What’s Moo With the Maryland State Fair 2025

Summer is here once again, and with it the return of the Maryland State Fair in Timonium!

The 144th Maryland State Fair is set for three big weekends this year: Aug.21-24, Aug. 28 through Labor Day Monday, Sept. 1, and Sept.4-7.

Here’s what on tap at the Maryland State Fair for this year:

U-Learn Farm & U-Learn Barn Exhibits Count on U-Learn Farm and U-Learn Barn to teach fairgoers of all ages how agriculture impacts their daily lives with a variety of fun and educational hands-on activities and exhibits 5-7 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day Monday.

New and Exciting Exhibits:

• Fill Your Plate Interactive Learning Area – Young fairgoers proceed through this play garden to dig for vegetables and take them to the pretend farmers market to sell to the public.
• The Reading Silo – A great space filled with agriculturally accurate books for young fairgoers and their parents to read together or to have read to them at various times during the fair
• Barnyard Bedtime Stories – Baltimore-based Goetze’s Candy Company, makers of Cow Tales® and Caramel Creams®, has partnered with the Maryland State Fair and Agricultural Society as the official education partner of the 2025 Maryland State Fair and expanded the Barnyard Bedtime Stories program, which invites young fairgoers to read tales to the animals before they go to bed. This one-of-a-kind reading experience will take place at the U-Learn Barn in the Cow Palace, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, and Saturday, Aug. 23, Aug. 30 and Sept. 6.  The Maryland State Fair Junior Fair Board members will be on hand to introduce the children to the animals before story time begins.
• Birthing Center – Fairgoers will have the opportunity to witness hatching chicks and see baby calves and piglets born under the supervision of agriculture professors, students, and veterinarians. (Daily, Cow Palace South)
• Growing with Grains Interactive Display – Young fairgoers are invited to make jar art using the variety of grains that they will learn about in this area.
• Meet Youth Exhibitors and their Farm Animals – Meet 4-H/FFA youth who are competing at the Maryland State Fair. Learn about their farm animals and about the hard work, dedication, and sportsmanship it takes to raise animals and participate in the Maryland State Fair. Hours for exhibitions are 5 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day Monday.
• Meet the Farmer – Local farmers and University of Maryland Extension staff will be on hand to answer fairgoers questions about agriculture 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day Monday.

Returning U-Learn Farm & Barn Favorites: AG Class in Session; American Dairy Association North East interactive Susan the Dairy Cow sculpture; the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation Showcase Trailer; Maryland Nursery, Landscape and Greenhouse Association Soil Maze; the Book Trail; Baby Farm Animals Meet & Greet

Champions of Challenge Livestock Show Youth with disabilities (ages 8-18) will partner with experienced exhibitors to meet, greet, groom and exhibit a dairy calf in a sensory-safe environment. (5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31, Cow Palace Show Ring)

To register, email [email protected].

Additionally, while the new Farm & Garden Building is being constructed, enjoy some of the 2025 Farm & Garden exhibits in the U-Learn Farm Area, including Central Maryland Beekeepers.

Other New Events at the Maryland State Fair:

• Otter Adventure – Get ready to be otterly amazed by the cutest antics of playful otters in this interactive water show at the Maryland State Fair. (6 p.m. & 8 p.m. Friday, noon, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday and Labor Day across from the Cow Palace)
• Butterfly Kingdom – A fun and educational interactive-all-day attraction. Fairgoers can interact with a variety of beautiful butterflies, learn the life cycle from egg to adult and feed them, in a safe enclosed environment. (Daily in the Exhibition Hall)

All About Agriculture

Amanda Brown Cloughenty works for University of Maryland’s College of Agricultural and Natural Resources as Associate Director of Alumni Relations. She shares about the importance of agriculture and what people can expect at this year’s Maryland State Fair.

How important is agriculture in this day and age?

Without agriculture, there is no life. Agriculture provides the food to eat, the fiber to make the clothes you wear (cotton, wool and other organic fibers are grown and harvested to make clothes), the materials to provide shelter (trees are purposefully farmed and planted to have a constant supply to build) and the fuel to run your motors. (Soybeans are used to make diesel fuel and corn is used to make ethanol for gas powered engines.) People are hungry, people need places to live and work, people need clothes to wear, people need vehicles to carry them places. None of that would happen without agriculture AND let’s not forget we need plants to absorb the CO2 and turn it into oxygen for us to breathe.

What would like people to know about agriculture and about activities/events for this year?

We are really continuing to focus on how you find agriculture in your life, even if you don’t realize it. We want fairgoers to meet the farmers, producers and growers of the products so that the next time people go to purchase a loaf of bread or an apple, they know there is an actual person and family that is grew that for you to eat.

Admission for the Maryland State Fair is $15 for adults (ages 12-61), $12 for seniors (ages 62+) and $10 for children (ages 6-11). Ages 5 and younger enter free. Rides are individually priced. 

Check out marylandstatefair.com for advance discount ticket sales and other discounts.

Read More: Animals and Fun! Agricultural Activities at the Maryland State Fair