Plans are already in the making for 2025. But first, officials with the Nebraska State Fair have something to celebrate. Attendance at this year’s version of the State Fair, held Aug. 23 to Sept. 2 in Grand Island, was as high as it has been since 2017 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s attendance for the 11-day event, 314,844, beat the 2023 number of 311,909. That comes after a smaller attendance for the first five days, thanks to a long stretch of extremely hot temperatures that tamped down crowds.

Big numbers

The lowest attendance day was Thursday, Aug. 29, with 13,205, but Sunday, Sept. 1, made that up with almost 54,000 in attendance. These numbers are far higher than the first post-COVID-19 fair in 2021 that saw an attendance of 266,245. The attendance in 2017 was 379,108, and the record attendance at the State Fair, back when it was held in Lincoln, was in 1997, when there were 389,171 visitors through the gates.

The State Fair in Nebraska began in Nebraska City in 1859, eight years before Nebraska gained statehood. It eventually was moved to another southeast Nebraska river town at Brownville. Eventually, the fair was moved to Omaha, and then in 1901, it moved permanently to Lincoln.

The last State Fair at the fairgrounds in Lincoln was held in 2009, when the University of Nebraska gained ownership of the fairgrounds to build the Nebraska Innovation Campus. The State Fair moved to its current location at Fonner Park in Grand Island for the 2010 fair.

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The experiences

Attendance at this year’s State Fair was one thing, but the experience of the fair for those in attendance, vendors or exhibitors was quite another. Combine rides, 4-H and FFA contests and exhibits, Raising Nebraska, the birthing pavilion and milking parlor, dairy store and equine contests, and other activities make the fair something special as a showcase for Nebraska’s farmers and ranchers. Click through our gallery of this year’s State Fair.

Next year’s State Fair is set for Aug. 22 to Sept. 1 at Fonner Park in Grand Island. Learn more online at statefair.org.