The Oldest Fairs in Florida

Tampa's Florida State Fair is the state's premier agricultural exhibition, a twelve-day February event drawing over half a million visitors to the Florida State Fairgrounds each year with world-class entertainment, livestock shows, and a massive midway. Launched in 1904, the fair has held its place in Florida agricultural life for generations.

The Central Florida Fair, based in Orlando, is an eleven-day early-March fair in the heart of America's theme park capital, drawing visitors from across Central Florida to one of the Southeast's premier county fair events each spring. The fair got its start in 1910 and has remained a Florida agricultural mainstay ever since.

West Palm Beach is home to the South Florida Fair, which is a seventeen-day January spectacular, one of the largest and most attended fairs in the Southeast drawing over a million visitors to the Palm Beach Fairgrounds each winter season. First held in 1912, it's carried on as a Florida agricultural tradition for well over a hundred years.

Lee County anchors Southwest Florida's most vibrant metropolitan area, centered on Fort Myers — home of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford spent winters alongside Harvey Firestone — and encompassing Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Cape Coral (one of the nation's fastest-growing cities), and Fort Myers Beach. The fair got its start in 1919 and has remained a Florida agricultural mainstay ever since.

The Pensacola Interstate Fair is one of the largest fairs in the South, an eleven-day late-October through early-November celebration in Pensacola drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from the Florida-Alabama Gulf Coast region. The fair began in 1935 and has remained a community tradition ever since.

Tallahassee's North Florida Fair is a major eleven-day November fair in Florida's capital city, one of the premier agricultural fairs in the Southeast drawing visitors from across the North Florida and South Georgia region. Since 1939, it's brought Florida neighbors together year after year.

The Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition is the largest county fair in the United States, a twenty-five-day March through April event drawing over a million visitors to the Miami Fairgrounds each year with an unmatched blend of multicultural community celebration and traditional fair entertainment. Founded in 1952, it has grown into a beloved annual event for the region.

The Jacksonville Fair is a major eleven-day November celebration in Florida's largest city by area, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to one of the Southeast's premier fair events each fall. Founded in 1955, it has grown into a beloved annual event for the region.

The North Florida Livestock Show and Sale is a regional 4-H and FFA youth livestock exhibition hosted at the Madison County Extension Arena, drawing exhibitors from Madison, Jefferson, Suwannee, Hamilton, Lafayette, and Taylor counties each February.

Broward County is South Florida's second-most-populous county, anchored by Fort Lauderdale's beaches, the Greater Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the Everglades National Park western edge, and a diverse urban community that extends from the coast to the edge of the Everglades in a county with no traditional rural agriculture but a fair tradition rooted in its suburban communities. Founded in 1976, it has grown into a beloved annual event for the region.