Port Oneida Fair

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August 8 & 9, 2025

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Step back in time at the Port Oneida Fair and experience life as it was in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Imagine the life of Euro-American immigrants as you help bale hay or watch a broom-maker at work. Learn about spinning, basket weaving, soap making, butter making, candle dipping, and fur trapping. Listen as park rangers and local historians share the area's history. Watch as teams of oxen haul hay and artists and craftsmen demonstrate their skills.

The fair is held at five of the historic farmsteads in Port Oneida. Each farm has a variety of artists, crafts, food, and activities for visitors. Click on the farm names below to see what's happening at each farm. A shuttle bus runs between the farms on a regular schedule during the fair, so you can park your car and easily get around to the different venues.

The Port Oneida Fair is presented by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. To learn more about how you can help support the park, visit www.phsb.org.

2024 Fair Details

Visit the Port Oneida Fair Things to Do website for complete event details.
Or
On the Sleeping Bear Dunes pages of the NPS app,
select: THINGS TO DO
select: CULTURAL DEMONSTRATIONS

 

Get Involved

Volunteer

The following list provides a few examples of volunteer activities for the Port Oneida Fair:

• Assist with activities like shelling corn and making rope
• Help greet and direct visitors
• Photographer
• Parking attendant
• Assist with set-up and take-down

If this sounds like something you may be interested in, contact Casey Kilian or call 231-326-4726. She will match your interests, skills, and time availability with the wide variety of volunteer projects available.

Demonstrate a skill

Sign up to demonstrate a skill or facilitate an activity. Demonstrations must fit with the Port Oneida period, 1852 to 1945.

We are seeking demonstrators of traditional skills from the 1850s - early 1940s, such as canning, quilting, soapmaking, painting, sculpting or other art, basket weaving, knitting, candle making, etc. Craft must be demonstrated or offer hands-on activities for visitors, such as assisting with part of the demonstration or practicing the craft.

Demonstrators who wish to sell items must:

• demonstrate, model, or explain their craft or skill related to those items.
• submit a $35 demonstrator fee. If you are not selling, there is no fee.
• Non-profits may only sell items that they created, produced, or published. They may NOT solicit donations or have donation forms on any information.

e-mail us with your traditional skill and contact information.

Food vendor

If you are a food vendor that would like to sell food at one of the various sites, please contact Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear at
Phone: [phone] or email: [e-mail].
Must have a food truck or other contained, state inspected, food service vehicle.

 

Submit a work of art

To help celebrate the fair, the Port Oneida Fair committee prints a fair poster. The committee is always looking for potential poster art. If you have painted a recognizable scene in the Port Oneida district and want to share, please consider submitting it for the poster.

It’s easy to submit your work. Just email the highest possible quality image (jpg, tif, gif, or png) under 1MB to e-mail us, and include the title, size, and medium of the work.
All we ask is that all artwork be original and two-dimensional, and it’s best if your artwork is horizontal in orientation approximately two units high by three units wide. We may have to slightly crop your image if it’s necessary to fit it to the poster format.

You may submit up to five entries. There is no entry fee.

The deadline for poster art submissions is May 27, 2025.

Selecting the winner

Submissions will be juried by the Port Oneida Fair Poster Committee. If we choose your artwork, we will require a high-resolution image for printing. You would retain all ownership rights of the original artwork.
AND, the artist must be able to spend time at the fair signing posters!