While Sousa's marches are often associated with patriotic subject matter, he wrote many whose inspiration came from personal experience or simply to celebrate some social event. The Fairest of the Fair is related to both of these categories, having been written for the 1908 Boston Food Fair, but drawing its inspiration from a young woman Sousa had met there during one of the previous Food Fairs.

In any event, its music is chipper and playful in its bright colors and pomp, and could well serve as a march for almost any celebratory or patriotic occasion. The piece opens with a jaunty theme, typical of Sousa, and features a mellow second subject that offers fine contrast in its carefree soaring quality. A variant of the main theme soon appears in much the same mellow guise of the second subject. It dominates the rest of this three-and-half-minute march, although it yields twice to colorfully bombastic outbursts and snatches of the main theme. The work closes with a grand statement of the catchy march variant.

© All Music Guide