They Said a County Fair Couldn't Survive Without a Carnival. Macon County Proved Them Wrong for 73 Years

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  September 21, 2026

In February 1953, a dairy field representative with 17 years of experience running the Cherokee County Fair sat down with a room of Macon County Jaycees and agricultural workers and told them it could not be done. A.Q. Ketner of Coble Dairies said it was impossible to build a successful county fair without a carnival, and that the only way to make one work was to ignore the preachers and newspapers who were sure to complain about it.

J.P. Brady, chairman of the Junior Chamber of Commerce committee, ignored that advice. His plan was to let the Jaycees get things started and have the local 4-H club help build the fair. It would feature beef and dairy cattle shows, an annual poultry show, and an auction, with square dancing and fiddling contests for entertainment. Booths rented to PTAs, civic clubs, and church groups would pay for it. That September, the Franklin Press ran the question on its front page: can a county fair succeed without a midway operated by an imported carnival?

Seventy-three years later, the answer opens on Wednesday. The 2026 Macon County Fair runs September 23 through 26 at the Wayne Proffitt Agricultural Center, and this year's theme is County Pride, County Wide.

What happens at the Macon County Fair?

The fair still runs on the same plan Brady sketched out in 1953. Livestock showing is still part of it, and animal registrations closed back on August 1. The ribbon competitions cover just about everything made or grown in Macon County: art and photography, baked goods, a best cake contest, clothing, crafts, farm products, flowers, food preservation, honey, quilting, needlecraft, handweaving and spinning, poultry, rabbits, and youth entries. Blue, red, and white ribbons go up on the winners.

Vendors must set up commercial booths by 9 p.m. Tuesday, September 22, and educational booths are built in a single day on Monday, September 21. Churches, clubs, and other organizations sponsor those educational displays. By rule, nobody staffs them, they should portray the year's theme, and they must be finished Monday to be eligible for judging. At the end of the week, the Fair Association asks sponsors to consider donating pumpkins, apples, cornstalks, flowers, and other booth contents to be auctioned at the Harvest Sale.

The fair's website also lists Randall Griggs, Bobbie Wallace and the KC Day Band, and Carolina 441, the last sponsored by the Macon County Arts Council. The Fair Association keeps a firm line on one thing: no political platforms or candidate promotion, and no controversial issues. It is a fair, and it stays a fair.

Who was Wayne Proffitt?

The exhibit hall carries the name of the man who held this whole thing together. Wayne Proffitt grew up on a farm in a corner of Yancey County called Hardscrabble, worked the school farms at Berea College to help pay for his agriculture education degree, and arrived in Macon County to teach agriculture at Franklin High School in 1949. For the next several decades, it was hard to find a Franklin High student in an ag class who did not know him by name.

Proffitt was a founding member of the 1953 fair and served as its director for 55 years. When the exhibit hall opened in 1960, packed "crammed to the rafters" with people, a couple of thousand dollars raised from local businesses and individuals had paid for it. Buildings A and B went up in 1960 and 1961, with C and D following in 1980. The exhibit hall was named in his honor in 2007, a little over a year before his death in 2008. He sat on the Fair Association board until the end, and he never let the fair become anything other than agricultural.

Is farming still a big deal in Macon County?

It is not a nostalgia act. The county reports 329,964 acres of farmland across 340 farms, with hay, hemp, and cattle among its most important products. Once a year, the families who do that work, and the kids who are learning to, show it off at the fair.

For questions about educational booths, contact the N.C. Cooperative Extension of Macon County at 828.349.2046. The history in this post comes from the Macon County Historical Museum's collection on the fair at https://maconnchistorical.com/collections/history-of-the-macon-county-fair, with 2026 details from themaconcofair.com and macon.ces.ncsu.edu.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Macon County Fair in 2026?

The 2026 Macon County Fair runs September 23 through September 26 at the Wayne Proffitt Agricultural Center. This year's theme is County Pride, County Wide.

What can you enter in the Macon County Fair?

Entries are accepted in art and photography, baked goods, a best cake contest, clothing, crafts, farm products, flowers, food preservation, honey, quilting, needlecraft, handweaving and spinning, poultry, rabbits, and youth categories. Livestock registration closed August 1, and blue, red, and white ribbons are awarded.

Why does the Macon County Fair have no carnival?

When the fair was planned in 1953, a Cherokee County Fair veteran told organizers it was impossible to succeed without a carnival midway. Jaycees chairman J.P. Brady ignored that advice and built the fair around cattle shows, poultry, an auction, square dancing, and fiddling. Longtime director Wayne Proffitt kept it solely agricultural for 55 years.