Wilmington doesn’t have a county fair anymore. The Cape Fear Fair & Expo spent about twenty years on the grounds at Wilmington International Airport, was last held in 2021, and nothing has taken its place inside New Hanover County. The closest county fair to Wilmington is now the Brunswick County Agricultural Fair & Expo at Stump Hill Farms in Ash, about an hour southwest, running October 21 to 25, 2026. It’s a second-year fair on a working farm, admission is under ten dollars, and two larger fairs sit within a couple hours if that one’s too small for you.
Why Wilmington doesn’t have a fair anymore
The Cape Fear Fair & Expo drew around 47,000 people the last time it opened in 2021, on airport land it had used for about twenty years. Organizers described it as “a great family entertainment venue filled with food, entertainment, art, education, rides and a chance for children of all ages to learn about farm animals and agriculture,” serving New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties.
What ended it was the lease. In September 2022 the fair announced it wouldn’t open that fall, because Wilmington International Airport declined to renew the ground lease, citing future development plans for the property. Fair Manager Skip Watkins said organizers looked at other sites and couldn’t make the timing or the money work, and a year later WWAY reported the fair was off for a second straight year for the same reasons. It hasn’t opened since, and a fair that size needs dozens of acres with water, sewer, and power run to them, which is a tall order anywhere near Wilmington now.
Two things from the old fair are still floating around online, and both can mislead you if you go looking. The old capefearfair.com address no longer belongs to the fair, because the domain lapsed and now forwards to an unrelated overseas gambling page, so don’t type it in. The fair’s Facebook page is still up with about 14,000 followers, but its recent posts are shares of a different county’s fair rather than announcements of its own.
That’s also why several event listings currently advertise a “Cape Fear Fair & Expo” on October 21-25, 2026. Those dates are correct, but they belong to the Brunswick County fair, whose January announcement the Cape Fear Fair page shared, and the aggregators put the wrong name on it. The 2026 North Carolina county fair schedule lists no fair at all in New Hanover or Pender County.
What the Brunswick County fair actually is
The Brunswick fair exists because Fair Vice President Allyson Hardee Newcomb’s niece wanted to show a dairy calf and there was nowhere in the county to do it, which meant a two-hour drive each way. So a group of people put a nonprofit fair together in under a year on land Newcomb’s family has farmed for five generations, and the first one opened in October 2025. A children’s play area called Nana’s Nook is named for Newcomb’s mother, Verma Hardee, who died before she got to see it open. After that first weekend closed, Newcomb told WECT the turnout was “overwhelming in such a beautiful way,” and organizers came out of it planning more livestock space and eventually scholarships.
The livestock side carries as much of the weekend as the midway does. The 2026 shows include a chicken show and a goat show, both open to the public, plus a dairy heifer show run with Brunswick County 4-H that’s limited to 4-H members. Entry rules run to a vet’s health certificate and a scrapie tag for every goat, which tells you these are judged classes rather than a petting zoo, and times for each show go up closer to October. Alongside that you get the midway, run by Dreamland Amusements, plus food concessions, arts and produce exhibits from local students, live music, and vendors.
Before you make the drive, know that this is a fair with exactly one edition behind it, held on a working family farm, where the whole thing fits in a field. The 2025 bill ran to a high-wire act, a comedy-magic show, a DJ, and four regional country and bluegrass acts, which makes for a good evening at county scale. Anyone picturing eleven days of concerts and a hundred rides should drive to Raleigh instead.
Hours, admission, and what to expect at the gate
Gates open at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and the fair runs until 11 p.m. On Saturday it’s 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday starts with a worship service from 10 to 11 a.m., then the grounds are open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Check the current daily schedule before you leave, since a fair this new can still move things around.
Admission is listed at $7 cash or $8 card, anyone 36 inches and under gets in free, and parking doesn’t cost anything. Nobody is admitted after 10 p.m., and anyone under 18 has to be with a parent or guardian who’s 21 or older the whole time. The gate takes a minute to clear, because bags are inspected and every patron passes through a metal detector on the way in. Outside food and drink stay in the car, along with pets, since only certified service animals are allowed. Check the prohibited items list if you’re the sort who packs a pocket knife out of habit.
Rides aren’t included with admission, and the fair hasn’t posted 2026 wristband prices yet. For a rough budget, Brunswick County’s tourism office listed last year’s unlimited-ride wristbands at $25 on site or $20 each in online presale, alongside a $60 Carload Sunday deal covering admission and unlimited rides for up to eight seat-belted people in one vehicle. None of that is confirmed for 2026, so check the ticket page before you go. Bring cash either way, since you’ll save a dollar a head at the gate and midway food and game booths are usually happier with it.
The drive from Wilmington, and when it’s worth it
Mapping apps put Stump Hill Farms at roughly 50 miles from downtown Wilmington, a little over an hour, almost all of it US-17 heading southwest past Leland and Shallotte. The road is easy enough, though US-17 through Leland backs up on a Friday evening, which is exactly when you’d be leaving for a 4 p.m. opening.
That’s why Sunday is the best window for most Wilmington families. The 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours put the whole visit in daylight, the drive down happens before lunch instead of in commuter traffic, and you’re home at a reasonable hour. Friday and Saturday nights give you the midway lit up over a dark field, which is the better picture if the kids are older.
If an hour each way is more than you want to spend, there are shorter trips in the same direction. The Fort Fisher to Southport ferry puts you in a waterfront town for an afternoon for about seven dollars a carload.
The other fairs within driving range
October is fair season across North Carolina, and three of them sit within a couple hours of Wilmington.
| Fair | 2026 dates | Where | Drive from Wilmington |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus County Agriculture Fair | October 13-18 | Whiteville | about an hour |
| N.C. State Fair | October 15-25 | Raleigh | about two hours |
| Brunswick County Agricultural Fair & Expo | October 21-25 | Ash | about an hour |
The Columbus County Agriculture Fair is the option if your October trip lands mid-month, since it runs the week before Brunswick and sits about the same distance away, straight west instead of southwest. Gates open at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and at 1 p.m. on the weekend, and it’s an older fair with a demolition derby, carnival rides, competitive exhibits, and free shows included with admission.
The N.C. State Fair runs eleven days, October 15 through 25, at the fairgrounds on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh, and it pulls roughly a million people through the gates with nightly fireworks and a midway to match. Two hours each way makes it a long day trip or an overnight, and advance tickets are cheaper than gate prices. There’s a small piece of Wilmington history in it too, since the State Fair midway is run by Powers Great American Midways, the same operator that used to bring the rides down to the Cape Fear Fair every fall.
If you’d rather stay in Wilmington in October
Losing the fair didn’t empty out the calendar. Wilmington Riverfest takes over the downtown riverfront on October 3 and 4 with a free street fair, music, and a Saturday-night drone show, and a month later the Cape Fear Kite Festival brings professional flyers to the Fort Fisher strand. If you’re still picking your dates, our month-by-month guide to the Wilmington beaches covers what October weather and crowds look like here.
FAQs
Is the Cape Fear Fair ever coming back?
Nothing has been announced for 2026 or 2027, and the airport property that hosted it for two decades is slated for other development, so any comeback would start with finding land. The fair’s board hasn’t published a plan since the second cancellation, and its Facebook page has gone quiet on the subject. If a revival happens, that page is the likeliest place it shows up first.
Is the Brunswick fair worth the drive with a toddler?
For a two-year-old, probably, and Sunday is the window to pick. Anyone 36 inches and under gets in free, and the 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours give you the whole thing in daylight without the late-evening midway crowd. The fair doesn’t publish minimum heights for individual rides, and a traveling midway usually has only a handful of kiddie rides, so expect the animal barns and the play area to carry more of the afternoon. It’s a working farm, so plan on grass and dirt underfoot rather than pavement.
What happens if it rains?
The fair doesn’t publish a rain policy, and outdoor fairs generally stay open through light rain and shut the midway down when there’s lightning. At $7 or $8 a head with free parking, a washed-out evening is a small loss, though it’s still an hour each way. If the forecast looks unsettled, check the fair’s Facebook page the afternoon you plan to go, because that’s where a schedule change would land first.
The October fair is in Brunswick County now
The Wilmington fair isn’t coming back this year, whatever the event listings say, so the October answer for anyone who wants a midway and a livestock barn is an hour southwest. What’s out there is smaller than what Wilmington lost, and it’s also a fair a family in Ash put together in under a year because a kid wanted to show a calf. Confirm the hours on the fair’s own site and bring cash. Gates open at four on Wednesday, the midway lights come on as the field goes dark, and the goat show costs nothing beyond what you already paid to walk in.
