2024 Wilson County – Tennessee State Fair shatters attendance record. Pageant winners

The 2024 Wilson County – Tennessee State Fair set a new attendance record by a wide margin with 861,425 attending the 10-day event that concluded Saturday.

The 2022 fair drew 776,195, which was the previous record. Last year’s fair brought in 739,315.

The first combined Wilson County – Tennessee State Fair was in 2021.

The highest attendance the Wilson County Fair had prior to the collaboration was 589,229 in 2013.

The 2024 fair went over 501,000 after Wednesday with three days still remaining, officials said.

Dry weather, the collaboration with the state fair and emphasis to showcase all of Tennessee's 95 counties and daily variety and range of options all helped the climbing attendance numbers, Wilson County Promotions President Randall Clemons said.

Country ham auctioned for $25,000

The 29.5 pound Tennessee Grand Champion Country Ham sold for $25,000 in a live auction to benefit the Tennessee Future Farmers of America (FFA) Foundation.

The winning bidders for the Country Ham were farm equipment dealer H&R Agri-Power and Catesa Farms, owned by 2024 Tennessee Farmer of the Year George McDonald of Riddleton, Tennessee.

The slightly smaller 17-pound Packer Style Ham sold for $18,500 or $1,088 per pound.

Tennessee Farm Bureau, the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, CPC Commodities, and ProTrition teamed up to buy the Packer Style Ham.

Fairest of the Fair

Lucy Rose Coey was crowned the 2024 Wilson County Fairest of the Fair pageant winner.

Rachel Brewer was the Crowd Favorite winner and Parker King named Miss Congeniality.

Jackie Bullard was crowned Ms. Wilson County Fair and Cheryl Lewis won the 2024 Ms. Senior Wilson County TN pageant winner.

Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on X, formerly known as Twitter @ AndyHumbles.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: 2024 Wilson County – Tennessee State Fair shatters attendance record. Pageant winners