Slow 1st day, but State Fair traffic picks up over opening weekend
Updated: 12:51 p.m.
After a sluggish start, attendance at the Minnesota State Fair is on track to be higher than one year ago.
Only 106,327 people attended the fair on Thursday, about 15,000 fewer than on opening day in 2022. Hot, muggy weather likely contributed to the low turnout.
Once temperatures cooled off Friday, Minnesotans flocked to the fair. 164,741 people paid to wander the fairgrounds, eat food, stare at crop art and listen to music. It was a new record for the second day of the fair.
On Saturday, more than 212,850 people visited the Great Minnesota Get-Together — not a record, but a healthy turnout for a Saturday.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Sunday also exceeded the attendance of a year ago, with 173,724 visitors, according to the state fair officials. That compares to just over 161,000 on the same day in 2022. That’s below the record set in 1994 for the first Sunday — a high of 209,969 visitors — but surpassing the last two years pace.
For the past four days, a total of 657,642 fairgoers visited the fairgrounds. That exceeds the total of 593,975 that visited over the same four days in 2022.
Pattern holds for state fair attendance
On average, the first day brings about 108,433 visitors to the State Fair, which based on data since 2012, tends to be the slowest day of the 12 day run.
Crowds have been large for the first weekend so far, but if the pattern holds, the last weekend, specifically Saturday, could have the highest attendance of the State Fair. Based on data collected, that day draws an average of 234,136 fairgoers.