Fall Fair Season in Maine

From Fryeburg Fair to the ML&Co. Fairground Collection

There's something about the fall fair season in Maine that makes it feel official.

The leaves are turning, the mornings are getting colder, and suddenly everyone is digging out their favorite flannel shirts, boots, and jackets. It's time for livestock shows, harness racing, midway rides, enormous pumpkins, and the unmistakable smell of fried dough. Or Italian sausages.

We've been to plenty of the smaller agricultural fairs around our part of Maine over the years, but somehow never made it to Fryeburg Fair, the biggest of them all.

Pat has friends who camp out at Fryeburg every year. One of the guys has a harness racing horse, so for them, fair week is practically an annual residence change.

This year, we finally decided to see what all the fuss was about.

A Little Bit of Everything

If you've ever been to a Maine agricultural fair, you know that the midway is only part of the attraction.

And at Fryeburg, there's an awful lot more to see.

We wandered through displays of new campers, saunas, jacuzzis, tractors, and snowmobiles, stopped to admire the draft horses, and made our way through the small animal barns.

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Then there were the exhibit halls, filled with the results of a year's worth of gardening, baking, knitting, preserving, and all manner of domestic accomplishment.

Ribbons everywhere.

For the knitters, the bakers, the gardeners, and the jammers. Jam makers, that is. Although I wouldn't rule out a musical category somewhere on the grounds.

There's something wonderful about seeing all that effort displayed and judged. Beautiful handiwork, carefully tended produce, homemade preserves, and baked goods, each with its own little ribbon attached.

And apparently, you can shop for a sauna while you're at it. Which is rather convenient.

Flannel, Fairgrounds & Gale Force

For all its size, Fryeburg still has that wonderfully informal Maine atmosphere. Casual, unhurried, and thoroughly unpretentious.

I saw more older gentlemen in flannel shirts than just about anything else.

There were exactly two women sporting the polished equestrian look—tall riding boots, leggings, and cream jackets. Everyone else seemed perfectly happy in jeans, hoodies, ball caps, beanies, and whatever jacket was warm enough to stand up to the wind.

And what a wind.

The sun was shining, but it was blowing a gale across the fairgrounds.

I wore cargo pants, a white jacket over a red-and-black buffalo check vest, and thankfully a white mock turtleneck underneath. Though the chill didn't stop me from devouring the blueberry crisp smothered in caramel drizzled ice cream—along with wisps of my hair in every bite.

What I hadn't brought were gloves. A warm headband wouldn't have gone amiss, either.

And after several hours of walking, I was beginning to appreciate everyone carrying a backpack.

My crossbody purse was fine for the essentials, but a proper daypack would have been even better.

Particularly if you planned to do any shopping.

Most vendors weren't supplying bags, and the ones available for purchase were a tad pricey—and a tad small. Suddenly, a roomy tote or lightweight backpack seemed less like an accessory and more like essential fairground equipment.

Comfortable shoes, of course, are nonnegotiable. Along with the blueberry crisp.

Cart Pulling & Pulled Pork

One of the things I really noticed (and loved) was how horses were part of the entire fair—from the barns to center field. The harness racers were moving along the track right beside the pedestrian walks, so it's impossible to miss all the action.

We never did make it into the grandstand, which I wish we'd done. But with so much to see, the afternoon got away. We finally wrapped things up with pulled pork sandwiches we scarfed at a shared picnic table in the buzzing racetrack tent. That's where spirits ran high from horse betting to wine and beer.

A pretty good place to finish a day at the fair, if you ask me. By then, I'd developed a new appreciation for fairground camping, fairground footwear, and a bag big enough to handle my expo hall hauls!

All that flannel, fairground color, and country style followed me home. Before long, four new heritage plaids—Fryeburg, Fairfield, Fayette, and Farmingdale—appeared as our new ML&Co. Fairground Collection, along with our Ag Fairs of Maine 1818 Heritage hoodies.

Take a peek at the full Fairground Collection story!