Let's All Go to the Fair

THE FAIR is coming to town! More than 1,700 county and state fairs take place in the United States each year—and all year round, though most are held in summer. More than 23 million people attended a state fair last year.

- Jill Godsey

1 That’s like the entire population of the state of Florida.

2 PENNSYLVANIA'S York State Fair bills itself as America’s first fair. It’s actually 11 years older than America, since it dates back to 1765. A post-revolution “first fair” candidate is the one Elkanah Watson hosted in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1807. But the event consisted only of sheep-shearing demonstrations, as Watson, who owned a woolen mill, hoped to encourage local farmers to raise more sheep.

3 TODAY, MODERN amusement rides accompany the agricultural attractions. Ferris wheels are a state fair staple, and the Texas State Fair claims to have the tallest one. Nicknamed the Texas Star, it rises 212 feet high, 52 feet shy of the first Ferris wheel, which debuted at another fair: the 1893 world’s fair in Chicago. Riders there paid 50 cents each for a 20-minute ride, during which the wheel went around twice. That first wheel was meant to rival the keystone attraction at the previous world’s fair: the Eiffel Tower.

4 ALL SIX New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont), come together for The Big E, the country’s only multistate fair. Though the event is held in Massachusetts, the other five states each own a building and a bit of land on the fairgrounds. So you can visit all six states—and sample goods from each—in one stop.