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State Fair
MPR News Staff
Updated:

Minnesota State Fair attendance breaks 5 daily records for 2024, falls short of overall record

A large crowd walks through the fair grounds.
Thousands of people flood the streets during the closing weekend of the Minnesota State Fair Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024.
Nicole Neri for MPR News

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The State Fair set five new daily attendance records this year, but missed the overall attendance record by about 200,000. This year the fair saw 1,925,904 people come through its gates, making it the fifth highest on record.

Extreme heat and stormy weather kept many away from the fairgrounds on Monday, Aug. 26, and Thursday, Aug. 29. On that Monday, the combination of heat and humidity made it feel like 107 degrees in St. Paul, and later in the day storms canceled the scheduled Grandstand show and ended some fair operations early. Storm cleanup even delayed the opening of the fair on Tuesday, Aug. 27, by two hours.

The five new daily attendance records are:

  • First Thursday — 138,875 — previous record was 133,326 in 2016

  • First Friday — 171,233 — previous record was 164,741 in 2023

  • Wednesday — 145,531 — previous record was 144,940 in 2018

  • Second Friday — 225,521 — previous record was 209,789 in 2019

  • Second Sunday — 256,015 — previous record was 245,243 in 2019

The fair’s final weekend — which traditionally sees the biggest crowds each year — saw some of the highest jumps in attendance numbers. The weekend’s cooler and drier weather also likely helped draw people to the fair.

The Great Minnesota Get-Together ran Thursday, Aug. 22 through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 2 this year.

Fair attendance has climbed over time, and not just because the length of the fair has been extended — from six days in 1885-1918 to double that starting in 1975. According to records given to MPR News by the State Fair, attendance first topped 1 million in 1955, and then topped 2 million in 2018. 

The most-attended year ever was 2019 with more than 2.1 million people attending the fair. But then, after steady climbs, the fair was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. There was a cautious return of 1.3 million in 2021, and slightly more in 2022.

Last year's fair attendance reached over 1.8 million, the sixth highest on record. With 1.9 million people coming through the fair gates this year, the post-pandemic trends are only looking up.

The Minnesota State Fair is the largest fair in the country by daily attendance. In comparison, the Texas State Fair, which is the largest in the country by total attendance, drew a peak daily attendance in 2023 of 141,410 but a total attendance of 2,341,449. Texas' 24-day fair starts later this month.

AMP Research Lab managing partner Craig Helmstetter, reporter Estelle Timar-Wilcox and digital editor Anna Haecherl contributed to this report.

Correction (Sept. 6, 2024): An earlier version of this story included incorrect dates for storms affecting the fair this year. It has been updated.