Walworth County Fair 2026: Glitter and Gold, September 2 to 7 in Elkhorn

Hey Lake Lovers, summer isn’t over, it’s just putting on its going-out clothes.

The 177th Walworth County Fair runs Wednesday, September 2 through Labor Day Monday, September 7 at the fairgrounds in Elkhorn, about fifteen minutes up WI-67 from downtown Lake Geneva. This year’s theme is “Glitter and Gold: A Fair to Behold,” and the grandstand lineup is totally county fair: a rodeo, truck and tractor pulls, Russell Dickerson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ludacris, and a Labor Day demolition derby. In that order. On the same six-day ticket calendar.

Kim and Joel Reyenga with eXp Realty write these up every week because this is what the end of summer actually looks like around here. Not a postcard. A 99-acre fairgrounds full of 4-H kids, deep fryers, draft horses, and somebody’s uncle explaining tractor pulls to a nine-year-old who did not ask.

Here’s what to know before you go, what to book now, and the one deadline that saves you five bucks a head.

What is the Walworth County Fair 2026 schedule?

The 177th Walworth County Fair runs September 2 to 7, 2026 at 411 E Court St, Elkhorn, WI. Grounds are open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and close earlier on Labor Day Monday. Adult admission is $13, juniors $8, kids 4 and under free, and general parking is free.

That’s the short version. The long version has a deadline in it, so keep reading.

Buy your carnival wristband before September 1

This is the single most useful sentence in this post, so we’re putting it in its own section where nobody can skim past it.

Presale rides wristband: $32, on sale through September 1 at midnight Starting September 2, the same wristband is $37

Unlimited rides, good for one day only — you pick which day. For a family of four, buying before the first of the month is a twenty-dollar difference, which is roughly one funnel cake and a corn dog you’ll regret in the best way.

Wristband hours by day:

• Wednesday, September 2 – 3 p.m. to close
• Thursday, September 3 – 3 p.m. to close
• Friday, September 4 – noon to close
• Saturday, September 5 – noon to close
• Sunday, September 6 – noon to close
• Monday, September 7 – noon to 9 p.m.

The midway is run by North American Midway Entertainment, and they offer a sensory-friendly registration if a quieter start to the day makes the difference for someone in your group. Worth knowing that exists.

What the fair actually costs

Adult daily (13 and up): $13 Senior daily (62+, Wednesday through Friday only): $10 Junior daily (ages 5 to 12): $8 Ages 4 and under: free General parking: free

Season passes are $50 for adults and $20 for juniors. Do the math before you buy: the adult pass pays for itself on your fourth day, the junior pass on your third. If you’re going twice, buy daily tickets. If your kid shows livestock and you’re basically living there through Labor Day, buy the pass.

The $35 early-bird season pass expired the first Friday in August, and the six-day VIP parking permit sold out on August 1. Both are gone for 2026. General parking is still free and still plentiful, which is more than downtown Lake Geneva can say on a Saturday in July.

Buy tickets only through the official Walworth County Fair ticket page or their ticketing partner, Tixr. The fair has been public about resale sites claiming to be official sellers. If the checkout page isn’t Tixr, back out.

The grandstand lineup, night by night

Grandstand shows are ticketed separately from gate admission. Assume your grandstand ticket does not cover the gate and check at checkout, because that’s the mistake that turns a nice evening into a parking-lot argument.

Wednesday, September 2 – Rice Pro Rodeo with Bella Cain

5:30 p.m. | Grandstand

Opening night, and the earliest start of the week. Rodeo plus a country set from Bella Cain, who’ve become something of a regular around Walworth County. Wednesday is also senior pricing day, so if you’re bringing parents or grandparents, this is the value night of the fair.

Thursday, September 3 – PI Motorsports Truck & Tractor Pulls

7 p.m. | Grandstand

Loud. Gloriously, structurally loud. Bring ear protection for small kids and don’t pretend you won’t need it yourself.

Earlier that day at noon on Peggy’s Park Stage, reenactor Dale Reich performs “Walworth County Salutes America 250,” a living-history piece tied to the country’s semiquincentennial. One catch: the printed schedule lists it at 11 a.m. The official correction says noon. Go by noon.

Friday, September 4 – Russell Dickerson

Time not yet announced | Grandstand

Confirmed on the official lineup, no start time posted as of this writing. Check the fair’s grandstand entertainment page before you build your evening around it.

Friday is also, unavoidably, fish fry night in Wisconsin. Fair food is fair food, but if you’d rather do the real thing first and hit the midway after, our Lake Geneva Friday fish fry guide will sort you out on the way up.

Saturday, September 5 – Lynyrd Skynyrd

7:30 p.m. | Grandstand

The one people are driving in for. Expect the biggest gate of the week, the fullest lots, and real backup on Court Street. Get there early, park where they point you, and walk the exhibit buildings while everyone else is circling.

Also Saturday: the Wisconsin Honey Queen appears at 1 p.m. at the Barnyard Adventure Learning Coop. That one was left off the printed schedule entirely, so consider this your inside information.

Sunday, September 6 – Ludacris with DJ Bizzon

7:30 p.m. | Grandstand

Yes, that Ludacris. At the Walworth County Fair. Between the dairy barn and the demolition derby. County fairs remain undefeated and we will not be taking questions.

Monday, September 7 – Demolition Derby

12:30, 3:00 and 5:30 p.m. | Grandstand

Three heats on Labor Day, which makes this the most family-schedulable grandstand event of the week — you can catch the 12:30 and still be home for dinner.

One thing to verify: the fair’s FAQ says the grounds close at 8 p.m. Monday, while the carnival page sells Monday wristbands good until 9 p.m. Those don’t line up. If you’re planning a late Labor Day, call the Fair Office at 262-723-3228 first.

Everything that’s free once you’re through the gate

People underestimate this part badly. Gate admission covers a genuinely enormous amount:

• The Amazing Anastasini Circus, new for 2026
• All entertainment on Peggy’s Park Stage
• The Discovery Barn and combine rides for kids
• The Barnyard Adventure ag education area
• Live glassblowing performances
• Draft horse pulls and open horse shows
• Kids pedal tractor pulls
• The Heavy Duty Dirt Machinery Experience
• Plein air artists working on the grounds, plus a scavenger hunt
• Thousands of Junior Class and Open Class exhibits
• Daily contests with prizes

Inside Barnyard Adventure, chase down the Brag Tags — kids collect them free as they work through the area, and it turns a walk past some vegetables into an actual mission. There’s also an outdoor butterfly observation tent with a daily release, a working observation beehive hosted by the Walworth County Beekeepers Association, and “Freshly Picked,” where local high school culinary students cook a different harvested vegetable each day.

If you have a kid who’s fair-ambivalent, start there and skip the midway entirely for the first hour. Works more often than you’d think. For more of this kind of thing year-round, our Lake Geneva family activities guide and the activity farms and orchards roundup cover the rest of the season.

Rules worth knowing before you load the car

• No carry-in alcohol. None. The food and beverage vendors are the point.
• No pets. ADA service animals only. Emotional support animals do not qualify under the fair’s stated policy, and service animals aren’t permitted on rides or in some areas for safety reasons.
• Wheelchairs are available in limited numbers, first come first served. No electric scooter rentals.
• Free WiFi on the grounds, donated by Edge Broadband, which matters more than it sounds when six people are trying to find each other near the swine barn.
• Bring cash. ATMs exist. So do lines.

Full details are on the fair’s visitor FAQ and parking page.

Making a Lake Geneva day out of it

Elkhorn sits about fifteen minutes north of the lake, which means the fair is a day trip, not a commitment. A few ways locals stack it:

Morning at the lake, afternoon at the fair. Walk a stretch of the Geneva Lake Shore Path early, grab coffee downtown, then head up 67 after lunch and catch wristband hours from noon.

Fair first, dinner after. Come at opening, do the barns and exhibits before the heat, and be back down at a Lake Geneva supper club by seven. Skip the grandstand that night and you’ve had a better day than most people who stayed until eleven.

Make it an Elkhorn day. The fairgrounds are the headline, but downtown Elkhorn is worth an hour on its own. Our Elkhorn community guide covers what’s there.

If it rains — and Labor Day weekend in Wisconsin does what it wants — the exhibit halls and commercial buildings are all indoors, which makes the fair a better wet-weather bet than most outdoor events. Our rainy day activities list is the backup plan for the rest.

For the full breakdown of tickets, rides, food and local tips, our complete Walworth County Fair 2026 guide goes deeper than this post does.

What else is happening around the lake that week

The fair anchors the week, but it isn’t alone:

• Labor Day weekend on Geneva Lake — the last big boating weekend of the season. Our boat tours guide and beaches roundup still apply, and both are noticeably calmer by Tuesday.
• The fall pivot — apple season, color on the Kettle Moraine, and Oktoberfest are all about three weeks out. Start with our Lake Geneva fall activities guide and the Lake Geneva Oktoberfest guide.
• Live music around the lake keeps running right through September. The live music page is updated weekly.
• Farmers markets are at peak right now, not winding down. See the farmers market and stands guide.

Why fair week is the week people start looking at houses

There’s a pattern to this, and we’ve watched it happen more than once.

Somebody comes up for Labor Day, does the fair on Saturday, and realizes the drive from the lake to a 177-year-old county fair took fifteen minutes. Not fifteen minutes of expressway. Fifteen minutes past cornfields and a golf course. Then they’re standing in a barn watching a kid from Darien show a heifer, eating something fried, and the thought arrives on schedule: people just live here.

They do. And the version of this that isn’t a long weekend looks like knowing which lake community fits how you actually spend a Saturday — whether that’s the Village of Walworth, Williams Bay, Fontana, or in town.

Kim and Joel Reyenga with eXp Realty help Chicago-area buyers read the whole picture, not just the listing photos. When the lake starts feeling like more than a weekend plan, browse current Lake Geneva area home listings whenever you like. Preferably not at 11:42 p.m. while telling yourself you’re “just looking.”

Plan your fair week

Double-check times before you head out. Fair schedules move, weather moves them faster, and two official pages currently disagree about Monday night. Confirm anything time-sensitive at walworthcountyfairgrounds.com or by calling the Fair Office at 262-723-3228.

For everything else going on around the lake, our Lake Geneva events calendar and the weekly What’s Happening at The Lake roundup stay current all season.

Buy the wristband before September 1. Park where they tell you. Eat the thing on a stick.

See you at the lake.

Frequently asked questions