Armour, Ryerson & Burk’s Falls Fall Fair 2026: A Labour Day Almaguin Tradition

A one-day country fair of draft horses, home craft, and family fun in the Almaguin Highlands

📍 Get Directions Full Schedule

A Heavy Horse Pull, a Light Horse Competition, a full exhibit hall of local baking and crafts, live music from the Wayne Miller Band, and a lineup of kids’ activities fill this Labour Day fair at the Burk’s Falls Fairgrounds.

🐴 Heavy Horse Pull 🎨 Home craft exhibit hall 🐐 Petting zoo 🎵 Live music

💡 This is a genuine one-day country fair — plan to arrive by mid-morning, since the exhibit hall, food booth, and headline Heavy Horse Pull are all packed into a single 9 AM–4 PM window.

Why Go Schedule Activities Essentials Getting There Tips FAQ

✨ Why This Fair Is Worth the Drive

Burk’s Falls sits in the Almaguin Highlands, about halfway between Huntsville and North Bay along Highway 11 — a stretch of Ontario better known for lakes and cottages than for agriculture, which makes this fair feel like a real find. The Armour, Ryerson & Burk’s Falls Agricultural Society has been putting it on since 1881, and it’s still run entirely by volunteer members from the three surrounding townships.

Unlike the sprawling multi-day fairs closer to the GTA, this one packs everything into a single focused Labour Day, and that’s part of the charm — there’s no wandering back tomorrow to catch what you missed. The Heavy Horse Pull is the marquee event, drawing teams of draft horses to see who can pull the most weight, and it runs alongside a full exhibit hall of baking, preserves, flowers, and crafts entered by neighbours from Armour, Ryerson, and Burk’s Falls themselves.

Add a petting zoo, a pony walkabout, live music from the Wayne Miller Band, and a rock wall and foam cannon for the kids, and you’ve got a genuinely well-rounded small-town fair — the kind that’s becoming harder to find the closer you get to a major highway.

The Agricultural Society keeps the fair funded the old-fashioned way, too — monthly bingo nights upstairs at the Burk’s Falls Arena run throughout the year, with all proceeds going toward putting on the fair itself. It’s a small but telling detail about how this event stays alive: not through sponsorship decks or ticket-price hikes, but through a community that shows up for bingo in February so the fairgrounds can open in September.

📅 Fair Day Schedule — Monday, September 7

Everything happens in one packed day, from the gates opening at 9 AM through to the close of the cowboy competition in the evening.

🎪 Activities & Entertainment

Beyond the horse competitions, a full slate of family activities and live entertainment runs throughout the day.

Vendors set up in the Arena lobby and throughout the fairgrounds, so there’s a steady stream of local goods to browse between the ring events.

📋 Essentials

🚗 Getting There

The Burk’s Falls Fairgrounds sit at 220b Centre Street, right next to the Burk’s Falls Arena, in the heart of the village. Burk’s Falls is just off Highway 11, roughly 40 minutes north of Huntsville and about an hour south of North Bay, making it an easy stop for anyone travelling through the Almaguin Highlands over the Labour Day long weekend.

💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

🕘 It’s a one-day fair, so plan your whole visit for Monday. Unlike multi-day fairs where you can spread things out, everything here — exhibit hall, Heavy Horse Pull, vendors, entertainment — happens within a single 9 AM–4 PM window.

🐴 Get a spot at the ring by 11:45. The Heavy Horse Pull at noon is the biggest draw of the day and ringside space fills up fast.

🎨 Don’t skip the exhibit hall. It’s a genuine window into the community — baking, preserves, flowers, and crafts entered by local families, judged the old-fashioned way.

🚙 Combine it with a cottage-country trip. Burk’s Falls is a short detour off Highway 11, so it pairs easily with a Labour Day drive through Muskoka or the Almaguin Highlands.

❓ Common Questions