We came here on the first Saturday it was open and it was extremely crowded. They had several parking lots that costed $15 so we went to the one that did not have a price on it as we assumed it was free. It ended up being $10 which we didn't know until we were already inside the lot. Then we had to wait for the tractor tram to take us to the side door which had a lot of dust. I ended up using a napkin to cover my nose so I wouldn't breathe it in. There is an admission fee which is $10 per person then inside, there was no map so we peed in a porta potty. I had a good time looking at the horses, cows, pigs, and goats. They were super close up and the opportunity to see such a view is very rare. The carnival games were very expensive, Ferris wheel was $6 per person and there is a fee to buy a card to allow you to ride the rides, and there is a credit card convenience fee for every purchase. A corn dog was $8 and also had a cc fee. The lines for each ride was about 20-30 minutes. I usually go to the Howard county fair which was way cheaper. They had free parking, rides were only $2 per person on the Thursday I went, and admission fee was cheaper. read more

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Great is one word to describe the Frederick Fair. Enormous Gargantuan Huge-gantic a few others. Luckily I got there at around 3 in the afternoon. By the time I left there were lines of cars stretching for miles in each direction trying to get into the fair. They had rides galore. Like there was at least like 4 different rides that resembled Tilt-O-Whirls. There was funnel cake, bbq, popcorn, nuts and everything else you'd expect to be a at a large fair. And then there was the animals section. Hundreds of animals that included, but was not limited too: sheep, cows, goats, rams, horses, donkeys, geese, turkeys, pigs, and more. A special baby animal tent where you could see animals that had recently been born. A swath of of educational farming activities and exhibits. I mean, it was surely a farmers dream. The 4H kids there were competing and showing their animals. An experience that I have never had before. Ever seen someone bring out a goat by holding it's head and trot it around for a judge to see what pedigree it was. It was like a dog show but with cows and goats and what not. They had a small beer garden at one end of the fair where I was able to try a "Feed The Monkey" beer which, as expected, had subtle notes of banana and burnt sugar. And to top it off, the Amish were there, selling their amazing pretzels, whoopie pies, and more. One thing is for sure; People in Frederick are serious about their fairs. read more

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I heard the phrase "never again" by fellow visitors as I walked through the fair. Too many visitors. Too many fights by grown men. Not enough police. The food was good but the lines were not worth the wait. The prices of treats like cotton candy and candy and caramel apples were appalling. Ten dollars $10, for a bag of cotton candy? Really? Eight dollars $8 for an apple? Unbelievable! It was thievery. Never again! read more

Frederick's Fair is pretty much a tradition if you live in Frederick, and it's really not to be missed. The marketing for the fair is great- I downloaded the app this year, and it told me when a baby calf was being born! It was kind of a weird text to get, but hey, it was cool. I really like the fair for the food- where else can you get walking tacos and fried oreos and whoopie pies all in one place? But I also like the wide range of rides and games for little kids- makes it easy to head over for the evening and know everyone in the family will have a good time. However, I'm not a huge fan of the prices for ride tickets. Some of the rides kids can only ride with parents- like the merry go round and the giant 3 story slide. So we paid 3 tickets apiece, almost $7 for me and my daughter, to ride the merry go round. That's robbery practically. Thankfully most rides don't require a parent- but even so, most rides were 3 tickets... pretty steep if you have more than one kid. Over the years, I've learned a few tricks- 1. the first Saturday is the most crowded day. I always go on the first Sunday, it tends to be far less crowded. Early afternoons are also a good time to go during the week- crowds tend to be light between 2pm-5pm... 2. Its good to have cash, but lots of vendors take credit cards nowadays 3. Food prices can vary pretty widely- I'm always on the lookout for the $2 hot dogs and $3 snow cones, which all tend to be farther from the kids ride section... the closer to the rides you get, the higher the prices can be for kid-friendly food One thing I regretted this year was that I didn't get a fair tee-shirt. I'll know for next year... read more

Great Frederick Fair - The view from the kids section - Festivals Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

Over all we had a good time but I was really disappointed in the staff this year. Most of the staff were not checking to make sure the kids were well strapped in before starting the rides. I hope next year they do better staffing and training. read more

Ah, what's not to love about the Great Frederick Fair?! If farm animals, delicious greasy food, wine & beer samples, and/or fun is your thing...you need to check this event out. Take it from a Frederick local of 22 years. My favorite part about the Frederick Fair is just how big it is. There is so much to see and do, you'll spend hours there without feeling bored. There is just about every farm animal under the sun and most of them are friendly enough to pet. There are always baby piglets too, which is a personal favorite of mine. There is food around every corner. Literally. I would personally recommend checking out Hemp's sandwiches. They have the BEST country ham and you can get a platter with tons of ham, a bun, coleslaw, and French fries for just $11. The amount of ham they give you is enough for two sandwiches. Trust me on this one. There is a Distillery/winery/brewery section that allows free samples of delicious local brews! While I was there I got to check out flying dog brewery, linganore winery, and McClintock distilling! Keep in mind that the fair is a very, very busy place, so hold on tight to your kiddos! Parking is usually pretty cheap; I found a spot for $5 and you can park for as long as you'd like. Check out the great Frederick Fair! You won't be disappointed. read more

I have been eating lunch at the fair for over 15 yrs. parking has always been free til now. I will not pay for parking to grab a sandwich. This is a big disservice to your vendors. I eat a t the fair atleast 3 times a week with 10-15 coworkers. Seems the great Frederick fairs main concern is ticket sales. read more

It's great fun! And it's big. So take your time to explore and consider going more than once during the week. One section of the fairgrounds is taken up with rides, games, and horrible junk food. In another section, you can check out all the farm animals. And in another, you can see the entries in the county cookie-contest, photo contest, cake-decorating contest, etc. I found that to be quite charming. In the remote corners of the fair, there are good eats to be had. There are concerts every night, mostly big-in-the-80s rock and country stars. The demolition derby is the only disappointment. The area is too small and the cars don't have enough room to work up much speed or maneuver. Fender-bender derby would be more accurate. read more

September 14-22 2007 is the 145th Great Frederick Fair. Which it looks like I will sadly miss this year. One of the few since about the 110th GFF that I will miss. But the Frederick Fair is always a hoot, and if you are anywhere close, there is no excuse to miss it! Particularly enjoyable is the demolition derby on Tuesday night. One of the highlights for carnivores (and one of the hardest things for me to give up!) are the sandwiches from Hemps butcher stand and the country ham sandwiches at Burtner's stand. But you can still get a fried oyster sandwich at most of the myriad volunteer fire department stands. Of note is the dairy barn where you will see plenty of Holsteins and quite possibly a gaggle of my cousins. But I am partial to the goats myself. One day, one day, mark my words, I am going to get some land enough to have my own goats. Now, if I can just get the wife to agree... (she's terrified of animals - she doesn't mind picking up spiders, but she'll run screaming from a kitten or a puppy. go figure!). read more

Great Frederick Fair - Festivals Near Me - Frederick, Maryland

OKTOBERFEST was in the Hizzouse!!! Like, there was tons of authentic German beer. Who's compaining??? Not me... AWESOME!!!

Frederick is a city steeped in farm history, with plenty of rolling farmlands still taking up much of our land area today so it really should come as no surprise that we are a proud country folk. Although our fairgrounds are not exactly the largest around, the fair is still a serious business for "Frednecks" alike. Kids in the Frederick County School System even get a half day off which we call 'Fair Day' (generally a Friday) during the fair week to attend! The Great Frederick Fair (GFF) is much like any other fair, except generally we have an agriculture theme, aptly name "Great Ag-spectations". It focuses on celebrating the old ways of agriculture, and inviting in the new. We have plenty of exhibits and shows on farming equipment, animals, etc. There are a lot of animal competitions and plenty of people from various farms, 4H and other agriculture clubs get their chance to show off their years worth of toil spent on their animals. There are lots of things for the kids, too! A farm animal Petting Zoo is always a staple and the Birthing Center generally has new born baby piglets to gawk at with child-like wonder and fascination at new life. The public is also invited to make their way through the various livestock barns, which I find always amuses children. Make sure if you do that, though, that everyone is wearing sneakers! Obviously, it gets a little messy in the barns. As well, we have the usual competitive fair exhibits with everything from gardening, quilting, sewing, baking, arts, photography and beyond. They are in buildings that are generally open late in to the evenings. Rides and games are, of course, a common part of afternoon and evening fair events. There are lots of ways to save on admission and ride tickets, such as coupons in the local paper ('The Frederick News Post'), pay-one-price days, and admission packages offered both at the gate and GFF website. The biggest things at the fair are generally the concerts and motorsports shows. Motorsports include a demolition derby, tractor pull and a truck pull too. I'm not much in to motorsports myself, so I will talk only about the concerts. Again, we are but humble country folk, so the biggest Frederick-based radio station around here is country station 99.9 WFRE. Clearly, we are not going to be booking punk-rock bands for our fair. *laugh* In the past we have had quite a few bigger name country stars. This year (2010) we have lined up Rodney Atkins, Lonestar, JoDee Messina, Kevin Skinner, Craig Moran and Danny Gokey. Last but not least, the only reason I personally go to the fair, the food. Oh, lord, the food. FAIR FOOD. Once a year we all line up for a sumptuous greasy feast. Everything from hamburgers, hot dogs, pulled pork, funnel cake to fried-whatever-you-want. Lemonade squeezed right in front of you, gourmet caramel apples, fudge, ice cream, popcorn, cotton candy... we don't skip a thing! You CAN'T miss local Hemp's Meats foodstand where they make the BEST bbq sandwichs, nor do you want to skip out on the caramel apple and fudge stand inside one of Commercial exhibit buildings in front of the track where they have the BEST caramel apples made with granny smith apples and homemade caramel with a large variety of choices. All in all, if you like fairs and you aren't scared of a few rednecks, this is definitely one of things you want to do in Frederick if you happen to be around in September! read more

This fair has lots to offer. I like it for the animals mostly but the freak shows are fun too. We paid a buck to look at a 3 foot woman watch TV in a cage. AWESOME! The real draw though is to just sit on a bench and watch the subhumans of Frederick make their annual trip into town to the fair. Oh man, more mullets and Trans Ams than you could imagine! read more

My kids love going to the Frederick Fair, we don't miss it, being a country boy, I love the tractor pull myself

Excellent fair-as always. One complaint though: we have tickets to see The Doobie Brothers here tonight at 7:30. No mention of an opening act, but one played anyway-for 45 min. Would have liked to know so I wouldn't have sat here sweating for no reason. Also-it's a weeknight. It's 8:30 and no Doobie Bros yet. RUDE AND MISLEADING read more

First timer to this fair. The grounds had a lot going on but the fair itself was very small. It needs to be expanded, especially from the amount of people that go to this fair. Beef it up a bit and add more rides. We will definitely be back. read more

Recently visited the Fair with the family and the parents. Noticed there are NO marked handicap parking spots close to the gates or accessible. The Fair is NOT handicap accessible that we could see. No handicap parking is seen or set aside, no signs directly you to any spots, some were so far away, in the back of the parking areas that defeat the purpose of having handicap parking. My wife is handicap and we could not find any close handicap parking - even the parking guides had no ideal where it was and said they thought it sucks too. We asked the cop, he had no clue. No drop off points for elderly or handicaps. The workers enjoy prime parking, the cops, the medics, the vendors all get good close parking (they should be parking in the outfield and paying customers get the prime spots, right?), everyone else get to hike a long way unless you get lucky and find a spot. We were there after 5 PM so this was the case. Suggestion 1: PUT HANDICAP parking up front in all the parking lots, set aside alot of spots for these handicaps and elderly folks. Put up SIGNs and clearly mark the spots. Inside the gate parking should be set aside for handicaps not vendors or cops or deliverly trucks, etc. I saw many elderly and handicaps dragging themselves thru the outer parking areas, the poor souls had to walk a long distance and then throw in the walking inside the Fair itself. Suggestion 2: Provide FREE handicap and ederly transport using a golf cart or gator to selected drop points thru out the Fair grounds - FREE. Also have folk outside the gates to transport handicaps and elderly to specific drop points thru out the parking area. In the case of people really need help - drop them off near their cars (this would be very nice PR thing to do). This is done at RV and Boat shows and many event we been to. Keep in mind - your mom, dad, grandparents, handicaps, vets, etc., they want to enjoy this too and if you look around at the Fair and you don't see many, many of these peoples, well, this likely the issue. So, in light of this issue - I think the Fair planners FAILED - the Great Frederick Fair 2019 sucks! read more

Lost or had an IPhone stolen Sun 17th at the Fair. Whoever found it turned it off so we couldn't track it via ICloud. Had to leave Fair without it, but it then showed up on ICloud a few hrs later. Sent coordinates to Fair Security who said "that's the trailers where the worker's live". Supposed sent someone to retrieve it, only to report "we knocked, no answer". Phone came back up in exact same location today. This time we called Frederick County police. They immediately went to trailers and retrieved phone from what I'm assuming was a very surprised worker. Kudos to the Frederick Cty police, but why would my family ever go back to this place? read more

Pure fun! Always have good food and good concerts! Great for the whole family!

Definitely a "Do Not Miss This" experience. Everybody near Frederick should visit the fair at least once in their lifetime. Especially if you have kids (and even if you don't) read more