1 week ago
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The crowds are gone, the vendors are packed up, and the cows have come home. The 2026 Minnesota State Fair is over, and we must now wait 352 days to do it all over again.
So now one question remains: How many people showed up this year?
Officially, 1,923,325 souls passed through the fairground gates in 2026, a decline of 17,544 from 2025.
This year’s attendance figure is consistent with the median of 1,933,387 dating back to 2017. The first year-over-year drop since 2021 means the fair has now gone six consecutive years without cracking 2 million, a mark met only twice, in 2018 and 2019.
Now, let’s overanalyze it.
The fair got off to a hot start, with new attendance records set in the first two days, including a stunning 204,065 on the first Friday — just the third weekday in fair history to surpass 200,000.
Overall attendance lagged from there when compared to recent trends.
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