The Oldest Fairs in North Carolina

Raleigh's North Carolina State Fair is one of the Southeast's premier annual events, drawing over a million visitors to the capital city for eleven days of world-class entertainment, agriculture, and tradition. Its history stretches back to 1853, placing it among North Carolina's oldest agricultural fairs.

In Fayetteville, the Cumberland County Fair is an eleven-day event serving one of North Carolina's most populous counties, drawing large crowds from the Fort Liberty military community and surrounding region. It's been held since 1868, one of North Carolina's most enduring county fair traditions.

Winston-Salem is home to the Forsyth County Fair, which celebrates the Moravian heritage and tobacco manufacturing legacy of one of North Carolina's largest cities — Winston-Salem was built on Reynolds Tobacco and Hanes textile money, and the county's fair tradition draws from both its urban Piedmont Triad community and the farming families of its rural areas. A 1882 founding makes it one of North Carolina's longer-running agricultural traditions, still going after more than a century.

Every year, Fletcher hosts the NC Mountain State Fair, which is a ten-day Western North Carolina showcase drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the Southern Appalachians for championship livestock, entertainment, and mountain culture. The fair has been running since 1994, building a following across the surrounding area.