87th Annual Yorktown Grange Fair Trots Into Town

YORKTOWN, N.Y.-- There’s one place and one place only in Yorktown where people can watch pigs race, dogs do tricks, eat carnival food, listen to live music, compete in a contest based on the best Lego creation or best jam, and ride a Ferris wheel. That place comes to life this Thursday. 

From Thursday to Sunday the Yorktown Grange Fair will take place, the 87th fair that has been put on for 88 years, located on the grange park fairgrounds. 

Event organizer Nicole Fervan has been participating in the event since she was just a little girl when she came with her family, and her family now makes up the several dozens of volunteers who put on the fair every year. 

“There really is something for the whole family to do here, whether you’re volunteering as a family, or your visiting as a family to check out the fair,” she said. 

This weekend the fair grounds were a flurry of volunteers assembling the stage for the live music presented by The Smithereens that will take place at the event, and other volunteers getting ready for the several different varieties of animals that will take their place at the carnival next weekend. 

The fair was originally started in Yorktown between potato farmers who would argue about who had the biggest or the best potatoes, explained Fervan, and has now grown into a huge event made up of contests, great food, live entertainment and animals. 

Lisa Fine explained preparation starts mainly in January, but a lot of the volunteers start planning for next year’s fair the day after the fair. 

“When you have 22,000 people coming to an event over a few days, you have to start planning as soon as you stop planning the other one,” she said. 

Fine said people come from all over, including the city, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut to see the animals and attractions.

“People work all year to make the best jams or to grow the nicest flowers to enter them into our contests,” she said. “People come to the area just for this, because where else are these kids going to be exposed to live farm animals and attractions like this? They aren’t at home, so they come here to see it all.”

For more information about tickets, times and contests click here.

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