Franklin County Fairgrounds — Attraction in Norwich Township

I visited the Franklin County Fair [at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Hilliard, Ohio] for my first time on 7-17-2023.

I have visited the Ohio State Fair [in Columbus, Ohio] many times over the years but had never before visited the Franklin County Fair.

I spent perhaps one hour figuring out if the Franklin County Fair allows "walk-in" visitors [pedestrians walking through their gates] -- or if they allow only people who drive cars and park their cars [for free] in their several parking lots -- to attend the fair.

I eventually called the Franklin County Fair directly and confirmed that I would be allowed to walk into any of their gates and then visit the fair as long as I had paid my admission fee.

Another challenge when planning my trip to the Franklin County Fair had been figuring out an appropriate Uber "drop off" location for a large area that is half a square mile in size and is surrounded mostly by "country roads."

After a lot of on-line searching, I eventually found a cute little yellow house [a private home] immediately west of Gate #1 [on the west edge of the fairgrounds]; that yellow house became my Uber "drop off" location.

After arriving at Gate #1 and showing my receipt to a person at that gate, I spent two hours or so wandering around the Franklin County Fair, visiting many different buildings, and fully experiencing the culture of an agricultural fair.

After having visited the Franklin County Fair, I walked to a nearby restaurant for a delicious lunch and then requested my...

It's been years since I have been to the fair. A friend mentioned that they had a demolition derby and asked if I wanted to go. Sure thing! Parking was easy and we found a spot fairly quickly. We made our lives a little simpler by purchasing tickets to the fair online. The fair seemed smaller than what I remembered. I really enjoyed walking through the different barns seeing the animals. I visited the 4-H display area (brought back a lot of memories). They had plenty of fair foods to partake in, nice selection and vendors that accepted both cash and plastic. The demolition derby was definitely the highlight of the evening! So much fun!

My only concern or rather dislike is that once it went dark the fair was crawling with teens that were unsupervised and honestly pretty rowdy. We did not stay very late due to this. Side note, I definitely sound like my mother/father here, guess...

Wow, time has not been good to this fair. Growing up, I always wanted to be @ the fair when it came to town. Always looked forward to the demo derby on Saturday night. They changed it to make it more friendly to the surrounding neighbors of the fairgrounds. As time went on, found it hard to find time away from family or just in my schedule to visit the fair. I have been twice in the past 5 years, and will likely avoid it like the plague from now on. Prices are high, and entertainment is low. The fair used to have a lot of food options, now it's only steak sandwiches, corn dogs, and french fries. The grandstand has an extra cost to get in:$10. A person would be hard pressed to spend less than $25 @ the fair. It's a sad excuse for a fair anymore, with less and...