North Carolina
Guide to NC State Fair 2025: Tickets, transportation, parking, new rides and special event days
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — The 2025 NC State Fair is just around the corner, opening its gates on Thursday for 11 days of fun, food, and entertainment.
This year’s fair promises an exciting lineup of new attractions, including 88 new food options, thrilling rides like the Colossus and Kamikaze, and captivating shows such as a Wild West roping performance.
Alongside these new experiences, fairgoers can enjoy beloved returning acts, special event days, and convenient ticket packages like the Bright Lights and Boots Package, which includes admission and a rodeo ticket.
Tickets and Dates
The 2025 NC State Fair runs from Thursday, October 16 to Sunday, October 26. You can purchase tickets now online.
There are also two new ticket packages offered this year — the Bright Lights and Boots Package, which includes an adult Fair admission ticket and a ticket to the rodeo, which is new in 2025 and part of the N.C. State Fair Horse Show lineup.
Click here for the vendor and ride finder
Daily Hours
Thursday, Oct. 16: noon – 11 p.m.
Friday & Saturday Oct. 17 – 18: 9 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Friday & Saturday Oct. 24 – 25: 9 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Sunday-Thursday Oct. 19 – 23: 9 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 26: 9 a.m. – 11 p.m.
You must be inside the gates before 9:45 p.m., and no one will be able to reenter after 9:45 p.m.
Deals and Discounts
Military Discount
Any active-duty service members, reservists, retirees, National Guardsmen and their dependents (ages 13-64) pay only $8 daily at the gate. Veterans are offered the same discount for themselves, plus one discounted ticket for a guest or dependent, for a total of two tickets at the reduced rate.
See list of accepted ID.
Weekday Lunch Pass Program
You can also take a midday break and enjoy the fair for free! On any weekday, adult visitors can enter the fairgrounds at no cost between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. by using Gates 9 (off Trinity Road) or Gate 1 (off Hillsborough Street).
To participate, purchase a $20 lunch card at the gate (cash only) and explore the variety of fair food vendors, who accept both cash and credit cards. ATMs are available on-site for added convenience.
Be sure to return the lunch card at the same gate by 1:30 p.m. to receive a full cash refund. These lunch cards are valid only on the day of purchase.
New Entertainment
This year’s new Wild West-style roping and knife-throwing show by cowboy and world’s fastest draw champion Andy Rotz promises “plenty of trick roping, fire, gun slinging, and hold-your-breath moments.”
You’ll also find new entertainment like the Conjurer Fortune Machine, a live interactive “Zoltar”-style fortune experience, and the return of Cast in Bronze, a Carillon musical performance.
Plus, the Powers Great American Midway is bringing some exciting new rides this year, including the Colossus, The Flip Side, and Kamikaze.
Transportation and Parking
Free parking is available at the State Fair and Carter-Finley Football Stadium, as well as Lenovo Center for most days.
There is also free off-site parking at the Dogwood Lot (4501 Reedy Creek Road) and Cardinal Lot (5766 Chapel Hill Road). These will run Oct. 16 from 11 a.m. until one hour after gates close, and Oct. 17 – 26 from 9 a.m. until one hour after gates close.
Free shuttles, which will run continuously, are available near these lots:
- Cardinal Lot: drop-off/pick-up at the new Gate 7 off Youth Center Drive
- Dogwood Lot: drop-off/pick-up across Trinity Road at Gate 8
Neighboring residents also frequently convert parts of their property into small parking lots. This is not controlled by the fair.
AMTRAK will also operate a special train stop right in front of Gate 1 at the fair.
Full information about parking, park and ride locations, and hours can be found here.
Clear Bag Policy
The state fair clear bag policy will continue to be in place this year.
Those who have a clear bag will go through security much quicker. Any size or type of clear bag is acceptable. If you don’t have a clear bag, you will go through the bag search line.
Outside food and drink, water bottles, diaper bags with baby/toddler supplies and medications are allowed. Alcoholic beverages, drugs, firearms, knives, brass knuckles, batons and/or weapons of any type are not allowed.
Special Event Days
Wolfpack Day – Oct. 17
Current students at NC State get $8 admission by showing their student ID card at the gate.
Sensory Day presented by Bandwidth – Oct. 19
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., this is what you can expect:
Rides and games will operate with no lights or music playing, as well as vendors at their booths. Music will only play acoustic sets with light amplification.
The public address system will only be used for lost visitor announcements.
Senior Citizens’ Day – Oct. 21
People ages 65 and older get free admission to the fair.
Starting at 9 a.m., Bojangles’ biscuits and coffee will be served on the Dorton Patio near the Waterfall at the Senior Fun Fest. After that, there will be a program with Commissioner Steve Troxler and music at 10 a.m.
Duke Energy Military Appreciation Day – Oct. 23
The state fair will pay tribute to members of the U.S. Military. There will be a parade at 10: a.m., starting in the carnival midway. It will then go through Kiddieland, past the Scott Building and back to the midway.
Military Appreciation Day at the North Carolina State Fair took place Wednesday against the backdrop of troops preparing to deploy to the Middle East.
Smithfield Foods Hunger Relief Day – Oct. 23
Bring six cans of food to the fair gates and get into the NC State Fair for free!
Six canned goods will get you in for free.
Hunger Relief Day dates back to 1993 at the fair. Since then, according to their website, fairgoers have donated 6 million pounds of food to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and its partners.
It has become one of the largest one-day canned food drives in the state.
For more information on special event days, visit the NC State Fair website.
Copyright © 2025 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
North Carolina
NC Foundation at center of I-Team Troubleshooter investigation could face contempt charge
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — New details in an I-Team investigation into a Durham foundation accused of not paying its employees.
The North Carolina Department of Labor filed a motion in court to try to force the Courtney Jordan Foundation, CJF America, to provide the pay records after the state agency received more than 30 complaints from former employees about not getting paid.
The ABC11 I-Team first told you about CJF and its problems paying employees in July. The foundation ran summer camps in Durham and Raleigh, and at the time, more than a dozen workers said they didn’t get paid, or they got paychecks that bounced. ABC11 also talked to The Chicken Hut, which didn’t get paid for providing meals to CJF Durham’s summer camps, but after Troubleshooter Diane Wilson’s involvement, The Chicken Hut did get paid.
The NC DOL launched their investigation, and according to this motion filed with the courts, since June thirty one former employees of CJF filed complaints with the agency involving pay issues. Court documents state that, despite repeated attempts from the wage and hour bureau requesting pay-related documents from CJF, and specifically Kristen Picot, the registered agent of CJF, CJF failed to comply.
According to this motion, in October, an investigator with NC DOL was contacted by Picot, and she requested that the Wage and Hour Bureau provide a letter stating that CJF was cooperating with the investigation and that repayment efforts were underway by CJF. Despite several extensions, the motion says Picot repeatedly exhibited a pattern of failing to comply with the Department of Labor’s investigation. The motion even references an ITEAM story on CJFand criminal charges filed against its executives.
The NC DOL has requested that if CJF and Picot fail to produce the requested documentation related to the agency’s investigation, the employer be held in civil contempt for failure to comply. Wilson asked the NC Department of Labor for further comment, and they said, “The motion to compel speaks for itself. As this is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
ABC11 Troubleshooter reached out to Picot and CJF America, but no one has responded. At Picot’s last court appearance on criminal charges she faces for worthless checks, she had no comment then.
Out of all the CJF employees we heard from, only one says he has received partial payment.
Copyright © 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Kate Barr is a Democrat.
But when voters in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District open their ballots in the March primary they’ll find an “R” next to her name.
She is literally a RINO or Republican In Name Only.
Barr considers herself a Democrat but said she’s running as a Republican to make a point about gerrymandering.
“Fundamentally… I hate gerrymandering. That is pretty much my core motivation for everything I do in politics,” Barr told Spectrum News 1.
The district, west of Charlotte, is solidly Republican.
The current congressman won by 16 points last election.
Barr said it speaks to just how gerrymandered North Carolina is. State Republican lawmakers recently approved a congressional map that favors Republicans in 11 of the state’s 14 congressional districts.
That’s in a state that only voted for President Donald Trump by three points in 2024 and elected a Democrat for governor.
“When the North Carolina state legislature passed the new congressional maps that further gerrymandered this state it became clear there has to be a political price for this behavior,” Barr said.
This is not the first unusual campaign for Barr.
In 2024 she ran as a Democrat in a district that heavily favored Republicans. The focus again was to draw attention to gerrymandering.
Her motto was “Kate Barr can’t win.”
She did not win, losing by 30 points.
But Barr was encouraged by some of the results she saw and in November launched her campaign for Congress.
This time she decided to run as a Republican.
She’s hoping that gives her an edge because in North Carolina voters not registered with either major party, known as unaffiliated, are the largest voting block in the state, and can participate in the Democrat or Republican primaries.
“Voters understand that the way to have a say is to choose which primary is actually going to elect their leader and vote in that primary,” Barr said. “I can absolutely win in this one… because primary turnout is so low it just doesn’t take that many people showing up and saying we’ve had enough to unseat an incumbent.”
Barr faces former North Carolina Speaker of the House and incumbent Republican congressman Tim Moore. His campaign told Spectrum News 1 that “Kate Barr’s latest stunt is an insult to Republican voters. Folks know a far-left fraud when they see one, and she doesn’t belong in our primary.”
Whether she wins or not, Barr hopes to encourage a fix to gerrymandering, an issue that’s front and center in North Carolina and around the country.
“Gerrymandering is wrong no matter which party is doing it, and we need to put an end to it. Period,” Barr said. “The goal, end result, is to have an independent commission in every state made up of citizens.”
Follow us on Instagram at spectrumnews1nc for news and other happenings across North Carolina.
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