Arlington County Fair Holds Ribbon-Cutting, Launches Endowment Fund

ARLINGTON, VA — Local dignitaries, scouts and the Arlingtones on Wednesday afternoon helped to kick off the 47th year of the Arlington County Fair, a five-day event that's expected to attract more than 100,000 people.

Boy Scout Troop 104 and Girl Scout Troop 104 served as the color guard for the opening ceremony as the Arlingtones sang the national anthem.

The Arlington County Fair is a public-private partnership, with most of the organizing work conducted by the all-volunteer Arlington County Fair Board.

Kristen Berset-Harris, host of Great Day Washington on WUSA9, served as the emcee of the opening ceremonies, which ended with a ribbon-cutting for this year's fair, called "A Fair for All," led by Miss Arlington Rosie Hartwell.

In his remarks at the opening ceremony, Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said the fair’s board did an exceptional job “marrying the whole idea of how do we take 47 years of tradition, give the people what they love, while also giving them more of what they will come to love.”

The Arlington County Fair takes place each year inside and outside the Thomas Jefferson Community Center adjacent to the Arlington Heights neighborhood south of Route 50.

“This is an outstanding event,” Dorsey said. “This is the largest free fair in the commonwealth of Virginia.”

Dorsey also compared the Arlington County Fair to Montgomery County, Maryland, where they have dedicated fairgrounds.

While Montgomery County has lots of space for its county fair, Arlington is able to hold a fair on a “compact footprint,” next to a middle school and elementary school, and give people a “fair experience that is unparalleled in the Washington metro region and perhaps in the commonwealth of Virginia.”

At Wednesday’s opening ceremonies, Ilene Slatko, treasurer of the Arlington County Fair Board, announced that the county fair organization officially launched a community endowment fund this year using a portion of the fair’s surplus funds from over the past 47 years.

For 2023, the Arlington County Fair Board will be providing money to three nonprofit organizations in Arlington that serve underserved communities, a donation that “we hope will make a major impact on the populations that they serve,” Slatko said.

Slatko said the names of the recipients of donations from the fair's community endowment fund in its inaugural year will be posted at a later time on the fair's website.

The Arlington County Fair Board also will be recognizing three county fair volunteers with a donation that will be used to help them hone their leadership skills.

The Arlington County Fair will take place outdoors on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. On Friday, the indoor portion of the fair at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center will take place from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., while the outdoor rides and events will take place from 2 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the fair’s indoor portion will take place from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., while the outdoor portion will run from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the final day of the fair, the indoor portion will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the outdoor activities will run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The Arlington County Fair program includes everything you need to know, including information about parking, performances and vendors.