Yates County New York Fair Festival
The Yates County Fair is one of the opening acts of the New York fair season. While most county fairs in the state are still weeks from opening, this small agricultural fair is already under way in early July at the Yates County Fairgrounds on Old Route 14A in Penn Yan. Penn Yan is the county seat of Yates County and hosts its own fair, run by the Yates County Agricultural Society.
The 2026 edition ran from Wednesday, July 8 through Saturday, July 11, with a pre-fair day of set-up, entries and a dog show on Tuesday, July 7. Four public days, packed tightly: livestock judging, a grandstand programme that changes every night, pig racing several times a day, live music in the Entertainment Barn, and a midway lit up in the afternoons and evenings.
Admission in 2026 was ten dollars per person, covering parking, the musical entertainment, every grandstand event, the daily shows and the pig races, with children under thirty-six inches tall admitted free. The one thing the gate never bought was the rides, sold separately by the ride company.
About the Yates County Fair
The fair is presented by the Yates County Agricultural Society, whose constitution is printed in the fair’s own premium book and whose name appears as the operator in the state directory of agricultural fairs. It is the county’s 4-H fair as well as an open fair, with the 4-H programme running alongside the open-class competition.
The grounds hold the buildings of a long-settled county fair: a Grandstand, a Showring, an Exhibit Hall, an Entertainment Barn, the John Andersen Building, an Antique Tractor Pavilion, the 4-H Dairy Bar, and a Fair Office.
For a useful comparison, see the Wyoming County New York Fair Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Fair | Yates County Fair |
| Where | Yates County Fairgrounds, 2370 Old Route 14A, Penn Yan, New York 14527 |
| Host community | Penn Yan, the Yates County seat, which hosts its own fair |
| Run by | Yates County Agricultural Society |
| 2026 dates | Wednesday, July 8 to Saturday, July 11, 2026 |
| Admission | Ten dollars per person; children under thirty-six inches free |
| Admission covers | Parking, musical entertainment, all grandstand events, daily shows and pig races |
| Rides | Not included; wristbands and tickets sold separately |
| Midway operator | Playland Amusements |
| Camping | No camping offer is published by the fair |
A Fair That Paused, and Came Back
The fair’s own 2026 premium book heads itself with the words established 1839 and a masthead line celebrating 187 years. Separately, the fair’s own social description of the same edition calls it the 187th Annual fair. Those billings sound alike but are not the same claim, one counting years and the other editions, and the record does not reconcile them, so both are printed here as billing and neither is merged into fact. No founding year is asserted beyond the fair’s own claim of 1839.
The edition numbers further back are tangled the same way. A family fair guide in June 2023 billed that summer’s fair as the 181st fair; the following February, the local newspaper reported that the 181st edition would have to wait until next year. The same number cannot honestly belong to both years.
What is verified is the pause itself. There was no Yates County Fair in 2024: the postponement was announced before the season began, and the fair did not take place. Older interruptions stand behind that gap too, in the war years and the pandemic era, another reason no unbroken run from the nineteenth century can be claimed.
The fair returned in 2025, when a vendor’s announcement placed its booth at the fairgrounds from Tuesday, July 8 to Saturday, July 12 of that year. That announcement is nearly the whole surviving 2025 record; no edition number, programme or price for 2025 can be documented from it. For 2026 the fair published a full premium book and a complete schedule.
What to Expect at the Fair
Barns, Showring and Exhibit Halls
Livestock is the fair’s backbone. The premium book runs departments for dairy cattle, beef cattle, dairy goats, meat and Boer goats and sheep, and the schedule layers 4-H and open shows over one another: dairy and livestock shows, a dairy goat show, a Boer and meat goat show, a mini horse show, a rabbit and cavy show, poultry showmanship, a pet show, and a dog show on the pre-fair Tuesday.
Away from the animals, the Open Class Domestic Arts department is the book’s largest run of classes, and the Exhibit Hall, open from one in the afternoon until ten at night, gathers the 4-H and open exhibits. The Antique Tractor Pavilion shelters the county’s older machinery, and the 4-H Dairy Bar does the week’s steady trade in cold drinks and fair food.
Four Nights, Four Different Grandstands
Every grandstand event is inside the ten-dollar gate, and the week builds deliberately. Wednesday evening opens with a 4X4 truck tug of war paired with a truck drag race showdown. Thursday brings the Farm Tractor Pull at five in the afternoon. Friday raises the stakes with the Outlaw Pulling Series at six, a sanctioned stop with its own published rule book. Saturday closes the fair at seven with the Total Destruction Demolition Derby, the loudest night of the four.
Pig Racers and the Midway
Several times a day, every day, the pig racers run. The act is billed on the fair’s information page as Rosaire’s Royal Racers and in the schedule as Rosaire’s Royal Pig Racers, two published spellings for the same troupe.
The midway belongs to Playland Amusements: rides from four in the afternoon on Wednesday, and from one in the afternoon on Friday and Saturday. Ride money is entirely separate from gate money, as the planning section sets out.
Music in the Entertainment Barn
The Entertainment Barn carries the evenings after the grandstand. In 2026 its bill had Ethan Wooley on Thursday night from eight until eleven, Logan Route and the Unparallel Band on the Friday layers, and Dirt Child closing the fair on Saturday night from eight until eleven.
Contests and the Named Days
Around the headline events sit smaller ones: youth eating contests, a Kids’ Day drawing, cornhole and darts tournaments, 4-H mannequin modeling and public presentations, and a Cornell Cooperative Extension day. Wednesday in 2026 was EMS Day and Thursday was Firefighter and Law Enforcement Day, and on each day a badge holder who showed a badge was admitted free, one person per badge.
Planning Your Visit
The Gate, and What It Buys
Budget around one firm figure: ten dollars per person at the gate in 2026, children under thirty-six inches tall free, and absolutely no refunds on gate admission, as the fair states plainly. For that ten dollars the fair’s own list gives you parking, the musical entertainment, all grandstand events, the daily shows and the pig races.
Ride Money, Kept Separate
Rides are the one real extra. The fair’s 2026 schedule sold wristbands by session: Thursday evening from six until ten for thirty dollars a person; Friday from one until five for twenty-five dollars and from six until ten for thirty dollars; and Saturday at thirty dollars a person for either session. In the ticket-only windows, Wednesday from four until ten, Thursday from four until six, and the hour between five and six on Friday and Saturday, rides ran on tickets alone: one ticket for one dollar and fifty cents, twenty tickets for twenty-five dollars, forty-two for forty-five dollars, and one hundred forty-four for one hundred forty dollars, with each ride taking three to five tickets.
Wednesday held the week’s quiet bargain: that first midway evening was Buddy Day, when two people could ride on one set of tickets, so a pair sharing a bundle stretched it twice as far as on any later day.
A Sample Saturday at the Fair
Start late morning with the barns and the Showring. Give the Exhibit Hall its hour after lunch and walk the Antique Tractor Pavilion on the same circuit. Catch a pig race mid-afternoon; they run several times daily and cost nothing beyond the gate. If rides are on the list, the afternoon wristband session runs from one until five. Eat from the fair’s stands and the 4-H Dairy Bar, take a grandstand seat well before seven for the demolition derby, and end the night in the Entertainment Barn, where Dirt Child played the Saturday slot in 2026.
Ground Rules Worth Knowing
No pets are allowed, though specially trained service dogs and guide dogs are welcome. Shirts and shoes are required, and bicycles, scooters, skateboards, cans, glass bottles, large coolers, firearms, drugs and laser pointers are all prohibited. Law enforcement and first aid are on the grounds at all times, and anything lost should start its search at the Fair Office, the lost and found point.
Sleeping Over, Honestly
The fair publishes no camping offer: no hookups, tent sites, campground or overnight fee appears in its 2026 book, schedule or information pages. That absence is stated plainly rather than filled in from other Finger Lakes fairs, several of which do publish camping, so anyone staying over should arrange a room or site around Penn Yan independently.
How the Yates Fair Sits Among Its Neighbours
Timing sets this fair apart in its region. Most New York county fairs cluster in August, but Yates opens in the first half of July, when the calendar is nearly empty, making Penn Yan the season’s first full stop.
Its charging model is a middle path. Some fairs sell a bare gate and charge again for the grandstand and the car park; a few still bundle the rides into one pay-one-price ticket, as a 2023 guide described this very fair doing at twelve dollars including all rides. The 2026 Yates model is neither: one ten-dollar admission swallows parking, shows and grandstand whole, leaving only the midway outside the price.
A Fair-Day Checklist
- Bring the gate money in hand, ten dollars per person; children under thirty-six inches tall enter free
- Decide the ride plan before you arrive, wristband session or ticket bundle, against the published sessions
- Aim for Wednesday’s Buddy Day if two riders want to share one set of tickets
- Leave pets at home; only specially trained service dogs and guide dogs are admitted
- Pack within the fair’s rules, with no glass bottles, cans or large coolers
- Badge holders: carry the badge on its named day, Wednesday for emergency medical services, Thursday for firefighters and law enforcement
- Allow time for the barns in the morning and the Exhibit Hall after one
- Do not count on camping at the fairgrounds; the fair publishes no camping offer
Beyond the Fairgrounds
Penn Yan repays the visitor who arrives early or stays a day longer. It is the county seat, its courthouse and county business gathered in a compact centre near the fairgrounds, and it stands near the northern end of the east branch of Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. The lake shapes the country the fair serves: vineyard slopes and crop farms above the water, marinas and swimming places along the shore. A fair trip pairs naturally with a drive down either shore or a swim on a hot July afternoon before the evening grandstand.
Why a Small Fair Carries Weight Here
Yates County is farm country, and its fair is the one week when that fact is put on public display in the county seat. The premium book’s departments, the 4-H shows beside the open classes, and the dairy bar all point the same way: a working showcase for the county’s agriculture, not a carnival with animals attached.
The recent history gives that showcase an edge of relief. A fair that can skip a year, as this one did in 2024, is a fair whose return rests on the society and its volunteers deciding to do it again. The full premium book and packed schedule published for 2026 read, in that light, as a statement of intent to stay.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does admission cost, and what does it cover?
In 2026 admission was ten dollars per person, with children under thirty-six inches tall admitted free. The one payment covered parking, the musical entertainment, all grandstand events, the daily shows and the pig races.
Does the gate price cover the midway rides?
No. The fair states it plainly in its own information: rides are not included. Wristbands and tickets were sold separately by the ride company in 2026, wristbands priced per person by session and tickets in bundles. Older listings describing admission as including all rides describe an earlier model from a previous year, not the 2026 fair, and should not be used to plan a budget.
Did the fair really skip a year recently?
Yes. There was no Yates County Fair in 2024; the local newspaper reported early that year that the coming edition would have to wait until the following year. The fair returned in 2025 and published a complete book and schedule for 2026. Because of that gap, and older gaps behind it, descriptions of the fair as running without interruption since the nineteenth century are billing, not history.
What are the overnight options for fair week?
The fair publishes no camping offer of any kind, no sites, hookups or overnight fees in its book, schedule or information pages. Staying over means arranging accommodation in or around Penn Yan through ordinary channels.
What to Expect From the Next Yates County New York Fair Festival
How often is the Yates County New York Fair Festival held?
It is an annual fair, held once a year in early July by the Yates County Agricultural Society. The modern pattern is four public days, Wednesday through Saturday, preceded by a Tuesday of set-up and entries that is not a public day. The missed year in 2024 stands as the documented exception to the rhythm rather than a change to it.
When is the next Yates County New York Fair Festival?
The next edition is expected in early July of the coming year, on the fair’s pattern of opening in the first half of the month, most recently Wednesday, July 8 to Saturday, July 11 in 2026. Exact dates rest with the society’s announcements and premium book; confirm them there before planning around a particular day.
Will the dates change?
They can, and this fair’s recent past proves the point. The 2024 edition was postponed out of existence before its season began, the 2025 fair ran five days against 2026’s four, and the state directory has listed this fair’s dates as still to be decided even in a year when the fair itself had fixed them. Early July is the settled season; the precise days are settled year by year.
The Yates County Fair asks little of its visitors: ten dollars, a July day, and a willingness to watch a farming county show its work. It gives back a full grandstand, a midway, barns full of prize animals and a fair small enough to learn on foot in one visit. After a year in which it did not happen at all, that ordinary pleasure is the point.
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