From severe weather to attendance records, the Minnesota State Fair had it all this year

Published: Sep 02, 2024 Duration: 00:02:23 Category: News & Politics
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It was another record day during a record weekend at the Minnesota State Fair. Newly released numbers show more than 256,000 people went to the fair yesterday. That's 100,000, more than the same day last year. It also smashed the previous Sunday record set back in 2019 by more and 10,000 people. There are now just a few hours left of the state fair with gates closing for the season at 9 p.m. and from heat to storms to those record crowds, it has been a fair to remember. Gordon Severson has more on the lessons learned from this year's great Minnesota get together like the midway here. The state fair has seen a lot of ups and downs this year with some new records, some new food, but also a canceled concert and some severe weather at the Minnesota State Fair. So much depends on the weather really the worst I've seen last Monday. It was a storm that forced organizers to cancel the concert at the grandstand and the lightning was sticking around and we could not get the show on the next morning. Another storm that took down countless trees, prompting the first ever late start at the fair. And the reason we delayed the fairgrounds opening to make sure everything was safe. Not surprisingly, the two storms led to some of the lowest attendance numbers at the fair. But when the weather is warm and sunny this year has been so nice, people show up. I've definitely seen a lot of people at the fair. I know a lot more than usual. Yes, the band at the grandstand and the day of the week do make a difference. But looking at the numbers, the fair broke five daily attendance records year and all of those days have something in common. Is it nice and warm? Not too hot? This is so beautiful. It's like mid seventies right now. Sunny a little bit cloudy. So it's the perfect day for the fair because if there's anything Minnesotans like more than the fair, it's nice summer weather. We're very thankful for the weather today. It would be nice if there's a few more clouds. Like, who knows? It's gorgeous. We're going to take it for what it is. Even though we set some new daily records here at the fair this year, it's unlikely we're going to get that overall record, which is about 2.1 million set back in 2019. When I crunched the numbers, we would need nearly 400,000 people to show up at the fair here today, which is about two times higher than what we normally see on the final day of the fair Gordonson here.

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