Wilson County Fair: What’s Left, and Which Day to Pick
The Wilson County–Tennessee State Fair is in its last week. Ten days at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center on East Baddour Parkway in Lebanon, and it closes Saturday, Aug. 22. If you have been meaning to go and have not, this is the window.
It is a real fair — livestock barns, agricultural exhibits, a full midway, several music stages, and competitions running more or less continuously from the time the gates open. What follows is the practical version: when to go, what is on which day, and the one logistics detail that decides whether the evening goes well.
Gate hours
- Monday–Thursday: 4 to 9 p.m.
- Friday: 4 to 10 p.m.
- Saturday: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: noon to 9 p.m.
Take the shuttle
This is the advice worth the whole article. A free satellite shuttle runs from 3 p.m. daily. Park off site and ride in. With a stroller, a toddler and a diaper bag, the walk in from an overflow field at the end of the night is the part that ruins fairs, and the shuttle removes it entirely. Nobody regrets taking it.
Thursday, Aug. 20 — Kids Night
Thursday is deliberately aimed at children. Kids Night Events begin at 6:30 p.m. Around them: the Doll Parade at 6, the Four Wheeler Rodeo at 6, a Spelling Bee at 7, and the Cattle Capers Dairy Show at 7. Live music runs across the stages from 5:30 onward. Gates close at 9, so this is the early night — good for younger kids, tight if you are coming straight from work.
Friday, Aug. 21 — monster trucks and the Princess Revue
Monster truck rides start at 4 p.m. when the gates open, and the Monster Truck Show runs at 6:30. Bring ear protection for anyone small; it is genuinely loud, which is of course why everyone is there. The Fair Princess Revue runs divisions at 6:30 and 7:30, and the livestock schedule fills the afternoon with an open breeding sheep show at 10 a.m., a junior and 4-H dairy cattle show at noon, and beef and Simmental shows through the evening. Gates until 10.
Saturday, Aug. 22 — the day to pick
If you make one trip, make it Saturday. It is the only day with a 10 a.m. gate, and the schedule is the densest of the run.
- 9 a.m. — Special Needs Day. The gates open an hour early for it.
- 9:30 a.m. — School Day Events.
- 10 a.m. — Brick Olympics and a LEGO League Robotics Challenge. This is the sleeper. Free-to-watch competitive robotics is the sort of thing families normally drive into Nashville for, and here it is between the sheep barn and the midway.
- 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. — Baby Show (twins and triplets and 0–12 months in the morning, 13–23 months in the afternoon).
- 11 a.m. — bluegrass competition, clogging demonstration, corn hole tournament.
- Noon — origami demonstration and music on the stages.
- 1 p.m. — horseshoe pitching, Make It With Wool state contest, more monster truck rides.
- 2 p.m. — Crank It Up Ice Cream Freeze Off and the Southern Country Cloggers.
- 5 p.m. — Old Time Square Dancing Jamboree.
- 6:30 p.m. — the second Monster Truck Show and an evening of traditional country.
Gates run to 10 p.m. Saturday on the calendar
Sunday, Aug. 23
The public fair closes Saturday night, but the livestock program has one more morning: a Commercial Heifer Show at 10 a.m. and Champion of Champions at 1 p.m. Worth knowing if you have a kid who is more interested in the barns than the midway.
While you are out there
Fiddlers Grove sits on the same grounds — a walk-through village of one-room log cabins and period buildings. It is the quietest twenty minutes available during fair week and it costs you nothing extra, since you are already inside.
The short version
Saturday morning, take the shuttle, start with the robotics and the Brick Olympics at 10, work the barns before it gets hot, eat something regrettable, and let the midway close the day. The fair does not come back around for another year.
Schedules can change — check the fair's own listing before you go.
