The Durham Fair

Giving it a Fair Shake
Durham
September 2023

As a general rule, I do not write about Connecticut’s town fairs unless they have a superlative attached to them like the Brooklyn Fair (the oldest fair in the US). However, several have museums onsite and therefore I must go.

The Durham Fair does, indeed, include the Durham Fair Farm Museum. Open 4 days a year every September!

I realize that less than a tenth of a percent of fair visitors pay the extortionary parking fees, walk the mile, pay the entry fee, head straight to the farm museum, eat nothing, buy nothing, and leave. In fact, I might be the only person to do that. Ever? Ever.

So why are you, dear reader, getting a bonus Durham Fair page on CTMQ? I’ll tell you why…

For one, it’s the largest country fair in Connecticut. But that alone doesn’t warrant CTMQ-inclusion. How about this: For many years (though I don’t know how many), The Durham Fair was a “US Largest.”

That’s right, it was the largest country fair in the United States staffed entirely by volunteers. And that’s pretty cool. What’s not cool is that some other fair, somewhere, took the crown at some point in the last decade. That leaves us with this:

The Durham Fair is staffed entirely by volunteers; in fact, it is the second largest fair in North America without paid management or employees. In addition to the members of the Durham Agricultural Fair Association and other volunteers, local organizations such as schools, churches, clubs, civic groups, and more, participate in the fair to help raise funds for their organizations.

Oh, excuse me, in North America! I’ve poked around and can’t find the definitive “largest country fair staffed entirely by volunteers.” This bothers me more than it should.

Moving on… while we’re here, we might as well learn about the fair and its history. The whole shebang is owned and operated by the Durham Agricultural Fair Association, Inc., a private, not-for-profit corporation. Recognized by Connecticut Magazine as the Best Country Fair in the state – something I hear locals saying year after year.

This year (2023), the fair secured Rick Springfield and Lee Greenwood as their Friday and Saturday headliners. But let’s go back over a century to the beginning: on June 16, 1916, it was voted and approved to hold a fair in Durham.

At subsequent meetings, it was voted to make the general admission fee 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children ages 5 to 14 and to allow schoolchildren to exhibit in Town Hall free of charge. At the September 22, 1916 meeting, it was voted to have music at the fair with the cost not to exceed $50. A feature of the first fair and every fair through 1924 was a parade down Main Street, which began at Burckel’s Corner (intersection of Haddam Quarter Road and Main Street). The parade was discontinued after the 1924 fair because of traffic concerns.

There were “traffic concerns” in 1924?! If you’ve not been to the Durham Fair in the 21st century, lemme tell you about “traffic concerns.” I visited on Friday morning, and it was still a bit of a mess. I cannot imagine what it’s like on a Saturday afternoon. (The town does a great job managing this with a million satellite parking lots and shuttle buses, but still. This is Durham we’re talking about, a town that sees traffic exactly four days per year.)

The fair grew from a one-day event, to a two-day event in 1922, to a three-day event 1951, to four days in 2010. Sure, they missed a few years due to WWII and the COVID pandemic, but even Hurricane Gloria in 1985 couldn’t shut it down completely. Volunteers get things done.

Of course, it has grown in size as well. The Association has made numerous land purchases and there are now several permanent buildings onsite. The first fair drew 2,000 people from pretty much just Durham. Now, if the weather is good, the fair may draw over 200,000 people from all over Connecticut and surrounding states. In 1916, less than $300 was paid in prize money, while currently, over $90,000 is paid.

This is a well-oiled machine. I’ve never really heard anyone complaining about the Durham Fair, and this year it rained pretty heavily over the weekend. People just don’t care because people love these town/country fairs. I’m just… not there yet.

But I’ve come to appreciate them. Even if they’re literally all the same. The same greasy food vendors, the same rickety rides, the same weird produce and baking competitions, the same tween crews sneaking vapes, the same old tractors and the same vendors selling stuff you don’t need. As a local, I’m sure it’s cool to go with friends and to run into more friends. So I get it. I do.

Sort of. Everyone I saw was smiling and having fun, which is great! But I’ll never understand the vegetable judging or the fashion choices, but that’s fine.

And fair.

The Durham Fair
CTMQ visit to the Durham Fair Farm Museum
CTMQ’s Parades, Fairs, Festivals, Events, & Resorts