The Tazewell County Fair closed the gates on August 8. If you grew up here, you know what that feels like: the fairgrounds go quiet, the Figure 8 dust settles, and there's a strange Sunday where nothing seems to be happening on Main Street. Most years, that's when people assume August is over.
It isn't. The three weeks after the fair are when the town's own calendar takes over from the county's, and 2026 has more dated, resident-facing things happening between August 10 and September 1 than the fair week itself had.
The Week Everyone Circles, and Why It Skews the Map
The fair is the loudest thing on the August calendar and it earns the attention. The oldest fair in the state of Virginia returned to the Tazewell County Fairgrounds this year, a beloved tradition that brings families back together. Gates opened at 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, August 1, and the fair ran for one week, excluding Monday, August 3, before wrapping up on Saturday, August 8, at 620 Fieldcrest Circle Suite B in the Town of Tazewell. The Figure 8 Racing and Demolition Derby took the fairgrounds at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, August 7, and Saturday, August 8.
That's the piece that gets on TV. What gets missed is that the fair pulls so much oxygen out of the first week that residents mentally file the rest of August under "quiet." It isn't. Here is what the second half actually looks like.
The Calendar Between August 10 and September 1
The Chamber's community calendar and the Town's event page fill in fast once you look past fair week. In date order:
- Thursday, August 13, 5:30 p.m. — Business After Hours. Listed on the Chamber's calendar for August 13, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. EDT. Low-key, worth going to if you have a business in town or want to know who does.
- Friday and Saturday, August 14 and 15 — Fishing Weekend at Cavitt's Creek. The Town of Tazewell has scheduled fishing weekends Friday and Saturday, August 14 and 15, following the same pattern as June, July, and September.
- Friday, August 14, 1:00 p.m. — Shear Expectations event, 625 Freedom Avenue, North Tazewell. On the Chamber calendar for August 14 at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
- Monday, August 17, noon — Design Committee meeting, 211 Central Avenue. Chamber calendar, August 17, 12:00 p.m. EDT. Open meetings if you care what Main Street looks like in two years.
- Tuesday, August 18, 4:30 p.m. — Economic Vitality Committee, 592 Main Street.
- Thursday, August 20 — Executive Committee & Board Meeting at Historic Crab Orchard Museum. The museum's 2026 schedule lists an executive committee and board meeting on August 20.
- Monday, August 25, 6:30 p.m. — Promotion Committee meeting, 211 Central Avenue.
- Thursday, August 27, 11:30 a.m. — Tazewell County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting. All of these dates appear on the Chamber's public calendar.
Then there is Fourth Friday. The Town's event pattern has been consistent for years: Fourth Friday runs on Main Street with the Altizer Stage, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, historically the fourth Friday of the month in August. The Chamber's calendar carries the Fourth Friday listing into September as well, so if you miss the August one, September 22 is on the books.
If you're keeping score, that's eight dated things in eighteen days, not counting the weekly stuff below.
The Weekly Rhythm Nobody Puts on a Poster
The steadiest part of August in Tazewell isn't the special events. It's the recurring weekly nights at the Back of the Dragon store and pub at 592 Main Street, which by now function as the town's default evening living room.
| Night | What's on at 592 Main |
|---|---|
| Monday, 7–9 p.m. | Cornhole. $10 buy-in, double elimination, blind draw for partners, cash prizes |
| Wednesday, 7–8 p.m. | Trivia with Doc and Erica |
| Rotating weekends | Live music, club nights, and welcome events for visiting car and motorcycle clubs |
That's straight off their calendar. Monday Night Cornhole runs 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at 592 Main St with a $10 buy-in, double elimination, and blind draw for partners, with cash prizes, beer specials, and pizza. Trivia with Doc and Erica runs Wednesdays from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The venue also runs occasional live music, karaoke, and cornhole competition nights.
If you've lived here more than a year, none of this is news. But if you moved into Tazewell in the last twelve months, this is the thing to know: the Back of the Dragon store is where the town's mid-week social calendar actually meets. Tazewell developed near the headwaters of the Clinch River and has a welcoming downtown with restaurants and shops, and the town is home to the Back of the Dragon Center. Larry Davidson's business is why Main Street has a Monday night crowd in the first place.
Cavitt's Creek Is Better in Mid-August Than It Gets Credit For
The fishing weekend on August 14 and 15 is the underrated August event. Cavitt's Creek Park sits about ten minutes from downtown and does more than fishing, though the fishing weekends are what the Town markets. The Town asks anglers to follow all Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries regulations, with rules and license requirements available at dwr.virginia.gov.
The context worth having: Cavitt's Creek is the centerpiece of Tazewell County Parks and Rec, offering primitive camping, full hook-up RV camping, boondock RV camping, bath houses, picnic shelters, paddle boats, and fishing. Mid-August is the last stretch before school is fully back in, water levels are typically lower and clearer than in June, and the RV loops are close to empty on the Fridays that don't overlap with a rally weekend. If you were going to introduce out-of-town family to the park, this is the weekend to do it.
What August Is Really Setting Up
Here's the piece that changes how the month reads. August in Tazewell isn't the end of summer programming. It's the runway for what the town does best, which is fall.
The Historic Crab Orchard Museum's own schedule tells you where the year is heading. The museum's 2026 events schedule includes the Crab Orchard Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch running September 18 through October 30, followed by the Holiday Gift Shop Sale December 1–5 and Frontier Christmas on December 4. The August 20 board meeting is when the corn maze staffing and gate operations get finalized. If you've wondered why the maze always opens smoothly the same weekend every year, that meeting is why.
The Town Council's July agenda also hinted at what's coming further out. On Monday, July 27, 2026, Town Council held a special called meeting to discuss the 2027 Rt 16 Rally & Music Festival event and support requests, along with a DHCD Industrial Revitalization Fund Grant Resolution of Support for the Iron Thrones Project. The Route 16 Rally is a June event, but it's being planned now. And an industrial revitalization grant tied to something called the Iron Thrones Project is the kind of thing that quietly shows up in property values a year later. Worth watching.
One more anchor point for October: the Town runs Oktobrewfest each October, along with the Main Street Winter Market in December, as part of a year-round events roster that includes the summer Music on Main & Cruise In and the Main Street Moments festival on the fourth Friday/Saturday in July.
Put together, August isn't the wind-down. It's the pivot. The fair closes, the volunteers who ran it get a two-week breather, and by the time Fourth Friday hits the Altizer Stage on the 22nd, the same crews are already halfway into fall programming.
If You're New Here
The one thing to try, if you haven't yet, is Wednesday trivia at 592 Main. It's the lowest-commitment way to end up standing next to the people who actually run half the events on the list above. That's how the town works. The calendar isn't produced by a tourism office. It's produced by the same forty or fifty people who show up on a Wednesday.
At Cedar Realty Group, we spend a lot of our week driving between Main Streets like this one, in Lebanon, Abingdon, Bristol, and here in Tazewell. If you're thinking about what your home is worth in this market, or you want a plain conversation about the neighborhood you already live in, get in touch for a free home valuation. No pressure, just a straight answer.
