Festivals in Maryland in August
August in Maryland is county fair season. The Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair in Westminster opens the month with a free gate (July 31 to August 8 in 2026), the Queen Anne's and Montgomery County fairs follow in mid-August, and the Maryland State Fair in Timonium opens on August 27. Four of the eight events here are county fairs; the rest are one of a kind, from a workboat-docking contest in St. Michaels to a Jeep takeover of Ocean City.
For planning, the useful split is early versus late. The first half of the month belongs to the agricultural fairs, built around 4-H livestock barns and exhibit halls. The last weekend stacks three big events together: the State Fair and Ocean City Jeep Fest both run August 27-30, and the Maryland Renaissance Festival opens August 29. Two of those keep going through September or later, so August is only their start.
Our picks
- An afternoon that costs nothing at the gate: Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair. Admission is $0, with the 4-H and FFA livestock barns and sale ring at the center of the fair.
- A day on the water instead of a fairground: Watermen's Appreciation Day. One Sunday, August 9, of workboat docking, steamed crabs from local watermen and museum entry for $22.
At a glance
| Option | Admission | Address | Dates | Festival Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freesource | 700 Agriculture Center, Westminster, MD 21157source | July 31 - August 8, 2026source | County Fairsource | |
| 2210 Fairgrounds Road, West Friendship, MD 21794source | August 7-14, 2027source | County Fairsource | ||
| $22source | 213 North Talbot Street, St. Michaels, MD 21663source | Sunday, August 9source | Maritime & Waterfrontsource | |
| 100 Dulin Clark Rd, Centreville, MD 21617source | August 10-15, 2026source | County Fairsource | ||
| $18source | 501 Perry Parkway, Gaithersburg, MD 20877source | August 14-22, 2026source | County Fairsource | |
| $15source | 2200 York Road, Lutherville-Timonium, MD 21093source | August 27-30, then September 3-7 and 10-13source | State Fairsource | |
| 4001 Coastal Highway, Ocean City, MDsource | August 27-30, 2026source | Vehicle Festivalsource | ||
| $31source | 1821 Crownsville Road, Annapolis, MD 21401source | August 29, 30; September 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27; October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, & 25, 2026source | Renaissance Fairsource |
The August calendar, week by week
The first two weeks are fair weeks. Carroll County runs July 31 to August 8, 2026, Watermen's Appreciation Day is a single Sunday, August 9, and the Queen Anne's County Fair runs August 10-15, the shortest of the multi-day fairs. Montgomery County's nine days, August 14-22, carry into the third week. The Howard County Fair row already shows next year, August 7-14, 2027, because its organizers posted those dates first.
Only August 27-30 of the Maryland State Fair falls in August; the rest of its run is split over two September weekends, so check which weekend a ticket is for. The Renaissance Festival's August 29 and 30 are the first of 19 dates that run to October 25.
What a day's admission covers
The Carroll County fair is free to walk into, though parking costs a few dollars later in the day and grandstand events are ticketed separately. The Maryland State Fair is $15 at the gate and the Montgomery County fair $18, and both sell cheaper tickets online. Watermen's Appreciation Day's $22 is museum admission, so the rest of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum comes with the day.
The Maryland Renaissance Festival is the priciest entry at $31, sold online only with nothing available at the gate, and that figure comes before amusement tax and a ticketing fee. Three Admission cells are blank because the organizer publishes no price in text: Howard County posts its rates only as an image, Queen Anne's lists none, and Ocean City Jeep Fest gives no spectator price.
Eastern Shore, Baltimore or the DC suburbs
Two events sit on the Eastern Shore: Watermen's Appreciation Day in St. Michaels and the Queen Anne's County Fair in Centreville, about twenty minutes past the Bay Bridge. The State Fair is just north of Baltimore, the Montgomery County fair in Gaithersburg is the big one for the DC suburbs, and the Howard County Fair in West Friendship sits roughly midway between the two cities. Nothing on this list is in Western Maryland.
The options in detail
Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair
One of Maryland's oldest county fairs, running in Westminster since 1897 and now in its 129th year. It is built around 4-H and FFA youth exhibitors, so the livestock barns and the sale ring are the real center of it rather than the midway. The gate is free, which makes it an easy afternoon stop, though parking costs a few dollars later in the day and individual grandstand events are ticketed separately. It is also the earliest event on this list, opening on the last day of July.
Howard County Fair
A traditional eight-day agricultural fair on its own permanent fairgrounds in West Friendship, roughly midway between Baltimore and Washington. The Howard County Fair Association runs it, and the week leans on livestock shows, home arts and open-class exhibits alongside rides and grandstand entertainment. It is the one event here whose organizers have already posted next year's dates. Gate prices are published on the site as an image rather than as text, so no admission figure is listed in the table.
Watermen's Appreciation Day
A one-day celebration of Chesapeake Bay watermen at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, and the most distinctly Eastern Shore event on this list. The centerpiece is the Watermen's Rodeo, a timed boat-docking competition in which the Chesapeake Cowboys back deadrise workboats into assigned slips along the museum's Miles River waterfront. Steamed crabs are sold by local watermen through the afternoon and a band plays from the historic Tolchester Beach Bandstand. Admission is museum admission, so it costs more than a county fair gate but the rest of the museum comes with it.
Queen Anne's County Fair
A compact Eastern Shore county fair on the fairgrounds at Centreville, about twenty minutes past the Bay Bridge. The week is organized around livestock shows, the 4-H auction, indoor exhibit halls and evening dinners with entertainment, which makes it feel more like a working agricultural fair than a carnival. It is the shortest of the multi-day fairs here. The organizers do not publish gate prices on the website, so check before you drive out.
Montgomery County Agricultural Fair
The big suburban fair of the Washington side of the state, nine days on permanent grounds in Gaithersburg that the organizers bill as the best nine days of summer. Expect the full package: a midway, rodeo, monster trucks and grandstand acts alongside serious 4-H livestock competition. It is the largest August fair within easy reach of the DC suburbs, and the one most likely to feel crowded on a Saturday night. It is also the only fair here that publishes both an advance online price and a higher gate price.
Maryland State Fair
The state's flagship fair, held at the Timonium fairgrounds just north of Baltimore. It no longer runs as one continuous stretch: the schedule is split across three long weekends, only the first of which falls in August, with the rest running through September. Agricultural competition, live thoroughbred racing and a full midway are the draw. If you want the classic state fair day out and you are looking at late August, this is the one, but check which weekend you are buying for.
Ocean City Jeep Fest
Less a traditional festival than a four-day takeover of Ocean City by Jeep owners, based at the convention center on Coastal Highway and spilling onto the beach and the surrounding roads. The organizers describe it plainly as a festival of Jeeps, and it is one of the largest events of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic. Registration for drivers runs through a separate site and no spectator price is published, so the admission column is blank. Worth knowing that it shares its weekend with the opening of the Maryland State Fair.
Maryland Renaissance Festival
A long-running Renaissance fair on permanent wooded grounds outside Annapolis, which opens on the last weekend of August and then runs weekends all the way into late October. Only that opening weekend falls in August, but it is the biggest ticketed event on this list and the one people plan a whole day around rather than an afternoon. Tickets are sold online only, with nothing available at the gate, so buy before you drive out. It is also the most expensive entry here by some margin.
How we researched this
Every cell is quoted from the organizer's own website, and that set the rule for who is here: an event made the table only if its site states both an address to place it on the map and its August dates. The rule cost the list its one Western Maryland entry, the Garrett County Agriculture Fair (August 1-8, 2026), whose site gives no street address, and Vegan SoulFest in Baltimore, whose site shows neither a year nor an address. Artscape (May 23-24 in 2026), the Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival (now September 26) and the Kent County Fair (July 15-18, 2026) fall outside August, Otakon has moved to Washington, D.C., and the White Marlin Open is a fishing tournament rather than a festival. Augustoberfest in Hagerstown, the Havre de Grace Seafood Festival and the Worcester County Fair could not be confirmed from a working official site.
The table was built in early September 2026, just after the 2026 editions ended, so most dates are last August's and are best read as a guide to what comes back each year. Watermen's Appreciation Day prints no year on its date line, and only Howard County had posted 2027 dates, so check each event's own site before you plan next August.