You hear a lot about the Ephrata Fair, but you don’t always hear a lot about the kids tent and petting zoo. And if you check the fair website, you can’t necessarily find photos of what you’ll actually experience in the petting zoo and kids tent. To me, its another one of Lancaster County’s hidden secrets, that I just have to share with you!
The first neat thing about the Kids Tent in Tent City (located next to the swimming pool in Grater Park) is the kids area. Children have the opportunity to play with tractors at a corn table, pick apples and pears from pretend trees, crawl through a hay maze, bowl, milk a pretend cow, pick eggs from play hens, weave and take their photos in farm cutouts.
I also love that there are neat facts and tidbits posted throughout the exhibits. I love learning interesting bits of information! (FYI, here’s a random fact for you—we asked at the toasted cheeseburger stand this year about how many they sell every year and they said they plan to sell 16,000 toasted cheeseburgers each year! Wowzers, thats a lot of toasted cheeseburgers!)
Between the petting zoo and the kids play area, you’ll find some fair exhibits that are always interesting for kids to look at and ponder. Like the painted pumpkins, and huge sunflowers!
The petting zoo is open Tuesday through Friday at various times. Only Wednesday is it open all day, the other days just from 4-9pm. You’ll get great photos of your kids petting a llama, turtle, rabbits, pigs, ducks, goats, a calf and more! There is even a turkey to gobble back at you. For a small fee, you can buy a bowl of feed to feed some of the animals.
The petting zoo and kids area can get pretty busy in the mornings. Our favorite time to go is on Thursday or Friday around 3:30pm to play in the kids area and wait until the petting zoo opens at 4pm. There are usually less people at this time of day, which also means finding parking is incredibly easy!
To get the exact fair schedule visit the Ephrata Fair Schedules webpage.
