Port Oneida Fair sees decline in visitors; final fair scheduled for early August
From staff reports
For more than two decades, the Port Oneida Fair during the first weekend in August has stood out as a memorable part of the Leelanau summer experience. The two-day event staged among the barns, meadows, and one-room schoolhouse of the Port Oneida Rural Historic District within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore celebrates the rich cultural heritage and traditions of settler families during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
However, the Sun reported in late June that this year’s event, Aug. 7-8, will be the final Port Oneida Fair. Sleeping Bear Dunes superintendent Scott Tucker said that his staff is reexamining the impact of the event and whether they have the resources to continue holding the fair. Dozens of National Lakeshore staff work during each Port Oneida Fair.
Tucker added that visitor numbers have dwindled in recent years, and actors and demonstrators are aging out. Finding interpretive funding to stage the event has also proven difficult, he said.
The Sun followed up with Merrith Baughman, director of interpretation and visitor services at Sleeping Bear Dunes, to learn how many Park staff and volunteers work during each fair, and how much visitation has declined.
According to Baughman, the number of Park interpretive and visitor services team members that have worked during the Port Oneida Fair has varied from 19 in 2024 to 10 in 2022. In 2023 and 2025 the number was 12, and the Park plans to employ that number next month. These numbers do not include maintenance staff preparing parking areas, mowing sites, and collecting trash—or Park law enforcement officers that stop at the Fair to check on visitor safety.
There are also four-five Park employees on the Port Oneida Fair Committee that meets each year from October-August. The tally also does not include the number of volunteers that work the Fair. According to Baughman, it takes 75-100 volunteers over the two days to cover 20-30 different positions or activities.
Public attendance at the Port Oneida Fair peaked at 4,392 visitors in 2012, according to the National Lakeshore’s count. Only once since then has the number topped 4,000 (4,140 showed in 2017). In fact, the tally dipped below 3,000 after 2019 and never rebounded. According to Park metrics, only 2,000 attended last year’s fair—less than half of the 2012 peak. (The Port Oneida Fair was canceled in 2015 following a windstorm that ravaged the Sleeping Bear Dunes region the weekend before the event. It was also canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baughman also contrasted the number of exhibits that took part in 2012 (93, not including food) with the tally from 2025 (62, not including food).
Below is a list of the Park’s visitation numbers from 2012 to 2025:
| 2025 | 2,000 |
| 2024 | 2,679 |
| 2023 | 2,580 |
| 2022 | 1,926 |
| 2021 | canceled |
| 2020 | canceled |
| 2019 | 3,200 |
| 2018 | 3,197 |
| 2017 | 4,140 |
| 2016 | 3,100 |
| 2015 | canceled |
| 2014 | 3,397 |
| 2013 | 3,918 |
| 2012 | 4,392 |
