Union Fair

From Union Fair Website:

Union Fair & Maine Wild Blueberry Festival
August 18-25, 2018

A real Maine Agricultural Fair

In the September 17, 1869 issue of the Courier Gazette an announcement appeared stating that The North Knox Agricultural and Horticultural Society will hold its first annual fair at Union, October 5, 6, & 7. That publication was the announcement of the birth of the Union Fair. With the exception of 1943 and 1944, the fair has been held annually since with many changes along the way, and has become one of the best agricultural fairs in the State of Maine.

Societies to promote agriculture and the goods manufactured were being formed in Maine as many as three decades before Maine became a state in 1820. From 1821 to 1869, 57 Maine agricultural societies were incorporated, with the major purpose being to improve practices in agriculture and horticulture through exchanges of information on practices.

The book The First Century - Union Fair 1869-1969 describes the formation of an association of neighbors in five small communities in rural Maine - Appleton, Hope, Union, Warren, and Washington - which together in 1869 were incorporated by the Maine Legislature as the North Knox Agricultural and Horticultural Society.