Longer 2024 SD State Fair features Taylor Swift tribute

HURON, S.D. (KELO) — She’ll be performing on tour in Europe, but there will still be a Taylor Swift presence of sorts at the 2024 South Dakota State Fair .

The specially-priced tribute to the mega-star’s music is planned in the grandstand on Labor Day afternoon as the fair wraps up. American Bank & Trust is sponsoring the show.

Red is one of four major music events scheduled during the State Fair this year. Evening grandstand shows feature Goo Goo Dolls rocking on Friday, August 30; rising country star Riley Green on Saturday, August 31; and longtime Grand Ole Opera member Trace Adkins on Sunday, September 1.

Grandstand tickets are required for all four of those performances, as well as the Tuff Hedeman Bull Bash competitions on Wednesday and Thursday, August 28-29. If purchased in advance, tickets for the four music shows also include admission to the fair.

Event sponsors include Red Wilk Construction and Channel Seed for the Bull Bash, Pioneer Seeds for Riley Green, and Legend Seeds for Trace Adkins.

Admission prices remain $10 for people age 16 and older and $5 for youths ages 6 to 15, with weekly and family packages also available. Because the annual State Fair will run one day longer this year, with the carnival rides and exhibits officially opening on Wednesday, August 28, admission prices will be discounted 20% for that day.

There are also other daily discounts . 4-H members get in free on Thursday by showing their 4-H issued ID cards; veterans and active military members also receive free admission that day. Olympic Motors of Huron is offering $2 admission discounts on Friday, with those coupons available only at the business’s US14 location.

Monday will feature a $2 discount for non-perishable food items brought to the gates, and it will also be ‘Pay It Forward’ Day when businesses sponsor random free admissions and for those in need.

Agriculture remains the fair’s dominant theme, with 4-H and FFA competitive exhibits for youth, as well as school-age education projects , and a variety of Open Class competitive exhibits including livestock , as well as static works such as art, horticulture, literature, sewing and photography . Visitors can see the new DEX indoor arena that opened in 2023.

The South Dakota Retailers Association will again hold its fastest-bagger contest on Saturday, August 31, and there will be a full lineup of vendors in the food court, with Sweet Grass bakery and eatery of Wessington Springs taking over for South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association serving beef sandwiches.

The fair has a new sponsor for its final day: Peaceful Pines Senior Living . Fair manager Peggy Besch told the State Fair Commission last week that it will be promoted as “Grand Family Adventure Day” with some special events. “The purpose is to build around the generational family.” she said.

“It’s a cool fit,” commission member Dusty Anderson of Yankton said.

The first contact came from Peaceful Pines, which offers residential housing for older adults in several communities. “They really want to target not only the people who could be going into senior living facilities but the children,” assistant fair manager Candi Briley said.

Commission chair Faron Wahl of Sioux Falls liked the fit. “That seems like a really good piece of the puzzle,” he said.

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