The first St. Tammany Parish Fair, back in 1910, was not much of a fair at all. It began, by the association's own account, as a pet show in what was then Covington's City Park. A year later it had grown a longer, more earnest name — the St. Tammany Stock, Poultry & Pet Animal Exhibition — and a purpose that has barely changed in the century-plus since: to put the parish's handmade, homemade, and homegrown on display.
When the fair returns to the St. Tammany Parish Fairgrounds in Covington from Sept. 30 through Oct. 4, 2026, it will carry that long tradition forward with the usual apparatus of a country fair — 16 pageants, a rodeo and rodeo queen contest, livestock and poultry competitions, agricultural and home exhibits, a parade, Gospel Night, a cheer and dance competition, and the ever-popular midway. The association, which formed in 1910, gives roughly $25,000 back to area schools each year for exhibit entries and scholarships. Walk-up visitors enter at 1304 N. Columbia St.; drivers come in off N. Magee Street.
But this year's fair will also contain something the 1910 organizers could never have imagined: a quiet room.
Tucked beneath the grandstands of the horse show, away from the loud music, the flashing lights, and the bright colors of the midway, the fair will open its first sensory room — a dimly lit, air-conditioned space with plush sofas and soft music, designed for children and adults who need to step out of the commotion, reset their nervous systems, and then return to the fair. It is wheelchair-accessible and decorated on an "Under the Sea" theme, with dark blue accent lights, glowing jellyfish, sensory bins, 3D-printed fidget toys, and water and snacks on hand. Its placement is deliberate: it sits close to the petting zoo, so children who respond well to animals can visit before or after a calming break.
The room exists because a 14-year-old named Mila Aduli asked for it.
Mila knows the fair from the inside. She is a past St. Tammany Parish Fair princess and a regular attendee — her favorite things, she says, are eating candy apples, petting the animals, winning prizes at the booths, and running into people she knows. But she is also the sister of two siblings with special needs, and she has spent her life watching what the fair costs families like hers. Her 10-year-old brother, Ari, has autism. Her younger sister, Mina, for whom the family's nonprofit is named, died in 2022 at just 9 years old.
Mina's Mission was started by Mila's parents, Cherie Kelly-Aduli and Farhad Aduli, and Mila has been involved since second grade. One of her early contributions was raising money to persuade Walmart to place shopping carts that accommodate special-needs children in stores nationwide. Now a freshman at Christ Episcopal School, she has launched a companion nonprofit to Mina's Mission called Kindness Corner and is working with Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser to bring more sensory rooms to events across Louisiana.
"I want to make the world more inclusive for people like Mina and Ari," she told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "My whole life I've seen the struggle my siblings go through. It opened my eyes to the fact that they should have more opportunities, like going on the swings at the playground or attending the fair."
For children with autism, a fair is a particular kind of gauntlet — a wall of noise, light, and motion that can tip quickly into sensory overload, anxiety, and meltdown. Mila designed the room around Ari's needs, reasoning that a space built for his severity of autism would cover most other children too. "We asked ourselves, 'What would we need to be able to bring him here,'" she said.
She didn't build it alone. She enlisted St. Scholastica Academy's Dove Cares Club and Christ Episcopal School's Beta Club to make the wall decorations that bring the underwater theme to life. And she approached the fair association directly. Vice President Melissa Dottolo said the board was delighted when Mila came to them. "We were so impressed that she came to us, and of course, it is something that we were happy to incorporate into the fair," Dottolo said. The association found the space under the grandstands almost immediately. "They have been the best team to work with," Mila said, "and I'm so happy they were willing to bring this dream to life."
The room is meant for more than children. Mila pointed out that it offers a break to the mothers and fathers of special-needs kids as well. "Their job is never-ending, and they deserve a break, too," she said. "It will be a great place to chill out."
The sensory room is not the only new thing about the 2026 fair. The official poster was created by Camila Grunkowski, a 13-year-old from Slidell and an eighth-grader at Pope John Paul II High School — the youngest official fair poster artist in the event's history. Her "storybook vintage" piece, unveiled at the fair office in Covington in mid-September, puts the fair's animals at the center. Camila had submitted a poster two years earlier as part of the student contest for the 2024 fair and won a rare first-place overall award; in 2025, her work took third place at the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals Convention, the first St. Tammany Parish student ever to place at the state level. Dottolo, who chaired the poster contest, remembered the piece when the association went looking for its 2026 image.
The fair's rhythms remain familiar. Thursday is Kids Day, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., when local schools bus in students for tours of the Mini Farm, the Educational Booth Building, and the Home Economics Building, with performances by JoJo the Magic Clown and the Dark Matter Robotics Team — though the carnival rides and vendors stay closed during those hours. The 2026 Fair Pageant was held Sept. 19, and the Rodeo Queen contest on Sept. 27, with the queen crowned in the rodeo arena on Friday, Oct. 2, at 6:30 p.m. General admission has historically been free on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, with a modest charge on Friday and Saturday; midway wristbands and rodeo tickets are sold separately.
What has changed, in a small room under the horse-show grandstands, is who the fair is built for. A century ago the St. Tammany fair was a place to show off a prize hen or a jar of preserves. This year it will also be a place where a family with a child who cannot tolerate the noise can find a sofa, a dim light, and a few minutes of quiet — and then go back out and ride the swings. Mila Aduli, who is 14, has already said she wants to take the idea statewide. The parish fair, she figures, is a good place to start.