North Haven Fairgrounds — Attraction in North Haven

It's gotten worse and worse every year. One year (within the last 5, I stopped counting) they actually had an elephant - I promised I'd never go back. The vendor list never really fills up, probably because of the fees the vendors have to pay to display there (they're high, for the traffic/potential revenue they can get there). You get mostly state-based window/siding companies and national insurance companies and financial investment companies, some "mostly made in China out of subpar materials for ridiculously inflated prices" garbage vendors, and very little genuine local craft talent.

This year's mainstage event is the Amish Outlaws - which I'd actually like to see. But the last time I went there to actually see a show, it was the GooGoo Dolls, and the young women sitting next to where we put out our blanket and chairs decided to sit ON our blanket, and talk loudly over the music, and bump into our chairs. We asked them to pipe down and they just shot us dirty looks - it was crowded, so there was no other place to move our stuff, and we ended up listening to a bunch of teenage girls talking over what was probably really good music. Can't blame the fairgrounds for that, but it really was the only reason we went so it was $20 wasted.

The agricultural displays are great, but for just around the same admission fee you can get great agricultural displays AND a great rest of the fair, at any of the other fairs.

The juried entry crafts are nice, but they work with a system where pretty much everyone gets a ribbon. That just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The whole "everyone is special" nonsense pushed on children does nothing but teach them a sense of entitlement, and seems just another way to scam people out of their money with entry fees.

When you go to their website, it says you can download the current exhibit premium book. But when you click on that link you end up at LAST year's information. Their website has a lot of typos as well - and they used the word "irregardless" which is a pet peeve (pro-tip: irregardless isn't a word).

Once upon a time, the fairgrounds were good neighbors, and gave out a pair of free one-day passes to people who lived in close proximity. Basically - if the police had to put a "No Parking, Police Emergency" poster out in front of your house, you were entitled to the day-passes as a way of apologizing for the inconvenience of not permitting you to park in front of your own house. They stopped doing that. I even called and e-mailed them one year asking if they had simply missed my house, and they never bothered to respond. So - they're not even good...

We went here for the sheep and fiber festival in April ‘25. The fairgrounds are really nice, well maintained. They have nice, clean restroom facilities. There are very sturdy well built permanent structures/ barns for activities even in poor weather. The big issue was with PARKING. Like any fair grounds you park in a field no issue there, they use volunteers to direct you, usually high schoolers getting extra credit for civil service, no issues there. The problem came with the older adult woman directing the traffic to park. This was an open field no ground markings or even temporary fencing to make lanes. This woman was directing cars to park and I followed her direction along with 3 cars prior, we go to get out and she is yelling that we parked in the wrong place and have to move to the other lane. Now I can understand if one car made this mistake and misunderstood her direction but 3 separate, experienced drivers making this mistake it’s the person giving the direction. The fair grounds should either mandate that the groups pay NHPD to be on site overseeing this or that these organizations have to have their volunteers go thru training by NHPD on how to direct traffic. Someone could get seriously hurt or worse with the way this woman was recklessly...

It's not the best, but definitely not the worst fair grounds. I've been here a few times for the North Haven fair and always had a fun evening. Others must think the same because it gets pretty crowded at times. Cons: parking is a beast of its own due to long lines of cars waiting to do the same. Ticket lines are just as bad. They need to sell tickets online so the lines go quicker than a complete standstill. Pros: always a great crowd. Ride lines move at a decent rate. Food can get pricey, but that's more of a budgeting issues. All in all I will still...