A garden parade at the 2022 Common Ground Country Fair in Unity. The 2024 edition of popular agricultural fair runs from Friday through Sunday. Morning Sentinel file

UNITY — The 48th annual Common Ground Country Fair, which celebrates rural living and features more than 1,000 exhibitors and speakers, is set to kick off Friday and continue through Sunday in Unity.

The poster for the 2024 Common Ground Country Fair. Submitted photo

The fair at 294 Crosby Brook Road bills itself as emphasizing vibrant communities, sustainable living and local economies, while highlighting organic agriculture. It is hosted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, or MOFGA.

“The fair is shaping up really well,” April Boucher, the fair’s director, said Monday. “It’s our 48th annual event, and the weather looks like it’s going to be beautiful and sunny, in the 70s.”

The fair is set to offer a children’s area, to include a vegetable garden parade at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. all three days, and a fiddlers’ showcase, contradances, Harry S. Truman Manure Pitch contests, a draft horse event, live music, a poultry show and an exhibition hall.

Organizers have also planned demonstrations on agriculture, low-impact forestry, blacksmithing, country kitchen activities, spinning, stone working, livestock and sheep dogs.

Booths and speakers focusing on environmental concerns, social and political action, whole life and health and healing and other issues will be on tap, as will herb, yoga and Reiki tents.

Fairgoers can also expect arts, crafts and agricultural products from family farms, including soaps, herbs, seeds, dried flowers, maple products, compost and fiber arts, offered for sale. Maine Native American baskets will also be offered.

Leading practitioners and suppliers in the sustainable building and energy trades in Maine will demonstrate and exhibit old and new technologies. Demonstrations on recycling and composting are also planned.

The fair gives preference to vendors who serve organic meals and requires them to use Maine-grown organic ingredients when available, according to its website — mofga.org.

Boucher said a special event Sunday is to include a performance by the Oshima Brothers. The Maine-based alt-pop duo — Sean and Jamie Oshima — grew up volunteering at the fair, and are now returning to support it. The 3:30 p.m. event is planned for the amphitheater.

Norris Smith of Jay prepares his team of oxen — Jack and Joe — to pull a plow during a demonstration last year at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity. The 2024 fair begins Friday and runs through Sunday. Morning Sentinel file

Keynote addresses this year, all of which will be at 11 a.m. each day of the fair, are set to include Annie Watson, an organic dairy farmer, Friday; Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab and author of “What if We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures,” on Saturday; and Melissa Law, farmer and co-owner of Bumbleroot Organic Farm in Windham and a representative of the Maine Climate Council, on Sunday.

Watson, a first-generation dairy farmer, and her husband, Mike, own Sheepscot Valley Farm in Whitefield, where they milk 75 cows. She is president of the Maine Dairy Industry Association, serves as on the MOFGA board of directors and is a director of the Northeast Organic Family Farm Partnership.

Johnson is a writer, scientist, policy expert and teacher who is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. She holds a doctorate in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Law’s organic farm serves the local community through Community Supported Agriculture, farm stand and wholesale partnerships and has worked to create and implement a climate adaptation plan for the farm. She is a founding member of the Maine Flower Collective and agriculture representative to the Maine Climate Council.

A young fairgoer participates in the vegetable parade at the 2023 Common Ground Country Fair in Unity. The 2024 fair runs from Friday through Sunday. Morning Sentinel file

Boucher said the fair, which has more than 60 areas of activity, has about 2,000 volunteers each year who are critical to its success. Slots are open for more volunteers, and those interested can check in at the volunteer booths at both fair gates, or contact fair officials online.

“It takes a lot to run the fair,” Boucher, who has been director 10 years. said.

The fair is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Admission for adults between 18 and 64 is $20 a person, and $15 for those 65 or older and youths between 13 and 17. Children 12 or younger enter for free, although tickets must be reserved.

Those with a disability, and the person attending the fair them, are admitted for free — tickets must be reserved.

School groups are admitted for free from 9 a.m. to noon Friday at the North/Rose Gate. Preregistration is required.