"It's like a big reunion," Fair President David Hastings said about the 176th Fryeburg Fair. It opens Sunday, October 4, and runs through Sunday, October 11. For people who live a mile from the gates, the reunion also comes with a budget. A lot of the food sold on the grounds is cooked by Fryeburg-area churches and service clubs. For at least one of them, the fair booth is now its most important source of income. So the fair's calendar is also the fundraising calendar for those groups, and this year the calendar changed back.
The Ninth Day Is Gone
In 2025 the fair added a day at the front. It started Saturday, September 27, which was also the last day of the Cumberland Fair. The Portland Press Herald reported in March that the overlap caused tensions between the two agricultural fairs. For 2026 the West Oxford Agricultural Society has returned to an eight-day program.
The prices show the shorter week. Daily admission is still $15, the same as in 2025. The weekly pass dropped from $115 for nine days to $100 for eight. You can only buy the weekly pass in person at the fair. Children under 12 get in free. On Tuesday, visitors 65 and older also get in free. If you buy a daily ticket online, a $2 processing fee brings it to $17, so buying at the gate saves a little. Parking on the grounds is $5, or $15 for premium.
A shorter fair also means fewer shifts for volunteers. In 2025, Rotary District 7780 listed the Fryeburg Area Rotary's Potato Booth under the Grandstand with three volunteer shifts a day across the nine-day run. If the club uses the same pattern this year, that's 24 shifts to fill instead of 27. For a booth staffed by neighbors, three fewer shifts is a real difference.
Who Is Behind the Counter
The 2026 fair map lists the Congregational Church Dairy Bar, Denmark Lions Food, and Fryeburg Lions Food among the food stops. The fair's Independent Midway sets aside vending space for local nonprofits during the eight days. Here's what the records show about some of those booths. Some details are older, and the dates are given so you can see how current each one is.
- Fryeburg Area Rotary, under the Grandstand. The club's website lists loaded baked potatoes, gourmet hot dogs, red dogs, breakfast hoagies, and homemade chocolate-chip cookies. It says fair proceeds go to local needs, including scholarships for local high school students.
- Fryeburg New Church. The church's booth started in the fall of 1953. A late-2024 article in the Swedenborgian Messenger called it the church's most significant source of income. The booth is known for "Fayah Burgahs," beans, chili, and pies. The church reported more than 1,000 volunteer hours during the fair. It gives leftover food to a local pantry and makes room for other nonprofits.
- First Congregational Church of Fryeburg's Dairy Bar. The church's September 2018 bulletin called the Dairy Bar a major fundraiser for the congregation. That year it sold Shain's of Maine ice cream all day during the fair. The Dairy Bar is on the 2026 map. The ice cream brand is the 2018 detail.
- Denmark Lions. An undated Conway Daily Sun archive story profiled a booth volunteer who had cooked chowder for 13 years. It said the booth raised $12,000 to $15,000, about three-quarters of the club's budget. That money went to area recreation, Bridgton Hospital, seeing-eye dogs, Boy Scouts, and scholarships. Those figures are from the past. The booth itself was confirmed at the fair in 2025.
- First Church of Christ, Congregational, North Conway. A booth from across the state line, known for blueberry crisp. The church had sold it at the fair for 27 years as of the 175th fair, and volunteers made 390 pans the year before that story. Local businesses, including Camden Bank, have sent volunteers to help.
Fryeburg Academy Project Graduation has listed parking cars at the fair among its past fundraisers for the senior trip. That page is from 2016, so treat it as history, not as this year's plan. Rustic Taps is confirmed for 2026. It runs a beer tent on the north side of the track with wood-fired pizza, and a second tent on the south side near the Natural Resources building.
The Week, Day by Day
The grounds are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Exhibition halls and the Farm Museum are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and craft demonstrations at the museum run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Night shows start at 8 p.m. and are included with admission.
- Sunday, October 4. Opening day includes the Dairy Goat Show, the Firemen's Muster, Lawn Mower Races, the first of four Pig Scrambles, Sheep Dog Trials, Draft Horse Pulls, and the Tractor and Big Rig Pull. The program marks a Dynamometer truck pull as new this year, with a 3:30 p.m. slot.
- Monday, October 5. The 58th Woodsmen's Field Day starts at 9 a.m. and runs all day, with 30 events including springboard chop, log rolling, and ax throwing. The fair's 2026 program lists the Women's Skillet Throw at 11:30 a.m. and the Men's Anvil Throw at 1:30 p.m. Entries for both close at 10:30 a.m. The Conway Daily Sun's preview says the skillet throw starts at noon and is open to anyone, and that sign-up is at the Livestock Office. If you're planning to throw, go by the program's earlier time. Peter Allen & Hurricane Mountain play that night.
- Tuesday, October 6. Senior Citizens Day. Harness racing starts at 1:30 p.m. and runs at that time through Saturday. Plain White T's play that night.
- Wednesday, October 7. Craig Morgan.
- Thursday, October 8. Recycled Percussion.
- Friday, October 9. Fryeburg Academy's calendar lists this day as "No School - Fryeburg Fair Day." The Castellows play, followed by fireworks.
- Saturday, October 10. The morning parade, the afternoon midway, and harness racing all fall on this day. Motor Booty Affair closes the night shows.
- Sunday, October 11. Last day. Harness racing moves to noon.
The Farm Museum is adding demonstrations of homemade corn brooms, canoe making, and wooden spoon production this year. The rubber duck races and ice cream making are still on the schedule. Dreamland Amusements' unlimited-ride wristbands cost $30 Monday through Thursday. On both Sundays, Friday, and the last Saturday they cost $35, so a Monday-to-Thursday visit saves $5 a child.
Getting Home on Route 5
The fair's own program says Saturday traffic has historically been the heaviest, because of the parade, the midway, and the races. It recommends arriving early and staying late, and it includes an alternate-route map covering Routes 5, 113, and 302. Your exit depends on where you parked. Cars parked north of Swan's Falls Road are sent north toward Lovell. Cars at the Swan's Falls Gate and anywhere south of it are sent south toward Conway. If you live north of the fairgrounds, parking on the north side gets you sent the right way. If you live toward Conway, the south lots do the same.
Heading west to Conway, there's road work this year. Conway's Main Street Project has the Route 113 and Route 16 approach under construction. Selectmen agreed that contractor A.J. Coleman and Son Inc. can do limited work during fair week. That work is next to Eastern Slope Dental at 51 White Mountain Highway and stays out of the travel lanes. Selectmen did not allow any work on Columbus Day, Monday, October 12. Paving is planned for October 15. Once the project is done, it adds a second westbound lane on Route 113 in front of the Conway Public Library, the lane toward Fryeburg. Completion is projected for October 2027.
So the fair's last Sunday leads straight into a holiday Monday, with Conway's paving starting a few days later. Schools, booth volunteers, and commuters all plan around the same eight days, from October 4 to October 11, and nobody is sharing a weekend with the Cumberland Fair this year.
Fair week is one of the stretches our team at Pinkham Real Estate plans around too, from Route 5 traffic to who is staffing the booths. If you're looking at homes in Fryeburg or nearby, we're glad to talk through how the town works week to week.