2024 Minnesota State Fair Is Fifth Most Attended Overall
The 2024 Minnesota State Fair will go down as the fifth most attended to date, according to the fair’s latest tally.
This year, the fair welcomed 1,925,904 visitors. That’s up compared to both 2023 (1,835,826) and 2022 (1,842,222). The 2023 fair was the sixth most attended to date.
Total attendance in 2019 remains the highest to date at 2,126,551.
In an update posted Tuesday afternoon, CEO Renee Alexander said that this year’s fair “had its share of Minnesota weather, and the State Fair team responded by pulling together to keep people safe and to take care of the fairgrounds amidst episodes of extreme heat and humidity, rainstorms and high winds.”
Indeed, a week ago, evening storms took out power at the fairgrounds and delayed opening by two hours on Aug. 27.
Still, fairgoers continued to show up in droves in the days that followed. On Sept. 1, just over 256,000 people attended, which marked another record for individual day attendance. The 2024 fair broke attendance records on five separate days this year.
Whether this year’s attendance levels translate into better financial results remains to be seen. The fair’s annual reports, which are generally issued the following summer, will provide a more granular view of revenue and expenses in 2024.
Fair officials have said that budgets for both staffing and maintenance have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2023, the fair’s operating revenue surpassed $70 million.
Meanwhile, several fair vendors appear to have benefited from this year’s increase in traffic, KARE 11 reported this week. Local artist Adam Turman, who tripled the size of his Grandstand booth last year, said he’s “incredibly happy with business at the fair this year.”
“Our opening day was the best yet,” said Turman, who has been selling his art, apparel, home accessories and gifts at the fair since 2017. By 1 p.m. on the first day of the fair this year, he’d matched last year’s opening day sales, with eight hours to go. Overall, sales were up 5%, Turman said.
“It was reinforced that art matters,” Turman said. “I’m stuck in my studio most of the time, not having direct contact with my audience. Having an opportunity to be in the public and have instant feedback, smiles, stories, and overall warm fuzzies was amazing.”
Christopher Straub, a Shakopee designer who appeared on Project Runway’s sixth season and also runs a booth at the fair, said on Instagram he had his “best sales day in the six years I’ve been part of the fair.”
