Minnesota State Fair breaks 100K visitors Saturday; attendance still down overall
[KSTP]
The Minnesota State Fair started to rebound from a stormy first couple of days on Saturday, but attendance was still much lower than in recent years.
Day 3 saw 129,984 visitors pass through the gates, the first time the Great Minnesota Get-Together surpassed 100,000 this year — the fair only dipped below 100,000 once during its last running in 2019. Saturday’s mark was a 38% decline from the same day in 2019, when 209,105 people congregated at the fairgrounds.
Inclement weather and concerns over a lack of COVID-19 precautions have cast a shadow on state fair numbers so far.
Until a storm front rolled through the metro in the evening, Saturday offered somewhat of a reprieve from the previous two days of rain and lightning. And the fair has not wavered from its decision not to require masks or proof of a COVID-19 vaccine; however, individual buildings and vendors are able to put their own mask policies in place.
Through the first three days, there have been 269,373 visitors to the state fair in 2021. There were just shy of 500,000 in the same time frame in 2019.
Minnesota State Fair Attendance