LITTLE VALLEY — Advance-sale tickets for the 182nd Cattaraugus County Fair are on sale now at outlets across the county and beyond through Friday.

The county fair is scheduled for this Saturday, July 26, through next Saturday, Aug. 2, with two country music grandstand performances — Tracy Byrd will perform at Tuesday night’s concert with special guest Alex Miller, while Flatland Cavalry are Wednesday night’s performers.

Advance sale pay-one-price tickets are $12 each for those 2 and older — $3 each less than gate admission from Saturday on, which goes to $15. Admission includes unlimited Amusements of America midway rides.

Gates open daily at 8 a.m., with the midway open at 1 p.m. Animals are in place on Saturday preceding the fair. Vendors are typically open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., depending on the crowd.

Advance sale gate admission is available at the fair office, 501 Erie St., Little Valley; online at www.cattarauguscofair.com; at all Cattaraugus County Bank locations; the Cattaraugus County Credit Union in Little Valley; the South Dayton Super Duper; select Community Bank, N.A. locations and online at etix.com. Advance tickets are available through the end of the day Friday.

People line up for tickets at a previous Cattaraugus County Fair in Little Valley. Advance tickets for this year’s fair are on sale now at various outlets across the county and beyond.

4-H looking forward to ‘Out of This World’ fair

Meanwhile, 4-H members from across the county have spent recent months preparing their projects for the fair.

Over 250 young exhibitors are working hard to put the finishing touches on a variety of projects — some youth are fine-tuning their recipes to bake a blue-ribbon worthy pie, while others are training livestock for their showring debut.

This year’s 4-H theme is “Outer Space,” which fair attendees may notice while browsing through the exhibits with a variety of decorations.

While the animals are judged in the showring, exhibitors are also judged on the presentation of their stalls in the barn with criteria including the cleanliness of the stalls and the creativity of their decorations.

The Mary Elizabeth Dunbar Youth Building located in the Corporate Building will also be filled with crafts, baked goods and educational booths, among other things, and is certainly worth a visit.

There are daily livestock shows for fairgoers’ entertainment, along with the 4-H Meat Animal Sale rounding out the week on Saturday, Aug. 2 starting at 10:30 a.m.

For more information about the Cattaraugus County 4-H Program, contact the 4-H office at (716) 699-2377 or email cattaraugus4h@cornell.edu.

A sea lion balances a basketball on her nose at the Sea Lion Splash show at the 2024 Cattaraugus County Fair.

Top-tier entertainment through the week

From live music to talented animals to high-octane vehicles, there’s new entertainment every day during fair week.

Fair officials stress tickets will be required for all grandstand shows, even the free ones. Visitors who prefer a particular grandstand section or seat or who simply do not want to wait in line can go on the ETIX.com website and reserve seats by following the simple prompts. Tickets can then be printed or shown at the gate on a cellphone.

Tickets will also be available for purchase on the day of the show, pending availability.

Grandstand events include:

• Saturday, July 26 – Modified Truck Bull.
• Sunday, July 27 – Broken B Rodeo bull riding, barrel racing and more.
• Monday, July 28 – Demolition Derby.
• Tuesday, July 29 – Tracy Byrd concert with special guest Alex Miller.
• Wednesday, July 30 – Flatland Cavalry concert.
• Thursday, July 31 – WNY Pro Pulling series.
• Friday, Aug. 1 – Monster Truck show.
• Saturday, Aug. 2 – Monster Truck show and Demolition Derby.

There are also several performances on the grounds, which are free with gate admission and take place three or four times daily. They include:

• Sea Lion Splash – Trainers Marco and Philip Peters will have crowds cheering and laughing with sea lions that balance balls, shoot hoops, dance, perform handstands and more.
• Pratt Family Chainsaw Artists – The Pratt family of artists creates quality sculptures, architecture, furniture and attachables with chainsaws.
• Magician Lance Gifford – Gifford is an award-winning magician and entertainer who has been amazing crowds for more than 30 years with amazing magic and spell-binding hypnosis.
• Swifty Swine Racing – This group of pigs travels across the country and races not for the money but the Oreo cookie waiting on a silver platter at the finish line.
• Butterfly Kingdom – An educational exhibit that hosts 200 to 300 butterflies, including six different species. Fairgoers can learn about a butterfly’s life cycle and interact with them.
• Dynamo Dogs – This family event includes everything from trick routines to Frisbee acrobatics in this one-of-a-kind canine variety show. The dogs vary in both size and skill, and many have been adopted or rescued.
• Glassblowing Arts – Artist Ryan Gothrup has been a glassblowing educator for over 16 years, teaching a wide variety of students. He’s been using his mobile glass trailer to educate on location for the past seven years.

More information can be found online at cattarauguscofair.com or by calling (716) 938-9146.