Lacamas Community Fair

On Saturday, August 29, 2026, Alexis Schlimme, 17, held one of her two Cayuga ducks on the grounds of the Lacamas Community Center. The pair won best of show. In the chicken category Marshall Wood held a bird named Cowboy and his brother, Maverick, held one named Popsicle. Wyatt Whelan and Levi Turner, firefighters and EMTs from South Pierce Fire District #17, filled swag bags for a couple of youngsters.

The Lacamas Community Fair runs two days at the end of August in Roy, in Pierce County. The Pierce Prairie Post calls it the biggest little fair in Pierce County and “the most family and children friendly fair you can find.” The paper also observes that the fair’s road, 8th Avenue South, is not what most county residents would consider a main street. The fair opens at 10 a.m. In 2018 and 2023 it closed at 4 p.m. There is no fee to get in and no fee to enter any judging category. As the Nisqually Valley News reported in 2026, “everyone wins a ribbon, so even the youngest can participate.”

Ducks, cats and ponies in helmets

Most of the program is animals and the children who raise them. The horse and pony show takes both days. Saturday has fitting and showing, western and English classes, pleasure driving and arena trail. Sunday has the game classes: keyhole, barrel race, pole bending and cart games, with equestrian entertainment at lunchtime. Boots and helmets are required in every age division. On Saturday afternoon the miniature horses run in-hand obstacle, gamblers choice, hunter and jumper classes, and they have a costume contest of their own.

The poultry show ends in a costume contest and a rooster crowing contest. Dogs take AKC Canine Good Citizen and trick-dog tests on Saturday and show in obedience classes on Sunday, with a dog costume contest at noon each day. Sheep, goats, swine, dairy and beef cattle, and alpacas show in fit-and-show classes for every age. The fair book asks handlers of dairy goats to wear a white shirt and white pants, and handlers of pygmy goats to wear dark pants.

Ahead of the cat costume contest on August 29, Abby Sidock got Luna, dressed as a hiker, ready for her closeup. Cooper Carmichael with Marshy, Jackson Carmichael with Oliver, and Annabelle McCuan, dressed as Snow White, with Grumpy, wrangled their cats into position for a photograph.

The cavy show has its own costume contest, judged by the audience for originality. Its “You Be The Judge” contest runs all day and is open to anyone, with or without an animal. Its rules begin: “Everyone MUST be a good sport. This is for FUN & LEARNING.” Another rule reads: “You do not have to have an ear tag for your pig. If your pig is not tagged, a piece of masking tape with a number on it will do.”

Pies, pickles and a dollar quilt square

Indoor entries are also open to anyone. No 4-H or FFA membership is needed and no one has to register ahead. Every department is judged by the Danish system. The 2026 fair book lists fruit pies but no cream or chiffon pies. It lists fudge, divinity and uncooked candy; cookies shown four to a plate; cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls; and honey, extracted white or dark or in the comb. It lists jams, jellies, pickles, relishes, salsa and canned seafoods, and home-brewed beer, wine and root beer from adults 21 and older. There are classes for Lego models, small train displays on an 18-inch square, stained glass, lathe work and paint-by-number. Young gardeners make vegetable critters and compete for the giant zucchini. Fairgoers can buy a quilt-block kit for $1.00 and sew a square to be judged at the fair, and the finished blocks are made into a Lacamas community quilt.

The apple pie contest is judged live on Sunday at 11 a.m. by local dignitaries, with awards for the best youth pie and the best adult pie. The Nisqually Valley News reported that one family won it for many years. Lately a group of bakers has taken the contest seriously. “I’ve had to bring in some actual food judges in for it,” fair director Holly Wood told the paper.

On both days there is a penny scramble at noon, candy bar bingo at 1:00, cupcake decorating at 2:00 and a watermelon eating contest at 3:00, with horseshoes all day. Sunday adds a Lego building contest at 2:00 and an egg toss at 4:00. Food is the one cost. The club’s own history says “it has been said that you don’t spend a dime at the Lacamas Community Fair except to eat.” One year’s notice in the Pierce Prairie Post listed breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m., then lunch.

Fruit on a long table, 1929

The club’s history says the fair began in the fall of 1929, at a meeting of the Lacamas Community Club, when a few members brought samples of fruit and vegetables and arranged them on a long table. “Those were lean years,” the history continues, “and everyone depended upon the produce from their gardens to supplement the small incomes of the depression days.”

The club made the fair a regular part of its community service program, “a time and place for a community get-together, a day of recreation, sports, good eats, and friendly competition.” It has been held every year except during the war years and the 2020-21 COVID pandemic. Its costs have been covered by local fundraising and by support from local businesses, merchants and individuals. The club now states its purpose as improving relations between rural and urban people by offering “a welcoming country setting and glimpse at rural living and practices.” A note signed by Holly Wood in the 2026 fair book thanks the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Fairs Program, whose grants have paid for health and safety improvements to the grounds and buildings over the past several years. The Nisqually Valley News, covering the 2026 fair, called it “analog entertainment in a digital world.”

Bingo, bazaars and a parade around the block

The club keeps the community center busy the rest of the year. Bingo starts Fridays at 7 p.m. The kitchen opens at 6, and children 8 and older may play with a paying adult. A Harvest Fest was scheduled for October 3, 2026. For an earlier harvest festival, the Pierce Prairie Post counted more than 30 local crafters selling jams, vegetables, hand-knitted items, horse nightlights and diaper cakes. A holiday bazaar follows later in the year. In 2022 the center held its second annual Trunk or Treat. The center hosts 4-H meetings and receptions, and in years past community members taught dance lessons, ran karaoke and led exercise classes there.

The club also puts on the Roy Fourth of July Parade, which Wood says now runs more than an hour. In the past the parade had so few entries that it went around the block twice, so entrants could hand out all the candy they had bought.