Topsfield Fair 2026 runs Friday, October 2 through Monday, October 12, in Topsfield, Massachusetts. Topsfield Fair traces itself back to the Essex Agricultural Society in 1818, which puts it in its third century of operation and makes "America's oldest agricultural fair" a claim the fair has earned rather than just marketed. Ten days on the fairgrounds bring livestock barns, a full midway, the giant pumpkin weigh-off the fair is famous for, and a Grandstand headliner this year: the high-wire family act The Flying Wallendas, booked for the fair's closing weekend.
This guide sticks to what's actually confirmed for 2026, pulled from the fair's own site: admission pricing, the senior and military discount days, parking, and the Grandstand entertainment. Where the fair hasn't published a detail yet, or we couldn't verify it against a current-year primary source, we say so instead of filling the gap with a guess.
About the Fair
The Essex Agricultural Society was founded in 1818 to give Essex County farmers a place to show livestock and trade techniques. What started as a one-day cattle show grew into the multi-day fair it is now, with three cancellations along the way, in 1918 for the Spanish flu, 1943 through 1945 for World War II, and 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic, before resuming. It moved to its current 207 Boston Street site in Topsfield in 1910, on farmland donated to the society decades earlier. Today it draws crowds in the hundreds of thousands over its run, with the giant pumpkin weigh-off, draft animal competitions, and agricultural judging still anchoring a schedule that's grown to include a full carnival midway, food vendors, and a Grandstand concert and entertainment series.
Dates and Hours
The 2026 fair runs Friday, October 2 through Monday, October 12, closing on Columbus Day. Daily gate hours vary, weekday afternoons run shorter than weekend and holiday hours, and the fair typically finalizes the exact opening and closing time for each date closer to the fair itself. We're not listing specific hours here because the fair hadn't posted a finalized day-by-day 2026 schedule at the time of writing. Check topsfieldfair.org for the current schedule before you plan an arrival time, especially if you're aiming to get there right at opening.
Ticket Prices
Advance admission tickets are $15 each when bought before the fair opens. Once the fair is running, tickets purchased online climb to $20. Children under 8 get in free with a paying adult, on any day of the run. All sales are final; the fair does not issue refunds, so buy for the day you actually intend to go.
Advance tickets typically carry a small per-ticket service fee at checkout on top of the $15 face price, standard practice for online ticketing platforms. We're not quoting an exact fee amount here because it varies by which vendor you buy through and wasn't consistent across the sources we checked; expect a few dollars added at checkout and treat the $15 as the ticket price, not the final charge.
Ride tickets and wristbands are sold separately from admission, at the gate and in advance. Pricing structures for rides change fair to fair and year to year, so check the current ride-ticket pricing on the fair's site directly rather than relying on a number that may be a season out of date.
Senior and Military Discount Days
Senior Citizen Days fall on Monday, October 5, Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7. On those three days, anyone 65 or older can buy a $10 admission ticket, but only at the fairgrounds ticket gates; the discount isn't available through online sales, so it won't show up if you're buying ahead from home.
Military Day is Tuesday, October 6, the same day as the middle Senior Citizen Day. Active-duty military personnel get free admission, along with immediate family members accompanying them, by presenting military ID at the gate.
Both discounts are gate-only and ID-dependent. Bring whatever ID qualifies you, proof of age for the senior rate, military ID for free admission, and plan to use the physical ticket gate rather than the app or website for that transaction.
Parking
Parking runs $15 per vehicle at the fair's lots. It's free on opening day, Friday, October 2. The lots sit off Route 1 and Route 97, ringing the fairgrounds on multiple sides, and on weekends and the Columbus Day holiday the fair also runs an overflow lot at Fair-View Farm on Route 1 North, with a shuttle bus to one of the fairgrounds' admission gates.
We looked for a confirmed 2026 map tying specific lot letters to specific gates and couldn't find a current-year primary-source layout, only older fair maps circulating in search results. Treat exact lot-letter assignments as a rough guide rather than gospel; follow the traffic attendants and on-site signage on the day, which will reflect whatever the actual 2026 layout turns out to be, rather than last year's PDF.
Accessible parking spaces exist across the fair's lots, but for the same reason we're not naming a specific lot as the accessible one. Ask the attendant directing traffic when you arrive; they'll route you to whichever lot is functioning as the accessible option this year.
Getting There
The fairgrounds sit at 207 Boston Street, Topsfield, MA 01983, at the junction of Route 1 and Route 97, roughly 25 miles north of Boston. That intersection is also where most of the parking lots cluster, which is worth knowing if you're coordinating a pickup or a shuttle meetup rather than just driving in and parking yourself. Route 1 and Route 97 both carry regular fair traffic during peak hours, weekend afternoons and evenings especially, so build in extra time getting to and from the grounds on those dates rather than timing your drive off a weekday visit.
What's New: The Flying Wallendas
The headline Grandstand act for 2026 is The Flying Wallendas, the family known for high-wire and aerial stunts going back generations, including a seven-person pyramid crossing that's part of their reputation. They're booked for the fair's second and closing weekend, Saturday through Monday, October 10-12, which also covers the Columbus Day holiday. Expect multiple shows a day in the Grandstand across those dates; check the fair's daily events calendar once you're closer to the date for exact set times, since those can shift.
What Else to Expect
Beyond the Grandstand, the fair's core is still agricultural: livestock shows and judging, the giant pumpkin weigh-off, and draft animal competitions that draw entrants from across New England. Around that sits a full carnival midway with rides and games, food vendors, arts and crafts exhibits, and daily live music and entertainment scattered across the grounds. Programming on the smaller stages and in the exhibit halls tends to change day to day across the run, so if there's a specific demonstration, judging event, or performer you want beyond the Wallendas, check the daily events calendar on the fair's site for that date rather than assuming the schedule repeats every day. If you're coming primarily for the animals and the pumpkins, plan for daytime hours; if the midway and evening entertainment are the draw, the grounds stay livelier later in the day.
Visitor Tips
Buy advance tickets before the fair opens if you can. The $5 gap between the $15 advance price and the $20 during-fair online price adds up fast once you're buying for a family.
If you or someone in your group qualifies for the senior or military discount, route that visit to a weekday that matches. Senior pricing runs October 5-7 and Military Day is October 6, and both are gate transactions, not something you can lock in through an online cart ahead of time.
Budget for parking separately from admission. It's $15 per vehicle except on opening day, October 2, when lots are free, so factor that into what a day actually costs your group beyond the ticket price.
Don't count on a specific parking lot letter getting you closest to a specific gate. Lot assignments and signage can shift year to year, and on-site staff and posted signage are the reliable guide on the day itself, not a map from a previous season.
If you want to catch the Flying Wallendas, plan your visit for the second weekend, October 10-12, and check the day's Grandstand schedule when you arrive, since showtimes can move around the posted times.
Opening day, October 2, is worth considering on its own merits: it's the one day parking is free, but it isn't a senior or military discount day, so weigh which savings actually matters more for your group before you pick a date.
Planning Around The Big E
If you're weighing this against The Big E in West Springfield, the two aren't a strict either/or in 2026. The Big E runs September 18 through October 4, and Topsfield Fair opens October 2, so the two calendars overlap for three days, October 2 through 4. After that overlap window, Topsfield has the back half of its run, through October 12, to itself.
What We Couldn't Confirm for 2026
A few details the fair hadn't nailed down in a form we could independently verify at the time of writing: finalized daily gate hours for each date of the run, a current-year parking map tying specific lot letters to specific gates, and the exact online ticketing convenience fee. None of these affect whether you can get in the door, what admission costs, or whether you qualify for the senior or military discount, but we'd rather flag the gap than guess at a number and risk getting it wrong. Check topsfieldfair.org directly for updates on any of these as the fair gets closer.
The Bottom Line
Topsfield Fair 2026 runs October 2 through October 12 at 207 Boston Street in Topsfield. Advance admission is $15, rising to $20 once the fair opens, with kids under 8 always free. Senior tickets ($10, ages 65+) run October 5-7 and free military admission runs October 6, both gate-only. Parking is $15 and free on opening day. The Flying Wallendas headline the Grandstand on the closing weekend, October 10-12. Everything else, exact hours, the parking lot map, and the online ticket fee, is worth double-checking on the fair's own site before you go, since we couldn't pin those down to a current-year primary source ourselves.
