The Oldest Fairs in Alabama

Scottsboro's Jackson County Fair is a beloved north Alabama tradition serving the communities of the Tennessee Valley in Jackson County. This five-day fair at the Jackson County Fairgrounds celebrates the agricultural heritage of one of Alabama's most scenic counties, nestled between the Tennessee River and the Cumberland Plateau.

Dothan's National Peanut Festival is one of Alabama's largest and most beloved annual events, celebrating the region's status as the center of America's peanut production. Since 1938, it's brought Alabama neighbors together year after year. Held at the National Peanut Festival Fairgrounds, this nine-day festival combines the best of a traditional county fair with a celebration of the humble but mighty peanut.

Held each September in Bay Minette, Baldwin County Fair celebrates the agricultural, seafood, and beach resort heritage of Alabama's largest county by land area — a county whose economy spans from traditional agriculture in its pine-covered northern reaches to the spectacular white sand beaches and tourism of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

The Alabama National Fair & Agricultural Exposition in Montgomery is Alabama's premier state-level fair, held at the Alabama National Fair Grounds. Founded in 1954, it has grown into a beloved annual event for the region. This 11-day major fair celebrates Alabama's agricultural heritage with championship livestock competitions, major entertainment acts, and one of the largest midways in the Southeast.

The Shelby County Fair, based in Columbiana, is an August fair in the fastest-growing county in Alabama, celebrating the timber, iron, and suburban heritage of a county that has transformed from a rural Appalachian foothills community into one of the South's most dynamic suburban corridors south of Birmingham.

The DeKalb County Fair in Fort Payne is an October fair in the Lookout Mountain country of northeast Alabama, celebrating the poultry, sock manufacturing, and outdoor heritage of the "Sock Capital of the World" — DeKalb County once produced more socks than any other county in America, and its Lookout Mountain plateau and Little River Canyon are among the most spectacular landscapes in the state.