163rd Brussels Fall Fair 2026: Grow It, Sew It, Show It

A midweek two-day rural fair for the Brussels, Morris & Grey community and beyond

📍 Get Directions Full Schedule

The Brussels Agricultural Society has been putting this fair on since the 1860s, and it’s kept its midweek, small-town format the whole way — a parade, livestock shows, a packed exhibit hall, and a fair entry that’s still by donation rather than a paid gate.

🐑 Livestock shows 🎪 Parade & inflatables 🐶 Dog show 🧵 Homecraft & exhibit halls

💡 This is a midweek fair, not a weekend one — the Brussels Fall Fair runs Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan your visit accordingly.

Why Go Schedule Essentials History Getting There Tips FAQ

✨ Why This Fair Is Worth the Trip

Brussels is a small community in Huron County, part of Ontario’s West Coast farming region, and its fall fair has stayed exactly the size it needs to be: a two-day, midweek event that never tries to be more than what it is. There’s no gate fee — entry runs on donation, the way it always has — and the whole thing is still built and run by an all-volunteer agricultural society and homecraft committee, right down to the section leads who’ve been running the same categories for decades.

What you get for showing up is a genuinely old-fashioned fair experience rather than a scaled-down festival. The exhibit hall alone covers grain and field crops, root vegetables, preserves, baking, quilting and needlework, photography, and a full slate of junior and hobby craft classes — the kind of categories that have been part of Ontario agricultural societies since the 1800s. Add a parade, a dog show, a 4-H Beef Show and sheep show, inflatables and an escape room for the kids, and an Ambassador Cake Auction that doubles as a bit of community theatre, and you’ve got two days that feel like a genuine cross-section of rural life in Huron County.

The 2026 edition carries the theme “Grow It, Sew It, Show It,” which shows up throughout the fair book in dedicated art and design classes — a nice touch that ties the whole event together without changing what’s actually worth coming for.

📅 What’s On, Day by Day

The Brussels Agricultural Society hadn’t published an hour-by-hour 2026 run of show at the time of writing — only the exhibitor prize book was available. Here’s what’s confirmed for each day, based on the fair book and the society’s established format; check the fair’s Facebook page closer to the date for exact times.

🎟️ Admission, Exhibits & Fair Essentials

Getting into the fair itself is by donation — there’s no fixed gate price. The one ticketed item is the pork dinner in the auditorium, which needs to be pre-purchased from a Brussels Agricultural Society member rather than bought at the door.

Exhibit categories run deep: grain and field crops, roots and vegetables, preserves, baking, quilts and needlework, plants and flowers, art and photography, hobby crafts, and dedicated junior, intermediate, and senior sections for every age group. If you’ve never been to a fair with this many homecraft categories, it’s worth a slow walk through the exhibit hall before heading outside for the livestock shows.

📜 More Than 160 Years in Brussels

The Brussels Agricultural Society traces its fair back to the 1860s, and its own records of past presidents run in an unbroken line from the 1920s onward — G. Muldoon in 1920, through a long list of local farmers and community leaders, right up to Crystal Blake’s current term. The one gap on the record is explicit: no fair was held during the Second World War, the only interruption in a history that otherwise stretches back more than a century and a half.

The Ambassador program has its own long lineage, with a Fair Ambassador crowned every year since 1980 and Junior and Little Ambassador titles added later to give younger community members a way into the tradition. Past ambassadors go on to represent Brussels at fairs across the region and, for the right candidates, at the Canadian National Exhibition’s provincial competition in Toronto — this year’s ambassador, Alycia Coultes, grew up on a family farm just outside Brussels and has been attending the fair for as long as she can remember.

What’s stayed constant through all of it is the fair’s identity as a working agricultural society event rather than a commercial festival — run by volunteer section leads, funded by donation and local sponsorship, and organized around the same grain, livestock, and homecraft categories that have anchored Ontario fall fairs for generations.

🚗 Getting There

The fair runs at the BMG Community Centre, 800 Sports Dr in Brussels, part of the Municipality of Huron East. On parade day, expect the route to run through downtown Brussels before ending back at the community centre grounds.

Parking: Specific fair-day parking details weren’t published at the time of writing. The BMG Community Centre is a year-round arena and recreation facility, so its usual lot serves as the base for fair parking — check the Brussels Fall Fair Facebook page for any fair-day directions or overflow arrangements.

💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

📅 It’s a Tuesday-Wednesday fair, not a weekend one. Plan around the workweek if you’re coming from outside Huron East.

💵 Bring cash for the donation box and pie booth. Entry runs on donation rather than a fixed gate price, and small food booths like the pie table typically run on cash.

🎫 Buy pork dinner tickets ahead of time. It’s a separately ticketed evening meal, and tickets are sold by Agricultural Society members rather than at the door.

🚫 No smoking or vaping on the grounds. It’s a firm rule across the whole fairgrounds, not just indoor spaces.

🧶 Give yourself time in the exhibit hall. With categories running from field crops to Christmas crafts, it’s easy to walk past sections you’d actually enjoy if you rush straight to the livestock shows.

❓ Common Questions