The 2023 Albemarle County Fair

The Albemarle County Fair Board presents the 2023 Albemarle County Fair. There’s something pretty incredible about county fairs, their communities, and the youth who grow up alongside it all.

Showing livestock serves as both an individual and team activity. It is genuinely a sport! While an exhibitor plays a significant role in their success, encouragement from family, friends, and supporters guides them along. These projects give the youth and community a deep appreciation for all their hard work and dedication. Competitors guide their animals (typically pigs, cattle, chickens, goats, or sheep) in the show ring for ranking at a judge’s discretion. The judges search for traits specific to certain species or breeds and organize each group in the show ring based on how well they will perform at the market or breeding stock. At the end of the show, the animals are brought back into the show ring for auction. Sponsors, family members, and supportive individuals bid on each animal, with the funds going to each exhibitor. 

When a proud, smiling youth with a project animal presents the best of their best, the local community is inspired, becoming more charitable than they knew they could be. A child sending an animal across the auction block represents more than a summer fair project — it’s a small piece of themselves put into many long days and nights and months of hard work and care. No one explicitly goes to a county fair auction and intends to drop thousands of dollars on a standard market animal. But, when a specific story and call to action echo through the sale ring, something changes. 

Incredible youth are doing amazing things at county fairs all across the nation, including the 2022 Albemarle County Fair. Agricultural youth programs educate, inspire, build life skills, and get a feel for the business of things. But there’s something deeper honed through the intimacy of hand-raising livestock in a supportive community. Stock Show children succeed due to the constant support offered by their moms and dads, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and the community on the ride with them.

Our little county fair is much more than a showcase of rural American life. It’s a building block of our community, our futures, and a part of humanity’s best. The hard work and dedication involved giving meaning to Thomas Jefferson’s iconic words: “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will, in the end, contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.”

Albemarle County Fair, Inc., a nonprofit, regionally-based corporation, has as its primary mission to annually sponsor the Albemarle County Fair. This Fair is primarily focused on serving the Charlottesville-Albemarle area by promoting the involvement of the area’s public and visitors in its programming. The programs strive to provide wholesome entertainment and activities that emphasize the deeply human, natural, and agricultural resources of Central Virginia.

Board of Directors

Donnie Toms, President don.toms@sscoop.com
Richard Fox, Vice President rafox1@embarqmail.com
Nancy Dudley, Secretary nkdudley56@gmail.com
Patsy Wright, Treasurer patsywright8080@aol.com

Rob Harrison, Director rob@foodsforthoughtinc.com
Jim Puopolo, Director jimpuopolo@gmail.com

Fair Meetings

We meet every third Tuesday. Please email info@albemarlecountyfair.com for details.

Publications and Website

Catalog and website production by: Carden Jennings Publishing Co., Ltd. Website Design by Burwind