Bjelovar Fair

The Bjelovar Fair is a cult fair event that is more than 30 years old. It is, along with those in Gornja Radgona in Slovenia and Novi Sad in Serbia, the largest agricultural fair in the region, and it takes place twice a year in Gudovac, a suburb of Bjelovar. The owners and main organizers of the fair, the Bjelovar-Bilogora County and the City of Bjelovar, gather farmers and herdsmen from the entire region at the fair, and in addition to the two large annual fairs, spring and autumn, Gudovac also hosts smaller events throughout the year, such as the Spring Fair, Bee Fair, Small Animal Fair, horse shows, livestock auctions, exhibitions of farmers, fruit growers and winegrowers, expert meetings, weekly livestock fairs and a number of other events.

More than 500 exhibitors participate in the large spring and autumn fairs held at the end of March and the beginning of September, and more than 50 thousand people visit them. In addition to the products of farmers and herdsmen, visitors to the fair can learn about technological achievements in agriculture, and it is there that new acquaintances and various business deals are made.

Livestock fairs in the area of Bjelovar have a tradition of more than 500 years. They developed back in the late Middle Ages when they were held every Wednesday in today’s Velika and Mala Sredica, which are also the suburbs of Bjelovar. At the beginning of the 16th century, the fair moved to Gudovac, where its volume and location changed over the years under the influence of different authorities and political climates, but the tradition remained preserved.