Mohawk Fair 2026: 125 Years in Tyendinaga

A community and agricultural tradition since 1901

📍 Get Directions Full Schedule

Three days at the Mohawk Community Centre — traditional foods, Indigenous crafts, a demolition derby, horse pulls, mud drags, and a Classic Car & Shine Show, hosted by the Mohawk Agricultural Society for a 125th year in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

💥 Demolition derby 🐴 Horse pull 🌽 Traditional foods & crafts 🚗 Classic car & shine show

💡 *Exact 2026 dates hadn’t been formally announced by the Mohawk Agricultural Society as of this writing — the dates above follow the fair’s established third-weekend-of-September pattern. Confirm on the fair’s Facebook page before you go.

Why Go Schedule Essentials History Getting There Tips FAQ

✨ Why This Fair Is Worth the Drive

The Mohawk Fair has run in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory since 1901, making the 2026 edition roughly its 125th year — a run of agricultural tradition organized entirely by the volunteer-run Mohawk Agricultural Society. What sets it apart from other Ontario fall fairs is how it blends classic fair fixtures with Indigenous cultural programming: traditional foods and Indigenous crafts sit alongside the demolition derby, horse pulls, and a Classic Car & Shine Show.

The weekend’s motorsport lineup runs deep for a fair this size — mud drags, a horse pull, a horseshoe tournament, and a demolition derby that’s traditionally been the closing event of Friday’s opening day. Member and school exhibits round out the more traditional agricultural side, alongside homecraft competitions.

Families get a full slate too: an Inflatable Carnival, a petting farm, children’s games, bingo, and old tyme contests, with live entertainment filling the evenings across all three days.

The fair sits within Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, one of the larger and longer-established First Nations communities in Ontario, and visitors come away with a fair that feels distinct from the region’s other agricultural events — less about a single county’s farming heritage, and more about a community that’s kept its own traditions alive alongside a century-old agricultural fair format.

📋 Fair Weekend Schedule

A detailed 2026 schedule had not been published as of this writing. The outline below reflects the fair’s typical weekend structure based on recent years — confirm exact 2026 times on the Mohawk Fair Facebook page.

📌 Essentials

🏛️ 125 Years of the Mohawk Fair

The Mohawk Fair began in 1901 as a modest gathering where local farmers in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory showcased livestock, crops, and homemade goods — an opportunity to exchange farming techniques and celebrate the harvest together. Organized by the Mohawk Agricultural Society, it has grown over more than a century into a full weekend event.

Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory itself dates to 1784, when Mohawk families led north by Joseph Brant settled the area after the American Revolutionary War, with the land formally set aside under Crown Treaty 3½ in 1793. The fair, and the Mohawk Community Centre that hosts it on York Road, remain a central gathering point for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte community today.

Today the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte number over 11,000 members, with roughly 2,000 living on the territory itself. The fair remains one of the few events each year that reliably draws both on-territory residents and the wider off-territory community back to Tyendinaga at the same time.

🚗 Getting There

The fair is held at the Mohawk Community Centre, 1807 York Road, in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory — near Deseronto and Marysville, east of Belleville along the Bay of Quinte.

💡 A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Go

📅 Confirm exact dates before you plan your trip. The Mohawk Agricultural Society hadn’t formally posted 2026 dates as of this writing — check the Mohawk Fair Facebook page for the official announcement.

💥 Friday is derby night. In past years the demolition derby has capped off opening day — arrive by early evening if that’s your main draw.

🚗 Bring your own classic car? The Classic Car & Shine Show welcomes entries and typically runs a rain date if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

🍲 Try the traditional foods. Vendors selling traditional Mohawk foods and Indigenous crafts are a highlight worth budgeting time for, alongside the exhibit halls.

❓ Common Questions