Maricopa County Fair

To inspire leadership and education in our youth and provide a venue to showcase their talents and to celebrate the agricultural heritage of our community.

Your support of the Maricopa County Fair will help further the mission and efforts to develop and educate youth, promote agriculture and the arts, and provide a venue for celebrating our community. We invite you to be a part of a long standing and dedicated organization that, in the last three years, has helped our youth raise over $3 million dollars to help them provide and prepare for their futures.
For over 50 years the Maricopa County Fair has been the premier event that has brought the community together. The fair is a family friendly community minded experience which celebrates heritage, tradition, the arts, agriculture, education and our youth. Entertainment offerings serve as a great attraction that immerses diverse communities into a shared experience.
Each year over 3,000 youth and adults compete in a variety of contests that challenge the use of creativity, ingenuity, talents and skills. There are competitions to bake the best cakes, create the best quilt, paint a beautiful portrait, capture the emotion of a family experience in a photo, make the tastiest jams or jellies, or raise the best livestock. All in an effort to rise to victory and be awarded a first place or possibly even the coveted title "best of show".
While the fair is truly a fun family experience, there is a deeper mission of the not for profit Maricopa County Fair Association. The primary purpose of youth development is accomplished though the dedicated effort of volunteers and staff members that give of themselves to teach children. There is an emphasis on the importance of responsibility, accountability, animal husbandry, sciences and quality business practices. Many youth that participate in the fair through 4H and FFA or other livestock affiliations go on to become veterinarians, enter careers in agri-business or other closely related industries that strive to provide food and agricultural products.
Members of the fair board along with impassioned community members have helped raise and award nearly $100,000 in scholarship funds in the last four years. They have also set the fair and community on a course toward improved literacy and awareness. Through both the popular read to ride program that awards children with free admission and carnival rides for reading books, as well as, one of the strongest free field trip programs in the state, the fair educates. With as many as 6,000 children attending each year, the fair provides an educational experience providing children an opportunity to tour working market animal barns, farm experiences and presentations and displays that educate on the impact that agriculture has on Maricopa County in the SRP sponsored Maricopa Ag and EWE
A variety of arts are celebrated each year at the fair. Over 2,000 items are exhibited from home arts, woodworking arts, textile arts, painting, sculpture and more. These exhibits are created by your neighbors and celebrated at the fair. Guests to the fair, including children, are exposed to a great variety of mediums and crafts.
Performing arts is an integral element of each year's fair. A variety of dance, band, vocal and other musical performances are presented by community artists on one of four stages. Not only does this give opportunity for guests to enjoy the talents of their neighbors, the performers, many youth groups have a need for a venue for performing and refinement of their art. Presentation of live performing arts is further elevated by the seasoned, cultural arts center quality, performers that are brought in from across the country to perform at the fair each year.
For over a decade the fair has offered this important community experience at a reasonable price and for free to all of the community Wednesday through Friday until 3pm. In addition the fair allows non-profit and youth groups to leverage the value of the fair experience by offering an opportunity for groups to sell admission ticket in advance of the fair and keep 100% of the proceeds of the tickets.
As a 501(c)(3) organization the Maricopa County Fair accepts contributions which are tax deductible and are used to further the efforts and programs of the organization. Your kind contribution acknowledges the history and legacy of our County and provides funding that insures that the youth of our county will be educated on the importance of community, the food they eat, the impact of agriculture on their lives, exposure to a variety of arts and will help develop well rounded adults of the future. Your help will also insure that the 5 decade long tradition will continue to provide a time and place to celebrate the richness of our county.