Old McDonald's Farm — Attraction in Dayton

I always enjoyed going here with my kids but this year just felt... different. and my 9 year old and 11 year old noticed this difference

We invited our neighbors who are from Turkey (As of 2 years ago) to allow them to experience an "American thing" before they move back to Turkey and frankly, we came away a little embarrassed and explained "It was better in the past."

My son is 11 and had been 3 other times walked away saying "It felt more like an amusement park this time" and he didn't say that in a good way (He likes farm, nature, outdoors stuff. He was expecting more of a 'farm' experience as were we.) The husband of the Turkish family kept asking me what kind of farm it was. He was expecting to see more and learn more about a traditional American farm and he seemed disappointed it didn't feel more like a farm.

I'll start with the things we loved: The pony race - I looked at this little circle of hay with inflatable horses in it and thought "How lame". My kids (11 and 9, quite old by 'fall festival' standards) had a BLAST bouncing around on these horses and falling over, and the Turkish children (2, 5, and 7) also had fun. The pedal-karts - short experience, and exhausted legs afterwards, but it was something different. The chickens. - for some reason, the Turkish kids loved squatting down and handing the chickens blades of grass, they got a huge kick out of it. The corn crib - a HUGE box filled with corn kernels. TERRIBLE if your kids have bad sinuses, but otherwise probably the most fun the kids had... then to the slides that are in the same building. Classic fun. Corn maze - Fun but easier this year.

Now the parts that irked me a little: Parking - On a busy day (We went on a Sunday afternoon) parking is awful. And with all the high school kids working there, you would assume they would dedicate 2 or 3 to assist people in parking... but no. We ended up having to park where there was no intended parking spot.

Admission - We knew going in that it was $12.50 per person. And as a gift I was going to pay for the Turkish family. So all total I spent $100. In the past, that INCLUDED your pumpkin cost, then I saw the sign that said pumpkins were by the pound. So there's an additional cost. We agreed to go to Food Lion after for our pumpkins. The kids even agreed. No receipts are printed out nor are you asked if you want it emailed to you when you pay.

Vendors - My Turkish neighbor offered to buy everyone a lemonade. I reluctantly agreed when I saw they were $5 each. It was neat to see them slice the lemons, squish them, add sugar, then add water, but really... is that worth $5? The girls doing the work seemed less than enthused (I can't blame them). Had they gone to the store and just bought gallons of country time lemonade, they could have hired fewer workers, and the $5 may have felt more justified based on the taste.

The only thing that seemed to represent a "farm" was this one barn that had baskets where you went from "station to station" and pulled eggs out from fake chickens, and pulled fake corn off a wooden board... basically designed for 2 and 3 year olds.

Hay ride - stacked with wet and old hay. Basically the worst thing for people with allergies. Fresh hay actually affects those with allergies less than wet hay with black spots on it.

Nickels and Dimes - yes, a lot is included with your admission, but a lot more isn't included. A family can end up spending over $30 per person if they do EVERYTHING and even more if they eat or drink anything. To compare, Lake Winnie is $27 to attend their "Lake WinnepeSPOOKAH" which includes rides and is a much shorter drive for most people in the Chattanooga area.

Bottom line: If you have 'little ones", or you have a lot of spare money to spend, or you are really into that 'carnival' feel, this attraction may be for you. We will not attend again, mostly because our kids are getting too old but also because it feels like...

I attended the Hamilton County fair which is now being held on the Old McDonald's Farm property. First great news is , no school busses. There was plenty of parking for the visitors with ease. The actual fair itself was spread out enough that there was plenty of room for visitors to move freely. They had an actual rodeo this year which was awesome. There were more rides for the kids to enjoy. The downside for me was that there was not as many displays as there has been in past fairs. Also all of the crafts and items that we look forward to seeing every year were not there. We also missed the little train that was always a part of the fair in the past. It would have been a great asset in ferrying people to and from the parking lot. I'm not upset that things were different, I just missed them. We had a good time, and already look forward to seeing the fair next year in it's new home at the beautiful Old...

Did Easter hunt but big kids ran out kids over. Need more groupings.and and stagger the time between the age groups so that parent can't get to children. Not for the first time it was like okay experiment need more signage as to where the picnic area was it could be closer to the parking lot so that if you have a lot of food to carry you ain't got to carry it across the whole entire area like a parking lot near where you had the bouncy houses put at the picnic area might be there so it's closer to the parking lot. Or maybe over there on the other backside parking lot make that a picnic area and parking for picnic e that would be a good idea and in that other area where the bouncy houses and stuff be okay to go into after ate a picnic table area go through the little Barn into the jumpy area the animals...