The 96th Annual Jubilee Day Fair

Posted on August 14, 2026

It is Wednesday, June 17th, just before 7 am the day before the annual Jubilee Day Fair in Mechanicsburg, Pa which is the largest one-day fair on the East Coast. It starts at 10:00 am and runs until 8:00 pm. There will be, I believe, over 300 different vendors, from art to clothing to food vendors. All of the vendors will be spread across Walnut St to York St. Plus, there will be vendors on the first two blocks of South Market St. For this big of an event to occur, much planning takes place immediately after each fair is completed. Also, for security reasons, several school buses will block off South Market St at Simpson St, at the corner of West Main St and North York St, and also at the corner of East Main St and Walnut St. There will be plenty of police walking and riding bikes to add to security. The town fire department will be stationed in such a way to respond to fire calls, and ambulance first responders will also be on duty.

Talking about food, there will be plenty of different varieties of food to fill your stomach, from ice cream to pizza to hamburgers to hot dogs to turkey legs to desserts such as soft pretzels and funnel cakes. Our local fire department will have bingo games and games of chance as a fundraiser and will be selling merchandise. For the little kids and families alike, a petting zoo with several types of animals will be set up across the street in the Citizens Bank parking lot, plus in the parking lot of the old PNC bank building, there will be more games for the kids. Later this morning, the setup for the fair will begin, and all of the vendors will enter town. There will also be live music from different bands playing all day at two different stages; one stage will be at the center of town at the new park, and the other stage will be at the parking lot next to the Frankenberger Tavern on East Main St.

It is now Jubilee Day in Mechanicsburg, and the main streets for the fair vendors have been blocked off, traffic is being rerouted, and all of the vendors are setting up so that the mass of visitors to the fair will be ready. I will be headed out to the fair about 9:45 am. The first of the Norfolk Southern freight trains came through town about 6:45 am this morning, and probably six to seven freight trains will come through town today. What was nice about the Jubilee fair I did not overdo it on eating a lot of food at the fair. For lunch, I had an extra-large thing of French fries and two slices of pizza for dinner. I was going to get a funnel cake because I enjoy it, but I did not get one. I did come back to my apartment for a brief period of time to take the next round of medication I have to take, plus I gave my cat her dinner before I went back to the fair. I also met up with a couple of our adult autism support group members, Ashley, Matt, and Johnathan, in the afternoon. I did spend a fair amount of time with my friends from ASERT at their booth, which I enjoyed doing. I helped one of them get to Mechanicsburg High School because she had to get back but did not know her way around town. I walked with her to show her how she could get to the high school. While walking with her, I offered my service as a tour guide to show her the historical sites in town and a possible tour guide at the Gettysburg Military Park. I had my lunch at the new park at the center of town before I went back to the ASERT booth.

I forgot to mention I took photos of all of the different vendor booths. The fair has changed a lot over the last nineteen years; there used to be dunking booths to raise money. There was a local store where you could buy and paint different sculptures to take home. There were carnival rides for both young and old alike to ride. There were games of chance to win stuffed animals for young kids to try and win. The Mechanicsburg Museum used to have its Frankenberger Tavern open for tours and to sell museum merchandise. But that all seems to have gone by the wayside. Now it seems to be booths that sell jewelry and clothing. The Amish have booths selling bread and pastries; there are different healthcare booths; the school bus companies had a booth to hire new bus drivers, and there were political booths. I saw different churches had booths, even a couple of the town restaurants had booths selling food and also a few of the different organizations like the Mechanicsburg Fire Department and the business league, and a couple of the VFW’s were selling food. My friends from the local ASERT Collaborative (Autism, Support, Education, Resources and Training) were invited to have a booth. I, as a well-respected Autism Self Advocate in Pennsylvania, was able to sit in with them at their booth for several hours. My friend Jim, who owns and runs Civil War and More, even had a booth. I am annoyed with myself that I did not stop into his store to say hello.

To end this blog about the 96th annual Jubilee Day Fair, I did see some town folk complaining about how much the fair has changed from previous years. Yes, in my 19 years that I have attended the fair, it has changed, maybe or maybe not for the better. I know this town is struggling to survive, but the fair does bring in a good amount of much-needed finances for the town of Mechanicsburg. But for me this year, I got to enjoy it because I was with my friends who work for ASERT and just be able to talk to them normally. I usually walk the fair alone each year. One of the friends who works for ASERT, I was able to show her some of the history of some of the buildings in town, which was a lot of fun for me. So, to wrap up the fair for this year, hopefully next year the fair will be better than ever.