The 2025 State Fair wrapped up with strong attendance, strong competition numbers and good fair weather. Plenty of folks had a great time at the State Fair and we are grateful for their support. We were blessed with excellent weather throughout and in the end we saw nearly 950,000 people come through the gates. In fact, there was a little touch of cool temperature in the air, which is my favorite kind of fair weather. It wasn’t a record-breaking year – every year isn’t – but it’s been a very strong year and we are very happy with that.
We posted the second largest Monday for visitors at 82,329. The top year was back in 1994 when we had 86,798. We definitely benefitted from Wake County and Johnston County schools having teacher workdays. I’d like to go ahead and put in my request for a teacher’s workday during the fair next year.
We also saw the third best Tuesday, with 78,608 in attendance. Only last year and 2010 saw bigger days on Tuesday. A lot of attention gets focused on attendance figures, and we DO want to see strong numbers, but it is not the only barometer we use to measure success.
We have had strong entry numbers for both our general competitions and livestock competitions. There were over 23,500 general entries registered and over 3,700 livestock entries registered. Apple entries in the horticulture competitions returned strong after Hurricane Helene with a full display of apples. You may remember that we had a limited number of apple entries in 2024, but we had full displays this year, which was exciting to see. Also in the horticulture area, we had a site-record pumpkin weighing in at 2,244.5 pounds. In fact, we had two pumpkins weigh in over 2,000 pounds so fairgoers were able to see some massive pumpkins on display.
Our livestock shows and exhibits got a lot of attention this year, particularly from the media. I was excited to see several young people doing interviews with the media and talking about the importance of the industry to the state. Most importantly, I was happy to see the media highlighting agriculture stories at the Fair. Agriculture is at the heart of the fair and I loved seeing those stories.
For Smithfield Hunger Relief Day, enough food was collected for around 150,000 meals or 16 tractor truckloads of food. That food is going to immediately go back out into the community to help feed those who need assistance. We had great livestock shows with kids and adults competing for bragging rights and prize money. Across the fairgrounds and throughout the fair we saw a lot of smiles and a lot of happy people. And that’s what makes all the hard work worthwhile – every day and every year!