The barn doors have opened for the 2024 Missouri State Fair. The Show Me State’s largest agriculture expo is underway in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia.
State Fair Director Jason Moore said a new feature at this year’s fair is a drone show.
“The first three nights after each concert, it’ll be done in conjunction with our fireworks display that we’ve historically seen after a show. So, we’re going to have 200 drones up in the night sky lit up. And I think that’s going to be a really added show that really haven’t seen that at the fair before,” Moore told Missourinet.
State Department of Agriculture Director Chris Chinn said the entertainment for kids is a hit.
“Mr. Stinky Feet is always a favorite,” Chinn told Missourinet. “The Pied Piper, a percussion professor, Smarts Comedy Science Show, those are things that we continue to hear from parents, ‘Bring that back. It entertained my kids.’ They loved it. So, we’re going to have that. But we also have some new things. We have some magic shows.”
Chinn said a new fair food this year is elephant ears.
“That is more of a southern United States fair favorite,” she said. ‘But elephant ears, I’ve had them as a child at the Illinois State Fair. They are amazing. You know, it’s just fried dough with cinnamon and sugar on them. It’s kind of like bready. As a child, they were my favorite. I haven’t had one since I was an adult.”
Moore said the live music is a popular attraction each year.
“The Budweiser stage, and they’ll do bands throughout the afternoon and then into the evening. Our kids stage, there’s a lot of free entertainment acts that just roll throughout the day,” said Moore.
Other popular fair attractions include the livestock competitions, giant sculpture made out of butter, tractor pulls, carnival rides and petting zoo.
Meanwhile, the fair has returned just in time for mild temperatures. Chinn hopes that the weather will be nice throughout the 11-day event.
“The weather can really complement your fair, or it can really have a negative impact on it. And so, you know, we can always count on one thing during the Missouri State Fair, we’re going to get rain in the state of Missouri. We always joke that maybe we should move it to July, because that seems to be when we really need those rains,” Chinn said.
After two years of drought problems, Missouri has been blessed with decent rain this year.
“Money just gets tight on the farm,” said Chinn. “It’s very hard to pick up those livestock and travel with them, hay shortage, feed shortages. We’ve had a drought the last two years, and the livestock community was kind of resilient to it. It really shocked us.”
The weather during last year’s fair was mostly mild – driving about 350,000 people to the fair.
The State Fair runs through August 18th.
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