The Dutchess County Fair is held annually in
Rhinebeck, New York
Rhinebeck is a village (New York), village in the Rhinebeck (town), New York, town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metr ...
, usually during the last full week in August. Currently, the fair hosts approximately half a million people per year, and is the second largest county fair in New York state.
History
The Dutchess County Agricultural Society, formed in 1841, first organized the fair in 1842 at
Washington Hollow in Pleasant Valley, New York. The fair was mainly started as an old-fashioned
agricultural
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...
event in which
farmers
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...
would come and show off their livestock, crops, and tools with a popular event being a plow competition. The fair initially alternated between Washington Hollow and Poughkeepsie before moving to Springbrook Park in Rhinebeck in 1919. The move was made following financial issues in the early 1900s and the subsequent cancellations of the 1916 and 1918 fairs.
The Society faced heavy debt in the Depression era after the cancellations of the 1927 and 1928 fairs due to flooding. The fair was also cancelled in 1942 due to World War II. A financial upturn in the late 1940s allowed the Society to repay its debt and acquire the Springbrook Park land renaming it to the
Dutchess County Fairgrounds.
The fair closed early in 2011 due to
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth tropical cyclone naming, named storm, first hurricane, and first major ...
.
Recent additions to the fairgrounds include the restored Pleasant Valley Train Station.
References
External links
*
Festivals in New York (state)
Festivals established in 1842
1842 establishments in New York (state)
Fairs in the United States
{{US-festival-stub