Hartford Fair

Hartford Fair Dairy Feeder Skillathon Date Change!

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Attention Hartford Fair Dairy Feeder Exhibitors!

We’re thrilled to announce something brand new for the 2025 Hartford Fair: The Dairy Feeder Skillathon is moving before the fair. This new and exciting chapter will roll out a smoother, more focused format.

Mark your calendars! The Skillathon, complete with Book Judging, and Interviews, will take place: Sunday, July 27th | 1–3 p.m. | Ramsey 4-H Building at the Hartford Fairgrounds. This streamlined schedule means you’ll be free to enjoy more of the fair—with awards being presented during the Dairy Feeder Show on Wednesday, August 6th!

Be sure to reserve your time slot via Sign-Up Genius: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050F49AEAD2EA6F58-57378108-2025

When you sign up, you’ll select a time and then your age category. If you don’t want to complete the full skillathon, you can also choose to schedule only a project interview or book judging. You have options!

For questions, please contact Kim Miller at: nkmlmiller4@gmail.com.

Help Needed in the 4-H Center at the Hartford Fair

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Help is needed in the 4-H Center at the Hartford Fair during fair week.

The 4-H Center is open from 10:00am to 8:00pm each day of the fair. Volunteer shifts are one hour and volunteers just need to keep an eye on the building and answer general questions from fair visitors. This is a great opportunity relax for an hour or two in the air conditioning while helping promote 4-H and support those clubs and members who are displaying their projects in the 4-H Center. 4-H members are encouraged to participate, but we do ask that an adult be present with the members while they work their shift.

To sign up for a 4-H Center shift, please visit go.osu.edu/Hartford4HCenter. If you have questions, please reach out to Adrienne Anderson at anderson.1410@osu.edu.

Hartford Fair Entry Reminders

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Please review the following information to ensure you have your fair entries complete and are ready for the Hartford Fair!

  • Late entries are still being accepted (with a late fee) until midnight on Friday, July 18, 2025. You can make late entries by logging into FairEntry and starting a new invoice/registration and proceeding through the same process as before.
  • ALL exhibitors planning to participate in showmanship classes MUST make entries for the showmanship classes in which they plan to participate.
  • Please review your entries to ensure they are correct. Since you can log in at any point to view your entries, please remember that verification letters are no longer mailed out to exhibitors. It is your responsibility to check your entries to ensure they are complete and accurate.
  • Please check your mailing address to ensure it is correct. Exhibitors who are enrolled in 4-H had their information synced over from 4-HOnline in April so their address is the same as that in 4-HOnline. If your address is incorrect or you have changed address, please reach out to Adrienne at anderson.1410@osu.edu to get it updated. Please note: Once the 4-HOnline profiles were synced over into FairEntry, if you update your address in 4-HOnline, the system does NOT automatically update it in FairEntry; we need to manually update it in the system. We want to ensure that all profiles are up-to-date to ensure exhibitors receive their sale checks.

REMINDER: 2025 July Poultry Banding & Rabbit Tattooing

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The July Rabbit Tattooing and Poultry Banding will take place on Saturday, July 12, 2025 from 10:00am to 2:00pm in the Beef Barn. The fee is $1/entry.

Members with the following projects are required to have their rabbits tattooed and poultry banded on this day:

  • Meat Chickens
  • Meat Ducks
  • Market Rabbits
  • Junior Breeding Rabbits – please bring your completed Rabbit Registration Form. Bringing the form completed will help speed up the process.

 

2025 Stock the Trailer Challenge!

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We’d like to challenge our 4-H Clubs and FFA Chapters that will be participating in the Hartford Fair to help our Junior Fair Board in collecting non-perishable food items, along with money, to support the Food Pantry Network of Licking County! Every single dollar, or food item, will directly benefit people inside of our fair district! We are challenging each club/chapter to collect $100 or 50 lbs of food!

Start collecting NOW, and then drop off food items to the designated trailer (in front of Grubb Arena), or money can be dropped off to the Junior Fair Board Office during the fair.

Bonus: If the Hartford Junior Fair Board collects more than the other fairs in our region, our fair will receive $5,000! HELP US WIN! We’ve placed third the past two years – but with your help, we can do better!

2025 July Poultry Banding & Rabbit Tattooing

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The July Rabbit Tattooing and Poultry Banding will take place on Saturday, July 12, 2025 from 10:00am to 2:00pm in the Beef Barn. The fee is $1/entry.

Members with the following projects are required to have their rabbits tattooed and poultry banded on this day:

  • Meat Chickens
  • Meat Ducks
  • Market Rabbits
  • Junior Breeding Rabbits – please bring your completed Rabbit Registration Form. Bringing the form completed will help speed up the process.

 

LAST CHANCE: 2025 Hartford Fair Entry Information

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All Hartford Fair entries must be completed through the FairEntry portal again this year. The portal will open on Sunday, May 25, 2025. Please follow the Hartford Fair Entry Instructions when making your entries. Entry deadline is Friday, June 27, 2025.

Please note:

  • The Hartford Fair Entry Portal can be found by visiting: http://hartfordfair.fairentry.com
  • Please be sure to review the Hartford Fair Premium Book to ensure you know which Classes and Lots you will be making entries for before you start that process.
  • All 4-H families must use their 4-HOnline Credentials (email and password) to log into FairEntry. If a member creates a new account in FairEntry, they will be unable to make entries in Junior Fair Departments as those departments require them to be enrolled in the appropriate 4-H project in order to make entries.
  • All FFA members making entries in livestock departments will submit their own entries. Those entering projects in the FFA Building will do so through their advisor.
  • Please make sure that you add all entries to each exhibitor in your family before you submit the entries and continue to the payment portal.
  • REMINDER: All youth planning to participate in Showmanship MUST make an entry for their Showmanship class. Even if a member isn’t sure about whether they want to do Showmanship or not, they should go ahead and make an entry for it.

Photo IDs

NEW THIS YEAR: Members will upload their photo for their Fair ID as part of their entry process in FairEntry. There will be a question early in the process that will ask you to upload a photo. PLEASE NOTE: the system does NOT require you to upload the photo (which means you can accidentally skip this step). We had to make it optional, otherwise it would require it for everyone making entries, including those making just Open Department entries who don’t receive Fair IDs. If you skip this step and do not upload a photo, you will not have a Fair ID. Also, photos for IDs must be uploaded into FairEntry by the deadline of June 27th. All photos will be pulled from the entries at this point and sent for printing so that we have the IDs back to us in time to pass them out in the days leading up to fair. Late photos will not be accepted.

Your photo for your Fair ID must be either a jpeg or png file. The photo should be of the member’s head and shoulders with a light colored, neutral background. Exhibitors should not be wearing hats, sunglasses or bandanas in their photo. Please see examples of photos that don’t meet the criteria and one that does:

Glitches and Issues

As we’ve discovered recently, FairEntry does occasionally have glitches that can occur. If you run into issues please reach out to Adrienne at anderson.1410@osu.edu. Sending screenshots of the error you are receiving can be very helpful in figuring out what is going wrong. Please do NOT wait until the last minute to complete your entries as that gives us less time to help you solve the issue. PLEASE NOTE: Lisa and Adrienne will be at 4-H Camp June 17-21 at 4-H Camp Ohio. Please realize that we have limited access to emails during this time and will not be able to respond quickly in most cases.

FairEntry Help Session

We will be offering our final help session for those who may want/need help with making entries. Our final session will be held at the Hartford Fairgrounds in the Junior Fair Board Office on Thursday, June 26th between 5:00-7:00pm. If you plan to come to the help session, please be prepared with list of items on the flyer HERE or listed below.

LAST CHANCE: FairEntry Help Session

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We will be offering our final help session for those who may want/need help with making entries. Our final session will be held at the Hartford Fairgrounds in the Junior Fair Board Office on Thursday, June 26th between 5:00-7:00pm. If you plan to come to the help session, please be prepared with list of items on the flyer HERE or listed below.