Most long-running Maine fairs are owned and operated not by a town or a company but by an agricultural society, a nonprofit membership association formed to promote farming and to hold an annual fair. The society typically owns the fairgrounds, elects officers, publishes the premium book and recruits the volunteers who staff the week. This is why a fair's official name is often the society's name, and why the fair can outlast any individual organizer.
Also known as: fair association, fair society.