Seventeen county fairs sit on our 2026 New Jersey calendar. The first gate opens July 7 in Millville and the last one closes September 20 in Ridgefield Park, so the whole county fair season compresses into about ten weeks.
Six of the seventeen list free admission. Eleven list a ride midway. Four list fireworks. Those three filters change which fair you actually want more than the county line does, so they are called out below alongside the dates.
July 2026: ten fairs, one very crowded week
Ten of the seventeen fall in July, and on July 25 six of them are running at the same time.
Cumberland County Fair in Millville opens the season July 7 and runs through July 11. Its listing covers animals, competitions, live music, rides and fireworks, which makes it one of only four county fairs here with fireworks on the feature list.
The Shore picks up next. Ocean County Fair in Berkeley Township runs July 15 to 19 and carries a founding year of 1947 in our records. Farther south, Cape May County 4-H Fair runs July 16 to 18 in Cape May Court House. Cape May's listing has no rides, so plan it as an animals and competition fair rather than a midway night.
Then the pile-up. Burlington County Farm Fair in Columbus runs July 21 to 25. Monmouth County Fair in Freehold runs July 22 to 26. Gloucester County 4-H Fair in Mullica Hill runs July 23 to 26, records a 1947 founding, and is the only listing in this directory that carries an attendance figure, roughly 20,000. Morris County 4-H Fair in Mount Olive runs July 24 to 26 with animals, competitions, food and kids activities, and no rides. Mercer County 4-H Fair in Hopewell Township is the shortest of the group, two days on July 25 and 26, with free admission.
The longest July run belongs to Warren County Farmers' Fair in Harmony Township, July 25 through August 1, which carries a hot air balloon festival in its own title. July closes with the New Jersey State Fair and Sussex County Farm & Horse Show in Augusta, opening July 31 and running to August 8. At nine days it is the longest run on this calendar, and at 1940 it carries the earliest founding year of any county fair in our records.
August 2026: six more, split north and south
Salem County Fair in Pilesgrove runs August 3 to 7, records a 1959 founding, and pairs free admission with fireworks and no ride midway. Middlesex County Fair in East Brunswick shares that August 3 opening and runs a full seven days to August 9 with rides, fireworks, crafts and live music.
Somerset County 4-H Fair in Bridgewater runs August 5 to 7 with free admission, crafts and competitions, and no rides. Atlantic County 4-H Fair in Mays Landing is a two day fair on August 7 and 8, and it is one of the few that combines free admission with a ride midway.
Passaic County Fair in Woodland Park runs August 13 to 16 and is the other free admission fair with rides, plus fireworks. Its listing carries no competition flag, which fits a fair leaning more toward festival than show ring. Hunterdon County 4-H & Agricultural Fair in Lambertville closes the month, August 19 to 23, with animals, crafts, competitions, rides and live music.
September 2026: the last one
Bergen County 4-H Fair in Ridgefield Park runs September 18 to 20 and is the only county fair on this calendar after August. It sits in the Gateway region, the state's urban northeast, and it lists free admission, rides, crafts, animals and kids activities. If the July stack came and went, this is the last county fair of 2026.
The six free admission county fairs
Atlantic, Bergen, Mercer, Passaic, Salem and Somerset all list free admission. Free admission is not a free day. Rides, food and parking are priced separately wherever they exist, and among these six only Atlantic, Bergen and Passaic list a ride midway at all.
If a low cost afternoon is the goal, Mercer and Somerset are the tightest fit: free admission, two and three days respectively, animals and competitions and kids activities, no midway to negotiate with a seven year old.
What a New Jersey county fair actually contains
Most of these are 4-H fairs, which means the core of the event is youth exhibitors showing livestock, produce and project work in judged classes. Eight of the seventeen carry 4-H in the name itself. All seventeen list animals and fourteen list competitions, so the show ring, not the midway, is the common denominator.
Crafts appear on eight of the seventeen listings, usually as an exhibition hall of judged home arts sitting alongside the livestock barns. Live music appears on fifteen, which at a county fair generally means a local or regional act on a grandstand or tent stage rather than a ticketed headliner. Only Morris and Salem list no live music at all.
Rides are the real variable. Middlesex, Monmouth, Burlington, Cumberland, Ocean, Passaic, Warren, Hunterdon, Atlantic, Bergen and the New Jersey State Fair all list them. Cape May, Gloucester, Mercer, Morris, Salem and Somerset do not, and at those six the evening winds down when the judging does.
Planning around the overlaps
July 25 is the single hardest date to plan. Mercer opens, Warren opens, Burlington is on its final day, Monmouth and Gloucester and Morris are all mid-run. If you want two fairs in one weekend, that is the weekend, and Mercer to Somerset or Burlington to Monmouth are the shortest hops.
If you would rather not fight the crowd, the season has two quiet ends. Early July gives you Cumberland alone, and mid to late August thins out to Passaic and then Hunterdon before the calendar goes empty until Bergen in September.
Always confirm gate hours and any ticketing directly with the fair before you drive. Our listings carry dates, towns and features, not hours or prices.
