The Arlington County Fair, which returns for its 50th installment later this week, began life in 1977 as a grassroots community effort.
“Our fair is unique — it will reflect Arlington’s pluralistic nature,” fair chair O. Ware Page, Jr. told The Washington Post as the inaugural fair prepared to draw a hoped-for 100,000 visitors to Thomas Jefferson Community Center.
Page and vice chair Jean Girman led an effort that year to raise $6,000 to put on what was, at the time, the only county fair between Gaithersburg and Manassas. About one-third of the cost was to rent the community center for the three-day indoor/outdoor festival running from Aug. 26-28, 1977.
According to the Arlington Historical Society, the idea for a county fair grew out of a proposed Harvest Days festival spotlighting produce from the county’s community gardens.
“One thing led to another, and the idea expanded to involve more members of the Arlington community,” the society records.
Planning began in January 1977, according to contemporary coverage in the Arlington News. The first corporate contributor was C&P Telephone, a precursor of Bell Atlantic and later Verizon.
Beyond corporate sponsorships, donations from the community were encouraged. Groups could also donate funds to cover the $25-$35 cost of a community organization renting a booth.
Arlington’s last farm was sold off for redevelopment in the 1950s, but the community’s agrarian past was a part of the 1977 fair — and subsequent ones. The 4-H initiative of Virginia Cooperative Extension has been a longstanding partner.
There was even a limited showing of livestock at the first fair, although that would be phased out in subsequent years.
Among the driving forces behind the fair in its early days was Floyd Hawkins. He served as treasurer of the Fair Board from 1977-87, according to the Charlie Clark Center for Local History.
Despite challenges, including the community center’s air conditioning going out at one point, the inaugural fair was “a tremendous success,” a Northern Virginia Sun editorial declared at the end of August 1977.
“We hope the fair continues every year, but it can’t be done without the support of everyone in the community,” the editorial page wrote.
The fair reached its 25th anniversary in 2001, with activities on Aug. 16-19 coinciding with the county’s celebration of its own bicentennial. Paul Showalter served as chair, with special activities that year including a blueberry-pie-eating competition.
Unforeseen to attendees, the 2001 event proved something of a last hurrah of the pre-9/11 world. Just weeks later, Arlington would be among the communities most impacted by the terrorist attacks.
From Aug. 17-21, 2016, fair organizers marked their 40th event with the theme “Groovy Since 1977.”
In 2020, organizers scrapped the in-person fair owing to Covid. In its place were a number of online events and special entertainment.
The in-person fair resumed in 2022, with only one familiar feature missing — the “racing piglets” that had been a highlight over many years were not in attendance, as the family that operated that attraction had retired.
The 2026 fair, complete with pie-eating competition and many other beloved attractions, returns to Thomas Jefferson Community Center Aug. 12-16.
As has been the case from the start, admission is free.
