in the morning, then cross to the horse arena for the equestrian events. Spend the middle of the day at the Shade Pavilion acts and demonstrations, including chain saw carving. The chainsaw carving auction on Saturday afternoon anchors the late afternoon, and the main arena’s evening programme, whether pulls, rodeo or derby in the standing families, closes the day.
How This Fair Compares
Two other fairs share a confusingly similar name, and neither contributes anything to this article. The Harford County Farm Fair of Maryland runs a July span with Harford County 4-H entry mechanics, and it is quarantined entire: a Maryland county named Harford, a July span or a Harford 4-H layer is never evidence for the Pennsylvania Harford Fair. The Hartford Fair of Croton, in Licking County, Ohio, spelled with a T, is a different fair from Harford, Pennsylvania, and none of its dates, prices or programme may be used here. Car shows, horse competitions, 4-H events and meetings at the fairgrounds outside fair week are grounds activity only, and template explainers placing this fair in Harford County are excluded entire.
Visitor Checklist
- Travel to Harford village, not to Montrose; use 485 Fair Hill Road, New Milford being the postal town only
- Expect a six-day fair in the third week of August; confirm the year’s span
- Budget without a published modern gate figure; treat older figures as history
- Do not count on a published visitor parking term
- Campers: July 1 deadline, Gate 3 entry, section and thirty-amp rules for their year
- Walk the full grounds, including the Shade Pavilion, Dining Hall, Founders Museum and New Log Cabin
- Keep the same-name fairs straight: the Maryland Harford County Farm Fair and the Ohio Hartford Fair are different events
Beyond the Fairgrounds
The Endless Mountains country around Harford rewards a longer stay. Harford village and Harford Township sit in rolling country, and the fair’s own Fair Info page places the event in that landscape rather than in any larger town. Montrose, the county seat, does not host the fair.
Why the Harford Fair Matters
The Harford Fair has kept an agricultural centre while so many fairs have drifted toward pure entertainment, and its own record lets a visitor test that claim. Its documented history carries its own discipline: anniversary billings are not edition counts, gaps are stated rather than hidden, and modern unknowns are left unverified rather than filled with borrowed figures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Harford Fair held?
The village of Harford, in Harford Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, at 485 Fair Hill Road, with New Milford as the postal town of that address. Montrose is the county seat and does not host the fair.
When is the Harford Fair held?
Six days in the third week of August: August 11 to 16, 2025, and August 17 to 22, 2026, with earlier spans of August 14 to 19, 2023, August 15 to 20, 2022, and August 22 to 27, 2016, each in its own layer.
How much does admission cost?
No visitor gate price for 2025 or 2026 was published fair-side, so the modern gate is unverified. Older figures, including the twelve-dollar gate and eight-dollar presale of the pull-rules document’s year and the six-dollar 2016 admission, belong to their years only.
Can visitors camp at the fairgrounds?
Yes, camping is documented fair-side for 2026: reservations due by July 1, 2026, entry at Gate 3, arrival by six in the evening on Sunday, August 16, 2026, in Sections A, B, C, D, G, and H, with thirty-amp air-conditioning service only in Sections D, G, and H and no sewer hookup. The camping fee figure was not published.
What to Expect From the Next Susquehanna County Pennsylvania Harford Fair Festival
How often is Susquehanna County Pennsylvania Harford Fair Festival held?
The Harford Fair is an annual fair, held for six days in the third week of August, with documented editions in 2016, 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026, and the reference layer’s gaps of 1917 to 1918, 1942 to 1945 and 2020.
When is the next Susquehanna County Pennsylvania Harford Fair Festival?
No next-edition span beyond the documented August 17 to 22, 2026, week was published, so the next fair should be expected in the third week of August on the established annual pattern, with the exact span to be confirmed when published.
Will the dates change?
The dates have moved within the third week of August: August 22 to 27 in 2016, August 15 to 20 in 2022, August 14 to 19 in 2023, August 11 to 16 in 2025 and August 17 to 22 in 2026, so confirm the year’s span before travelling.
The Harford Fair endures as a six-day August gathering in the village of Harford, organised by the Harford Agricultural Society and judged across twenty-three departments.
