09/17/2026
🌾 THIS is why we have a fair. 🌾
When most people hear the word fair, their first thoughts may be rides, funnel cakes, games and entertainment.
And we absolutely love those parts. 🎡
But take a walk through our exhibit buildings and you’ll find the heart of what an agricultural fair has always been about.
You’ll see vegetables somebody planted, tended and harvested. Giant pumpkins that took months of patience to grow. Flowers carefully raised and arranged. Foods that were canned and preserved. Cakes, breads and other entries made from skills learned in kitchens and homes.
You’ll find sewing, needlework, handicrafts, artwork and photography. You’ll see pieces of our agricultural history and traditions that once shaped everyday life in our communities.
You’ll see 4-H and FFA helping young people learn by doing—developing responsibility, leadership, agricultural knowledge and practical skills.
And then you’ll see something as simple as little chicks and a “Little Hands on the Farm” area, where a child may be introduced to agriculture for the very first time. 🌱🐥
That matters.
Tennessee has been promoting agriculture through fairs for more than 170 years. Agricultural fairs were created not simply as places for entertainment, but as places where communities could gather, learn, share knowledge, compare their work, celebrate accomplishments and pass skills from one generation to the next.
That purpose is still alive today.
A fair showcases what a community grows, what it raises, what it makes, what it knows and what it teaches its children.
Those blue, red and purple ribbons represent more than winning a competition. Behind every one of them is someone who planted a seed, practiced a skill, tried a recipe, raised an animal, took a photograph, created something with their hands or had the courage to put their work on display for their community to see.
And perhaps even more importantly, these exhibits help preserve knowledge that can easily disappear when one generation doesn’t pass it to the next.
The midway brings excitement.
The entertainment brings people together.
But agriculture, education, youth involvement and community tradition are the roots underneath it all. 🌾
So while you’re at the fair this week, we hope you’ll take a little extra time to walk through the exhibit areas. Look at the entries. Read the displays. Ask questions. Let your children see where food comes from, what can be made by hand, and what young people in agriculture are learning today.
Because these exhibits aren’t just something sitting off to the side of the fair.
They ARE the fair. ❤️🌾
And we are incredibly proud of every person—young and old—who entered something, volunteered, taught, demonstrated, grew, created or helped keep these traditions alive.
