Alaska State Fair

🌟Introducing the 2026 commemorative poster! Local Alaskan artist Ruth Hulbert brought this year’s design to life through thoughtful research and a deep appreciation for Fair history. Read more about her creative process.🎡🎠🌾

Ruth, the artist, says:
This year’s Fair poster is a labor of love, a memorial, and a personal triumph. I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, but the Fair’s 90th anniversary was an irresistible opportunity to bring together some of my favorite things: the Fair, local history, old photographs, too much research, and complex designs full of fun hidden details.

The 90-year timespan of the Fair is especially resonant for me this year, as I’ve been writing about what was happening here in 1935-36 for a series of weekly posts for the Palmer Museum. Being so immersed in that era for the past year, it’s striking how much has changed, and how much hasn’t changed at all. The Fair is like that too: our other hometown, the one that only exists for a brief season each year, always a little different, but with traditions repeating year to year and across generations.

I knew I wanted there to be an element of time and repetition to the design, showing what’s changed over the decades and what stays the same. Thinking about seasons going round and round, I got Joni Mitchell’s “Circle Game” stuck in my head so many times I finally decided to just lean into it. There’s a circle for each decade of the Fair, each one with a painted pony of some sort (some carousel horses, some real horses – 2026 is the Year of the Horse, after all), and the overall design represents a carousel, if you could look at a carousel from several viewpoints in time and space. (It was very fun to try figure out the geometry of all this with a ruler and compass.) The red and blue stripes at the center represent the carousel’s canopy, with a twist to suggest movement.

It was an ambitious project, starting with the decision to do it at all. I’ve painted four Fair posters before, but last summer when I agreed to take it on again, I hadn’t held a paintbrush in nearly a year. The fall of 2024 had knocked me down hard with illness and loss. A three-week bout of covid took my physical strength and ability to think clearly when I needed it most going into a hard winter. It was summer 2025 before I felt I had it in me to sidle up to a box of pastels and cautiously attempt a still life. Surely, the next winter would have to be easier than that, and I thought some jolly Fair artwork would be just the project to get me back into art.

As things turned out, it was not a good winter for jolly Fair artwork. It wasn’t ALL bad; I want to say there was at least one week without a crisis, maybe around February – but let’s just say that trying to keep the pipes from freezing during those December storms we’re all trying to forget was only the third-most-stressful thing that happened last winter. I might have been the only person who found the April blizzards comforting, as I sat inside painting furiously, grateful to pretend I got a second March.

But even the longest winters end, and Fair time comes around again.

🎶 Enter this week's sweepstakes for a chance to win tickets to Nate Smith! 🎸The winner receives two reserved concert tickets with Fair admission. You have until Friday, June 26, at 12pm to enter to win! Click here to apply: alaskastatefair.org/site/sweepstakes/
ConocoPhillips Alaska

🌟Love the Fair? Apply now to become an Alaska State Fair Ambassador!

We’re looking for enthusiastic Alaskans who are passionate about the Fair and excited to help represent the Alaska State Fair throughout the year.

🎡Selected Ambassadors will have the opportunity to volunteer and represent the Fair at special events and community activities, while being recognized at the 2026 Fair Director’s Reception.

Ambassadors receive:
• Alaska State Fair admission passes
• Parking privileges
• Cash prizes
• Exclusive Fair swag
• Special recognition and networking opportunities
• The chance to be part of Alaska State Fair history

Important Dates:
Applications due: July 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Interview invitations sent: July 7, 2026
Interviews: July 14, 2026
Selected Ambassadors announced: July 21, 2026

If you love the Fair and want to play a special role in representing this long-standing Alaska tradition, apply today at https://www.alaskastatefair.org/site/alaska-state-fair-ambassador-program/