SD State Fair may top vendor sales over last 3 years

SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — The 2024 South Dakota State Fair is over and members of the Huron Chamber of Commerce weighed in on how they thought the fair went this year.

Candi Briley, Assistant Manager for the SD State Fair, said there are no official numbers yet from the fair this year but she expects the numbers to be up from last year.

“Coming off of last year, where last year was so hot, we broke several records in the heat category,” said Briley. “This year, when we saw the forecast, we were really excited and it was very refreshing to have that fair with great weather and great temperatures.”

Last year’s South Dakota State Fair saw 178,390 people in attendance .

Laurie Shelton, President and CEO of the Huron Chamber & Visitors Bureau, said last year was a down year because of the heat. She added that many vendors are stating that this is the best fair in three years for them money-wise.

The 2023 South Dakota State Fair generated $222,108 in tax collections. The 2023 state fair had 607 booths rented to 322 different vendors totaling over $2.7 million in revenue.

Briley said that the fairgrounds were full of vendors for this year.

“We always have a solid number of vendors, we get creative with where we can put them,” said Briley. “We had more than 300 vendors that included 55 food vendors, it was definitely a full fairgrounds with all the vendors.”

Shelton said the extra day they added into the fair helped with sales, even if it was slow at first. She added kids in Huron getting out of school at noon helped the fair’s overall sales.

Briley said they had quite a few events this year and even some new additions.

We had 6 stages of free entertainment, we had a good handful of different exhibits that people could go to, there was bingo in the veterans building that was cool to be able to have,” said Briley. “We had the groundbreaking for the shed which will be the home for open-class sheep during the state fair, during non-fair time it will be used as a multipurpose building.”

The 40,000 square foot sheep and multi-purpose facility shed will feature a 1,320 square foot education center, 792 square foot mezzanine, 2,300 square foot show ring, a 30 bay wash rack, all with the ability to accommodate 1,000 heads of sheep.

Briley said they are always looking for feedback to improve the fair.

“So now that the state fair is over we obviously have a lot of cleanup work to do, to get the grounds back to normal,” said Briley. “We are looking at what grandstand concerts we will be holding as well as booking that free entertainment and ground entertainment.”

Next year’s South Dakota State Fair dates are August 27th through September 1st.

“We will look at wrap-up notes from our staff and commissioners and start working on making improvements,” said Briley. “We will see what we need to change what we need to focus on a little bit more and take a look at the things we did right to see if we can enhance those things as well.”

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