A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state 's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair , often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs.
6-597: The Mississippi State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Mississippi each October. The fair was founded in 1858. The fair went on hiatus in 1917–18 & 1942–44, when the United States was engaged in World War I and World War II, respectively. In addition, crowd events were reduced in 1917-1918 because of the Spanish flu pandemic , which is estimated to have killed millions of people worldwide. In
12-484: A million deaths in the United States over the next few years. The fairgrounds cover over a hundred acres in downtown Jackson. The Mississippi Coliseum is part of the complex. Mississippi's fair grounds is one of the widest. 32°18′04″N 90°10′25″W / 32.301162°N 90.173627°W / 32.301162; -90.173627 This Mississippi -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . State fair State fairs began in
18-904: A million visitors over the course of a week or two. The oldest state fair is that of The Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair , established in 1738, and is the oldest fair in Virginia and the United States. The first U.S. state fair was the New York , held in 1841 in Syracuse , and has been held annually since. The second state fair was in Detroit, Michigan , which ran from 1849 to 2009. Events similar to state fairs are also held annually in each state capital in Australia , known as royal shows. Australian royal shows are organized by state agricultural and horticultural societies, and are described further in
24-536: The agricultural show article. Several state fairs maintain their own police departments, including: A few annual exhibitions in the summer in Canada are similar to state fairs in the United States: State and county fairs are famous for a variety of competitions that award ribbons . Awards are generally given according to the following scale: As of 2019, the largest attendance at a state fair in
30-456: The 1950s, Medgar Evers , an African-American civil rights activist, led efforts to racially integrate the event. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic , the fair operated under strict measures to try to protect public health. Attendees were asked to wear masks and to practice social distancing to lessen transmission of the serious respiratory disease. It caused more than
36-518: The nineteenth century for the purpose of promoting state agriculture , through competitive exhibitions of livestock and display of farm products. As the U.S. evolved from a predominantly agrarian to an industrial society in the twentieth century, and the more service economy of the 21st century, modern state fairs have expanded to include carnival amusement rides and games, display of industrial products, automobile racing, and entertainment such as musical concerts. Large fairs can admit more than
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