Participants from the 2023 Hardwick Fair take part in the lumberjack competition.
Photo credit: Neil Halin
HARDWICK — The Hardwick Community Fair, dubbed the “Oldest Fair in the United States,” is making its return for the 262nd year on Friday, Aug. 16 and Saturday, Aug. 17.
The two-day fair features multiple events, contests, exhibits and demonstrations.
Admission is free and so is parking. The full fair schedule and any information can be found at www.hardwickfair.com.
Hardwick Community Fair Secretary Lisa Cohen talked about how special it is to help plan the historic event and see it come together.
She said, “It takes so many volunteers and so many thousands of hours of volunteering and you think you have all this time because you have a year from the last fair and all of a sudden August hits and so many details to work out but it is always worth it Friday night when the fair opens and all the people start coming to the town common.”
When the fair officially starts on Friday, Cohen said its pretty emotional for her to see everybody start showing up.
“I get choked up. It really is a whole community event,” Cohen said.
She also urges everyone to come enjoy the event.
Cohen said, “Come and have fun. Go to every exhibit. See everything. Enjoy everything the fair has to offer, the community of the fair. Its rare that an event is non-commercial in today’s world. This is not a commercially sponsored, it’s not a big glitzy fair, we don’t have carnival rides. It’s just a small-town homey, welcoming event. We want people to bring their families and enjoy the two days.”
The mountain bike ride/race and running of the road race will take place on Saturday at 9 a.m.
A lot of the same exhibits, demonstrations, events and vendors are returning, according to Cohen.
Most notably, in 2024, a variety of food will be served by three outside food vendors, including Trolley Dogs, Big T’s Jerky and BBQ and Grub Guru.
Fair volunteers will continue to offer a pancake breakfast, the ice cream booth, cotton candy and our merchandise booth. 100% of proceeds from these four areas return to support the fair.
The lumberjack contest, a bunny rabbit agility exhibit, the frog jumping contest, cow judging and sheep shearing and spinning demonstration are a few fan favorite events, according to Cohen but added, “I don’t think there’s any part of the fair I don’t love.”
She added, “It’s actually gotten difficulty to schedule everything because there’s no way to schedule things where there’s no overlap so that’s been a challenge for us to schedule events but it also shows that people want to be part of the fair and they want to show off their connection to agriculture.
Cohen doesn’t think anyone every count the total attendance of the event but her “ballpark” guess is more than 5,000 people.
To Cohen, the fair is about agriculture which she calls “a thriving, current practice.” She added, “This is not just a historical reenactment, this is what this town is about. We have a really vibrant agricultural community.”
With the fair going on for so many years, Cohen said this event is something people from all ages can enjoy and continue to bring their families to each year.
She said, “Its intergenerational. We have people from little, little kids for their first fair to people who’ve been part of the fair for seven decades, eight decades and it brings everybody together. There is so much division in the world right now, to have an event where people just gather and celebrate. The joy that the fair brings is so important.”
Besides enjoying the event as a bystander, Cohen said it is fun to also enter whatever event or contest you see fit.
She said, “Enter your commodities. People of all ages are invited to their fruit, their vegetables, their flower arrangements, their arts, their crafts, their photographs. Anybody can enter. You don’t have to be from Hardwick and you get bragging rights from those ribbons.”
The 2024 Harwick Fair is dedicated to Terry Briggs who was lawyer that Cohen described as “instrumental” in helping the fair get its 501c3 status and setting up the bylaws.
“He was a real supporter and proponent of the fair and it was an absolutely natural choice to honor his involvement and his memory by dedicating the fair to him,” Cohen added.
One message that Cohen said on behalf of the whole Harwick Fair Board is that no dogs are permitted on the fairgrounds unless they are service animals.
“It’s generally a hot day, there’s a lot of people, there are agricultural animals that are shown. It’s just not safe either for the people’s dogs or for the animals at the fair. It’s in the program but every year people bring dogs and it’s just not a smart choice,” she said.
