A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state 's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair , often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs.
6-452: The North Dakota State Fair is an annual state fair held each July in Minot, North Dakota , USA. The fair has carnival rides, agricultural expositions, government and commercial exhibitions, and a variety of musical and performance entertainment. The fairgrounds are located along Burdick Expressway in east Minot. The facilities on the site are used for a variety of other events; the grandstand
12-935: A million visitors over the course of a week or two. The oldest state fair is that of The Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair , established in 1738, and is the oldest fair in Virginia and the United States. The first U.S. state fair was the New York , held in 1841 in Syracuse , and has been held annually since. The second state fair was in Detroit, Michigan , which ran from 1849 to 2009. Events similar to state fairs are also held annually in each state capital in Australia , known as royal shows. Australian royal shows are organized by state agricultural and horticultural societies, and are described further in
18-636: Is regularly used for Nodak Speedway stock car races, and the All Seasons Arena is frequently used for conventions, sporting events and festivals, including Norsk Høstfest . The fair was first held in Minot in 1922 but was not officially sanctioned by the state government until 1966. The North Dakota State Fair is the largest event in the state, drawing over 300,000 people each year, up from around 250,000 in 2006. Fair attendance tends to increase year by year, with two noted exceptions in 2011 and 2020. The 2011 fair
24-523: The agricultural show article. Several state fairs maintain their own police departments, including: A few annual exhibitions in the summer in Canada are similar to state fairs in the United States: State and county fairs are famous for a variety of competitions that award ribbons . Awards are generally given according to the following scale: As of 2019, the largest attendance at a state fair in
30-518: The nineteenth century for the purpose of promoting state agriculture , through competitive exhibitions of livestock and display of farm products. As the U.S. evolved from a predominantly agrarian to an industrial society in the twentieth century, and the more service economy of the 21st century, modern state fairs have expanded to include carnival amusement rides and games, display of industrial products, automobile racing, and entertainment such as musical concerts. Large fairs can admit more than
36-528: Was cancelled because of the 2011 Souris River flood a month prior, which left much of the grounds underwater. This announcement came after originally planning to hold the fair without competitive events. The 2020 fair was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic , although attendance returned to over normal levels by the following year. This North Dakota –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . State fair State fairs began in
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