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# At the Montgomery County Fair, food stands are their own main attraction
- URL: https://www.themontgomerybrief.org/at-the-montgomery-county-fair-food-stands-are-their-own-main-attraction/
- Published: 2026-08-08T00:16:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-29T17:06:37.000Z
- Author: Cristina Caicedo Smit
- Tags: Community, Events

### The concession lineup has grown to roughly four dozen vendors selling everything from Italian and Mexican food to Asian cuisine and classic American fair food.

Between the livestock barns and the midway lights, another competition is underway at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair: the one for stomach space.

The 77th annual fair runs Aug. 14 through 22 at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fairgrounds, drawing tens of thousands of visitors a day for nine days of 4-H showcases, carnival rides and demolition derbies.

But for many fairgoers, the real draw is the food stands lining the fairgrounds.

The concession lineup has grown to roughly four dozen vendors selling everything from Italian and Mexican food to Asian cuisine and classic American fair food, according to Visit Montgomery, the county’s tourism office. Recent additions include an Asian grill stand, a donut vendor, a candy shop and a pizzeria; part of a rotating cast that organizers add each year to complement longtime favorites.

Among those mainstays is the Big Cheese, a grilled cheese stand that Visit Montgomery says sells roughly 10,000 sandwiches in a single fair season. Meanwhile, Dickerson Market’s fried chicken remains one of the fairgrounds’ most talked-about traditions, and a nearby Greek stand pairs its popular gyros with kabobs and souvlaki.

Fairgoers looking for dessert have no shortage of options. Deep-fried candy bars, Twinkies and s’mores are fair staples, alongside Amish-style sourdough donuts, fried ice cream cookies and New Orleans-style snowballs in a rotating list of flavors. A farmers market stand also sells fresh produce for visitors to take home.

For adults, the Grapes & Grain Garden—a beer and wine venue sponsored by a local brewing company—features local cideries, wineries and distilleries, giving the fair’s food footprint a farm-to-glass component alongside its farm-to-table one.

The fair also puts its food vendors in direct competition. Organizers hold the Fair Foodie Awards partway through the run, letting visitors sample dishes from the previous year’s winners in categories such as best savory food, best sweet treat and best drink.

General admission tickets for this year’s fair are $18 at the gate, with discounted online pricing available in advance. Shuttle buses will run from Montgomery College’s Germantown and Rockville campuses starting 30 minutes before the fair opens each day.

Organizers describe the fair as a chance for suburban Montgomery County to reconnect with its agricultural roots. For a growing number of visitors, that connection runs straight through the concession stands.