Minnesota State Fair attendance up even as some visitors say they cut down on trips

This past week brought in the most business that Jim Burt has seen in five years of selling roasted nuts at the Minnesota State Fair.

“There’s no two ways about that,” said Burt, founder of We Are Nuts, who wore a hat that read “Big Dill” as he passed out this year’s special dill-flavored peanuts on Sunday. “The reason we got into the fair was so that we could have 1 million people look at our product. And now it’s finally really paying off.”

Fair attendance this year continues to trend up toward pre-pandemic levels. As of Saturday, the fair had hosted 1,595,926 visitors so far in 2025, according to figures from the Minnesota State Agricultural Society.

That’s higher than the 1,494,000 fairgoers during the same timeframe in 2024, and the 1,574,769 visitors over that period in 2023.

On the fair’s penultimate day, Burt guessed the uninterrupted pleasant weather had driven strong attendance and business throughout the 12-day event.

Day-to-day attendance this year has been fairly consistent, without the big dips in attendance caused by rain or exceedingly hot weather. So far this fair season, there was only one record-setting day, which fell this past Monday when 145,022 people entered the fair. Last year, visitors notched five single-day attendance records, including an all-time high of 256,015 people on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024.

Paul Tinucci, an Inver Grove Heights resident, doesn’t believe he’s ever missed a year at the fair, where he makes a point of trying new food items. This year, the new raspberry beer-flavored soft serve hit the spot, he said.

But while several fairgoers said they couldn’t miss attending the fair at least once this year, some limited how many days they visited due to higher admission costs and other rising prices.

“It’s a little bit more expensive these days,” said Molly Keleny as she stood, with her mom and sister, near a newborn lamb taking a nap in the Miracle of Birth Center.

Tyler Schipper, an economist at the University of St. Thomas, said he’s not surprised that attendance remains strong despite rising prices and consumer concerns about the economy, “because consumer spending has continued to be up there.”

His students have gone around the fair tracking the rising prices of popular items to create an “On a Stick Index.”

Still, some visitors may be choosing to cut costs by going fewer days or buying less while at the fair, Schipper added.

Burt said the late-summer culture bash was a needed bright spot after a tragic week in Minnesota.

Burt said his five grandchildren attend Annunciation Catholic School, where a shooter opened fire last week during a morning Mass, killing two students and wounding 19 more people, the majority of them children.

“It was terrible. The whole thing was traumatic,” Burt said, adding that his grandchildren were not physically injured but are grappling with the mental and emotional toll as the reality of the shooting sinks in.

“There’s that, and then there’s the Great Get-Together at the fair. Talk about a dichotomy,” Burt said, looking around at the crowd. “Generally, people are good. You see it out here. Everybody takes care of everybody.”

Despite the tragedy and possible security fears rippling through the community, people haven’t shied away from the busy Minnesota State Fair.

Schipper said the state fair’s staying power could be attributed to its ability to touch on “parts of culture from all over Minnesota,” from 4-H competitions, iconic foods “that that harken back to a simpler time in the past,” as well as newer-to-Minnesota Somali and Egyptian cuisines.