The Hartford Fair (Licking County, Ohio) is explicitly branded as "The Biggest Little Fair in the World," running annually in early August with a focus on community, agricultural, and grandstand events.
The Ionia Free Fair (IFF) is what is said to be the world's largest free-admission fair, hosted annually in July. The Fair was established in 1915 and takes place in Ionia, Michigan at the fairgrounds near the city center.
The 1893 Chicago World's Fair was amazing and one of the most important in history, but it almost didn't happen. When it opened, the now long-gone “White City,” as the grounds were called, thrilled people from all over the country and beyond.
In recent decades, they have become less frequent due to increasingly strict regulations from the Bureau International de Expositions (BIE) and a waning public interest in them. The rise and fall of World's Fairs happened over the course of just a few centuries and are more complicated than you might think.
Defunctland: The History of the 1964 New York World's Fair
What is the oldest fair in the world?
The historical roots of the Frankfurt Trade Fair date back to 1240 when Emperor Frederick II granted the city the trade fair privilege. This makes it the oldest fair in the world.
Topping this 2023 “Top 30 State Fairs” list is the Minnesota State Fair, followed by the Tulsa State Fair, State Fair of Texas, Iowa State Fair, and Wisconsin State Fair.
Blackgang Chine is an amusement park in Blackgang, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. It was opened in 1843 and is the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom. The park includes multiple themed "lands", including Pirate Cove, Restricted Area 5, Fairy Land and Village, and Cowboy Town.
The Clay County Fair is “The World's Greatest County Fair” by presenting blue-ribbon competition, world-class entertainment and innovative exhibits in a safe family atmosphere, while also providing year-round facilities for entertainment and events.
Spanning 646 acres in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York, the event was considered a pinnacle of mid-20th-century American culture and technology. It showcased products that would advance the transportation and consumer electronics markets in a way that would never be repeated at future World's Fairs.
However, there are differences with carnivals. While carnivals – like a circus – are typically traveling shows, a fair is larger and often sponsored by an entire state.
More than 60 World's Fairs have taken place to date, the most recent ones in Aichi/Japan 2005, Zaragoza/Spain 2008, Shanghai/PRC 2010, Yeosu/South Korea 2012, Milan/Italy 2015, Astana/Kazakhstan 2017 and Dubai 2020.
Goose Fair - a tradition for the ages. Nottingham's Goose Fair is still going strong, over 700 years later. The event started in the 13th century and is the referred to as the world's oldest travelling fair.
While fairs became less frequent in the 21st century because of the increasing costs of staging them and because the BIE was imposing tighter regulations, there were two significant events in the first decade of the century.
Which country has never participated in a World's fair until the 1982 World's fair?
China, little known and forbidden to westerners for most of the period since Mao's takeover in the 1940s, had never participated in a western exposition during its Communist era. The world's most populous nation was on nobody's short list for the Knoxville fair.
Although 7 million guests toured the fair, it was not enough to recoup the $350 million spent to host the event. Paychecks started bouncing, and it was only through government intervention that the gates remained open through the scheduled run. The fair drew 30,000 fewer people in the first month than was predicted.
How much did it cost to get into the 1964 World's fair?
Visitors 13 and older were originally charged the adult admission price of $2.00 (equivalent to $20.28 in 2024), while children 2–12 years old were charged $1.00 (equivalent to $10.14 in 2024).
