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For a few days every August, a 17-acre park in a city of about 1,300 people becomes the center of Oconto County. The Oconto County Fair, billed these days as the Oconto County Youth Fair, takes over Zippel Park in Gillett with 4-H barns, animal shows and grandstand pulls. It is a county fair in the old sense: built around the kids showing animals they raised, with tractors, trucks and horses pulling sleds in front of the grandstand at night.
Whether it is worth the drive depends on what you want from a fair. If you want rides and midway noise, bigger fairs exist. If you want to watch a farm county show off, this is a good one, and it is easy to do in a day.
When the fair happens
The fair runs over several days in mid to late August, and some years it has been split across two weekends. It has a long history: the 2017 fair was billed as the 76th annual, which puts it past 80 years now. Dates are set each year by the fair board, so check the fair's own website or its Facebook page before you plan a trip around it.
Admission and parking details are set by the fair board each year, so this guide does not quote prices that may be out of date. The fair's contact number listed by Travel Wisconsin is 920-737-6257, and the schedule for each day is posted on the fair's website before opening.
The pattern is consistent from year to year, even when the dates move. Livestock shows run through the daytime, the exhibition area stays open all day, and the grandstand pulls fill the evenings.
What you will see
The heart of the fair is the 4-H program, run with UW-Madison Extension in Oconto County. Swine, beef and goat shows each get their own judging session on the fairgrounds, and a combined morning covers small animals and caged birds, horses, cats and dogs, starting with the small animals at 8:30.
If you have never watched a youth livestock show, sit in on one. The kids are serious, the judges explain what they are looking for, and you come away understanding something about the farms you drove past on the way in.
The fair also crowns a Fairest of the Fair, the ambassador who represents it through the year and turns up in local TV interviews before each fair. The exhibition area is open every day with vendors, displays and projects from county clubs. Past fairs have included a youth-decorated cake auction, human foosball and a grilled cheese contest, so the schedule usually has something odd and fun on it.
The grandstand pulls
The grandstand is where the noise comes from: 4x4 truck pulls, farm tractor pulls and a draft horse pull. A pull is simple to follow. A truck, tractor or team of horses drags a weighted sled down a dirt track, and the one that goes furthest wins. The engines are loud, the dirt flies, and the crowd knows exactly who they are rooting for.
The draft horse pull is the one people who have never been to a county fair remember. Two huge horses leaning into a sled, with a teamster calling them, is a sight you do not get many places anymore.
Bring ear protection for small kids on truck pull nights, and get a grandstand seat early for the evening events.
Doing the fair in a day
The fair rewards an early start. Get there for the morning shows, when the barns are full and the kids are getting animals ready to go into the ring. On the combined show day, the small animal and caged bird show starts at 8:30, followed by horses at 9, cats at 9:30 and dogs around 10. Eat lunch at the 4-H food stand, walk the exhibition area in the heat of the afternoon, then take a seat at the grandstand for the evening pull.
With just an evening to spare, come for the pulls and eat on Main Street beforehand. With a morning, come for the barns and leave before the afternoon crowd builds.
Zippel Park has a playground and restrooms, which matters when you are spending a full day there with small children. Bring sunscreen, a refillable water bottle and shoes you do not mind getting dusty. Barn aisles and the track area are dirt, and in August they are dry and hot.
Getting there and parking
The rest of the summer, the same park is the trailhead for the Nicolet State Trail, with free truck and trailer parking, restrooms and showers. If you usually unload an ATV there, plan differently for fair week, because the grounds are in use. The trailhead lot riders use the rest of the summer works around the fair for those few days.
Downtown is small enough to park on a side street and walk over. Leave the trailer at home if you can.
Eating during fair week
Fair food is part of the point, and the 4-H clubs themselves staff a food stand on the grounds as part of their fair duties. Buying lunch there is also a small way to support the kids showing animals.
Main Street is a short walk from the fairgrounds: OJ's Midtown does breakfast and lunch with pie from 7 in the morning, Monday through Saturday. Taco Fiesta on E Main St is the quick lunch option, open from 11.
Spirits of Gillett sits across McKenzie Ave from the park for a beer and a pizza after the evening pull. Beyond the fairgrounds you have Main Street's diner and taco counters, plus a supper club and three Friday fish fries out on WI-32.
Expect waits at lunch on the big days. Eat early, or eat at the fair.
Staying over
Beyond Gillett, the options are rentals in the area or hotels in Shawano and Green Bay. For visitors coming up from the Green Bay area, the fair works fine as a day trip.
August weather at the fair
August in Gillett averages highs around 79 degrees and lows around 56, and it is one of the wetter months of the year, with about 3.7 inches of rain. That means hot afternoons in the barns, cooler evenings at the grandstand, and a real chance of a thunderstorm. Bring a light jacket for the evening and something waterproof.
The rest of the year looks very different, and August weather in Gillett sits in the middle of a short warm season.
The rest of Zippel Park's calendar
The fair is the biggest event at Zippel Park, but not the only one: the park also hosts the town's 4th of July celebration, the Gillett Area Firefighters' annual corn roast and Christmas in the Park. If you like the fair, the rest of Gillett's summer calendar is built around the same park and the same crowd.
Frequently asked questions
Published September 14, 2026
