{"id":26679,"date":"2025-10-08T13:03:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=26679"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:04:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:04:37","slug":"topsfield-fair-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2025\/10\/08\/topsfield-fair-3\/","title":{"rendered":"A Visit To The 2025 Topsfield Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We paid a visit to the 207th Topsfield Fair,<\/a> which runs from Oct. 3 to 13, 2025. Descended from an 1820 “Cattle Show,” it\u2019s billed as \u201cAmerica\u2019s oldest,” and its arrival each year feels like one of the hallmarks of autumn in New England. These days the fair hosts contests for giant pumpkins (Alex Noel of Abington, Connecticut, set fair-record last week with a 2,507-pound beast!), cattle, horse and oxen pulls, poultry, beekeeping, flowers, crafts, art (our 12-year-old won an honorable mention for his still life painting of a pumpkin) and so on. We toured the animal and plant barns, all the bounty of the harvest, watched the death-defying motorcycle stunt show, and were honored to meet 2025 American Honey Princess Emilia Burnham in the Beekeeping Barn (where we always enjoy spotting the queen bees).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by\u00a0contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9 Greg Cook 2025 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Essex
Essex County Farmyard. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Cattle
Cattle Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Alex
Alex Noel’s fair-record 2,507-pound giant pumpkin in the Fruits & Vegetables Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Climbing
Climbing the Money Pole. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Champion
Champion vegetable art in Fruits and Vegetables Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Nerveless
Nerveless Nocks Daredevil Circus. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Goats
Goats at Essex County Farmyard. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Poultry
Poultry Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Rabbits
Rabbits and Cavies Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pig
Pig Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Landscaping
Landscaping display in Flower Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Cattle
Cattle Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"2025
2025 American Honey Princess Emilia Burnham in the Beekeeping Barn. Topsfield Fair, Oct. 6, 2025. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We paid a visit to the 207th Topsfield Fair, which runs from Oct. 3 to 13, 2025. Descended from an 1820 “Cattle Show,” it\u2019s billed as \u201cAmerica\u2019s oldest,” and its arrival each year feels like one of the hallmarks of autumn in New England. These days the fair hosts contests for giant pumpkins (Alex Noel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,119],"tags":[619],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26679"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26685,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26679\/revisions\/26685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}