It’s time to dig out your grandmother’s chocolate sour cream cake recipe, practice the all-pink flower arrangement, finish up the baby blanket art needlework and find the freshest peaches for your jam. The Arlington County Fair is just a few days away beginning Aug. 14, and running through Aug. 18. Online registration for competitor exhibits closes Aug. 12 with drop off of your entries on Aug. 14 between 4-8 pm. The date for dropping off your baked goods is Aug. 15 between 7:30-9 am.

And there are so many choices for food that you need to decide whether to start with a lemonade and then head to the seven savory food trucks or three dessert trucks; or will you have the New Orleans oysters and jambalaya, the Greek shawarma or falafel or the good old fashioned mac and cheese, bacon-cheddar fries and corn dogs.

There is so much entertainment on the first day that you need a checklist to make sure you can see the Old Dominion Cloggers at 5:15 pm on the indoor stage, the Miraculous Magical Balloon on the indoor stage at 6:30 pm and the DC Roller Derby Team on the basketball court from 7-8 pm, Griefcar at 7:45 and Alma Boliviana at 8:30. The Night Market under the stars on the tennis courts starts Aug. 15 featuring local vendors with their handmade goods. Aug. 17 is a Children’s Market run by kids on the upper field.

If you are really organized and have a strong stomach you can enter the pizza eat-a-slice contest at 12 noon, the new burrito eating contest at 12:50 pm and the pie eating contest at 1:30 pm — all on Aug. 17. Meanwhile the Calico Cloggers are entertaining nearby starting at 2 p.m.

Each day there is a photo contest for pictures taken at the Fair that day with four tickets for rides and free Fair merch awarded to that day’s winner. The popular face painting and balloon artist is on Aug. 16 from 5-8 pm.

The Arlington County Fair is one of the largest free events on the East Coast dating back to 1977. The first fair was a partnership of the Arlington Community Garden Program and 4-H focusing on exhibits, competition and games for kids with midway rides added in later. 

Getting to the Fair also takes some planning ahead since public parking at the Fair is limited to patrons with a valid ADA parking tag. But there are plenty of transportation options including valet bicycle parking, several walk-about-routes ranging from .8-1.4 miles from the local starting point to the Fair and a free public shuttle from the Bozman Government Building garage at 2100 Clarendon.