Pigs, poultry, potatoes and pols headline this year’s PA Farm Show

At the Pennsylvania Farm Show, cowboy hats are ubiquitous. So is the lowing of cows, the scent of manure, and potatoes in every iteration – from pierogies and donuts to, incredibly, a five-by-eight-foot American-flag mosaic composed solely of multicolored tubers. (There’s an apple version, too.)

And the lines: They rival those at Disney World. But instead of theme-park rides, crowds are lining up for once-a-year offerings – notably, what many consider to be the world’s best milkshakes – at this annual celebration of commonwealth agriculture.

Sprawling across more than a million square feet just east of downtown, the Farm Show has been a fixture of Harrisburg’s winter calendar for the past 110 years – as the vast arenas and exhibition spaces of the Farm Show Complex, anchored by the circa-1931 Main Hall, make clear.

But the Farm Show’s roots run far deeper. William Penn began the tradition of hosting farmers’ showcases around the turn of the 18th century. Later, in the second half of the 19th century, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society held annual fairs, precursors to the modern-day Farm Show.

The show’s 2026 theme, “Growing A Nation,” nods to this legacy, paying tribute to America’s 250th anniversary and the role of Pennsylvania agriculture in cultivating the nation, from its founding in Philadelphia to the present. 

“You cannot separate the journey and development of agriculture from the development of America,” affirmed state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding on the event’s opening day. Redding was on hand, alongside U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, to cut the ribbon that officially kicked off not only this year’s Farm Show, but also Pennsylvania’s year-long celebration of the American semiquincentennial. 

They also posed beside the life-sized butter sculpture that has become among the state’s most eagerly anticipated annual art unveilings: This year, it featured the Declaration of Independence signers alongside Betsy Ross, her flag and, for good measure, the Liberty Bell. 

Like pigs and potatoes, politicians are a part of the Farm Show spectacle, using the occasion to champion policy priorities. Redding also spoke at a Farm Show congressional forum hosted by U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, who – clad in an American flag sweater and socks featuring the mushrooms that are her district’s signature crop – called for greater federal investments in agricultural programs.

But policy is clearly less on most visitors’ minds than the signature milkshakes sold by the PA Dairymen’s Association. By midmorning, the lines for those milkshakes – sold this year in a red, white and blue “flight” of three to commemorate America’s 250th –  stretch into triple digits, rivaled only by the lines of cars outside hunting for parking. 

The Farm Show is, after all, arguably the only place in Pennsylvania where under the same roof, on the same day – and for free! – patrons can take in competitive loom weaving, tractor pulling, square dancing, a hugely popular mullet contest, rodeo antics, demonstrations of honey extraction and tea party etiquette, and impersonators of Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin. 

Animals, of course, are at the literal and figurative center of the event. There are halls full of sheep dressed in Hawaiian shirts and argyle socks, steers larger than SUVs, angora rabbits gamely enduring hours of enthusiastic petting, and novelties like mini horses and alpacas. 

From time to time, loud mooing signals the imminent passage of bovine traffic through mulch-filled pedestrian corridors, and hundreds of spectators prudently jump out of the way: The wranglers do their best, but these are prize cattle strutting by – and they’re justifiably milking their moment.

The PA Farm Show continues through Saturday, January 17; admission is free.