Blue Ribbon Worthy
The Iowa State Fair ended Sunday night, and according to fair officials, it was another record-setting 11-day run.
Let’s start with attendance; overall fair attendance set a new record of 1,218,834 through the turnstiles, topping the old record set in 2024 by 30,000 people. That includes a new all-time daily attendance record set this past Saturday of 130,654 that day alone.
A sold-out crowd of 17,360 watched country singer Lainey Wilson at the Grandstand on the first Sunday of the fair; that topped the old record set by Chris Stapleton five years ago by 40 concert-goers.
The biggest ram was a record for the category; Big Bad Joe topped the scales at 568 pounds.
And financially for charity, this year’s Iowa State Fair was another winner—the woodcarver’s auction to benefit the Blue Ribbon Foundation brought in $96,000, crushing the old record set four years ago of $79,000, while the sale of champions totaled nearly three quarters of a million dollars to benefit the Iowa Foundation for Agricultural Advancement scholarship fund.
Fair officials note other milestones from this year’s fair, including a century of the fair’s hog calling contest, 20 years of the “hot beef sundae” at the Cattlemen’s Beef Quarters as well as the Heritage Farm Awards, and 50 years of the Century Farm Award from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
Oh, and you heard us talk about the Iowa Pork Producers and their patriotic giveaway of 1,776 pork chops on a stick on the first Sunday of the fair; all 1,776 of them were gone in 99 minutes.
You don’t have to be an attendee to respect and marvel at all that was on display. And now, the numbers are there to prove it.
