Free Things to Do at the Burlington County Farm Fair
Each year one of our favorite Burlington County events is the annual Farm Fair. It is always guaranteed to be entertaining with unique events, cute farm animals, a slew of tractors and more.
What kind of event is the farm fair?
It is an agricultural fair. This means it has things such as livestock, agricultural events, locally grown farm produce and more! The Burlington County Farm Fair is a large event so it has even more things than some others such as rides, vendors, and this year there was even a rodeo on Thursday night. If you do want to purchase food they have every kind of fair food imaginable. We enjoyed visiting the FFA tent and looking at the custom golf carts at AMC golf carts. This year the theme was Christmas in July so we even saw a recycled Taylor Swift Christmas tree while we were there.
Is it free?
There is no fee for admission to the Burlington County Farm Fair. There is a $15 fee for parking and this was cash only. People can also pay $30 for a multi-day parking pass. Parking is right across the street from the fair. If the lot is full there is also a parking area at the Columbus Farmer’s Market with free shuttles to the fair. We were able to get a spot across the street when we arrived at the fair at 6 pm yesterday.
For more parking information go here: Burlington County Farm Fair Parking Information.
Where is the farm fair located?
It is located at the Burlington County Fairgrounds at 1990 Jacksonville-Jobstown Road in Springfield Township, NJ.
When is the farm fair being held this year?
The Burlington County Farm Fair is from July 16th to July 20th, 2024 and it is from 4 to 10:30 pm.
It is nice that it is held in the evening since it is a much cooler time for an event.
What should I do before I go?
Check out the daily schedule of events. It is good to plan beforehand if there are certain events that you want to see.
Be sure to bring cash for the $15 parking fee which was cash only. Bring extra if you are planning on purchasing dinner there or anything from vendors.
What should I do if I do not know where something is?
If you go immediately inside the Fair and keep walking straight ahead you will soon see Information. There is a map of the Fair there as well.
Be sure to stop there to ask them if you need help with where to find an event at the fair.
15 Free Things To Do at the Burlington County Farm Fair
We had a fun time visiting the Farm Fair again this year. This was our third year attending. We did all of the free things listed below when we attended this year.
See all the tractors.
There are a whole host of tractors from different time periods, in different colors and more. It is fun to walk between the rows of them to your right when you first arrive. The kids were excited to even find a blue and a pink tractor.
Visit the Farmer for a Day tent.
This is a white tent to your left as you walk in that is clearly marked. The Burlington County Board of Agriculture Women’s Committee always do an impressive job with this tent. There are multiple sensory bins with things such as farm toys and soybeans. Kids can ride on rocking horses, play Plinko or milk a cow! There were multiple photo cut-out boards in front of the tent as well as hay bales designed to look like a tractor inside that people were taking photos on. My husband and I enjoyed the different educational signs about crops that were around the tent. We also saw a table in the tent when we walked in that had lots of fun things for kids and we were told we could take one of each thing on the table for our kids. We did not notice this until we were leaving but they also had a scavenger hunt that people could take and complete as they walked around the fair as well.
Photo of one side of the tent
Pedal a tractor around Kay Prickett’s Pumpkin Patch.
Behind the Farmer for a Day tent there was a cute “pumpkin patch” made of hay bales and plastic pumpkins. Surrounding it there was a one way track with five pedal tractors for kids to ride on. Nearby there were also some places for photo ops such as a tractor to sit on. Older kids were also enjoying playing some corn hole.
Pump water as fast as you can for a Rubber Duck Race.
This is a fun thing for adults to try as well. You will see water pumps with white PVC pipes and buckets to the right as you walk in. There were 2 stations on either side where people could compete in rubber duck races. Just be careful your hat doesn’t fall into the water when you are grabbing a duck like my son’s hat did.
Thresh some corn with a manual crank corn thresher.
We had so much fun with this that we were threshing lots of corn for twenty minutes. My five year old was really great at threshing corn quickly.
Watch a tractor pull.
There are multiple types of tractor pull events to watch. While we were there we saw a garden tractor pull. It looked difficult to pull all of that weight and after a bit of pulling the tractors would get stuck in the dirt.
Have the kids participate in the children’s tractor pull.
This was held right next to the Children’s tent. The kids were pumped to do this since they had just seen the garden tractor pull. We arrived a half hour early to register. The youngest age that could register was 5 so my kids were both able to participate in the 5-6 age group and the 7-8 age group. They had to pedal a tractor with a trailer and box with weight inside on a long board as much as they could. Behind the trailer there was a measuring tape to see how far they went. The Burlington County Farm Fair Queen was announcing the names and top 3 winners in each category. The nice part was that at the end everyone in each age group was called up and they received a ribbon for participating as well.
Watch the skillet toss.
While we were there they had the skillet toss where contestants had to throw a skillet as far as they could. If women arrived early and they were in the right age bracket for the upcoming skillet toss they could register to participate as well. There was an 18 to 40 group and a 41 and over group.
Try the Spike Driving Contest.
My husband I both tried this contest. While it was listed that it was for men it was actually open to anyone. You could just walk up, sign up and then did not have to wait long before you could grab some goggles. They had a log that was elevated and large spikes that you had to drive into the log with different kinds of hammers. See if you can beat my number of taking 40 hits to drive the spike in!
Cheer at the Hot Dog and Pig Racing Show.
This is always an entertaining event where different animals participate in races on a small track outdoors. The pigs are always my favorite. Arrive early to one of the shows so that you can get a good spot so that your kids will be able to see well. It was funny when the one hot dog ran under the hoop instead of through it. Sometimes animals also go in the wrong directions as well.
See animals in the blue and white striped animal tents.
There were a variety of animals that could be seen and some could be petted as well. They had a hand washing station near the tents. My kids were excited to pet Ruby the cow from Middlebush Farms in Somerset. They were surprised at how big the cows were after hearing that many of them were 2.5 months old. There were lots of other animals too such as goats and alpacas. Many of these had already been in contests earlier at the fair.
Learn something new at the 4-H tent.
This was an interesting tent where we saw lots of kids projects. They told us interesting facts we had not known such as the fact that chickens have 3 eyelids to help keep dirt out of their eyes. I was interested to learn the difference between the Pine Barrens and the Pinelands. Learn more about the 4-H program for kids there as well.
Check out the Burlington County Library Bookmobile.
This was closed as we arrived there at the end of the day but we had seen it another event and it is really cool. You can sign up for a new library card, grab a calendar of events or even check out a book from their mobile library.
Walk through the NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Mobile Education Unit.
I had never seen this before and it was really neat. You could learn about identifying different species of animals in New Jersey. There was even a map of New Jersey with screens that you could pull out that overlaid the map to see where things were such as boat ramps. There were people outside answering questions and different types of animals skins to feel. We learned that there are bobcats in New Jersey.
As you return to your car be sure to check out the artwork on the trash cans.
The trash cans in the parking lot are all painted with things such as the 4-H logo, a red barn and more! The Burlington County 4-H groups did an amazing job painting these for the fair.
Free goodies the kids were able to get at the fair
We were only at the fair for four hours this year so I am sure there were even more fun things that we missed seeing. Be sure to visit the fair today! If you miss it be sure to check out another agricultural fair in one of the other counties in New Jersey.