Overview The Great Geauga County Fair is Ohio's oldest continuous county fair, held every year since a one-day 'Fair and Cattle Show' in Chardon in October 1823, straight through the Civil War, two world wars and the Great Depression. It runs five days over Labor Day weekend, Thursday through Monday, on the county fairgrounds in Burton, in Geauga County's Amish and maple syrup country, and the 2026 fair was the 204th. The nonprofit Geauga County Agricultural Society runs it, with a board of directors drawn from each of the county's 16 townships; the society is the oldest organization in the county. On site Fairgoers work the whole grounds, from the midway rides to the livestock barns, exhibit halls and live shows, past more than 12,000 exhibits. Several buildings are 19th century: the Domestic Arts Hall (built 1856, rebuilt 1889) and Flower Hall (1890) are on the National Register of Historic Places, the Small Grandstand is a replica of the circa-1892 original, and the fair office sits in a section of the old C and E Interurban railway station. Ten People Movers carry visitors from their cars to the entrance. The contest program includes frog jumping, chicken flying, rooster crowing and a diaper dash. A Junior Fair for local youth, started in 1938, runs alongside, with a livestock sale and horse shows on the schedule. Track record The fair grew out of a 'jollification' the Umberfield family, among Burton's first settlers, held in June 1798. At the first formal fair in 1823, rail pens went up on the Chardon square and domestic goods were shown in the log courthouse; the best bull took a $10 premium, and Judge Peter Hitchcock, later chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, gave the address. After alternating between Burton and Chardon, the fair settled in Burton by the mid-1800s. The 2025 fair counted 294,269 visitors. Brand presence Sponsors buy in by level, from Platinum down to Bronze, for logos on the fair homepage and fair banners, social posts, mentions in the daily fair email, PA announcements on the grounds and recognition at the society's annual dinner, plus fair tickets; contributions are tax-deductible on request. A brand can also hang banners of about 5 by 3 feet along the People Movers, or put its name on one of the contests with a small banner, PA reads and a spot on the contest's web page. A Fair Day sponsorship sits above the levels.