FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — After heat and storms to start this week, fans were ready to get back to the Great Minnesota Get-Together, and on Wednesday, they came out in historic numbers.
The Minnesota State Fair set a new attendance record for the only Wednesday date of the fair's 12-day run. This year, 145,531 people passed through the gates, beating the former record of 144,940 set in 2018.
This is the third time this season attendance has broken records. Both the first and second days also saw more guests than ever.
Then, we saw significant heat Sunday and Monday followed by storms that caused the fair to open late on Tuesday morning. On Monday, the fair saw only 80,546 guests, down more than 63,000 from the 2017 record. Despite the storms, Tuesday saw just about 9,000 guests below the 2019 record.
The most attended fair day ever was the second Saturday of 2018 when 270,426 got together at the fairgrounds.
Fairgoers on Thursday are likely enjoying the warm weather and breeze we've seen so far, but later Thursday afternoon, Minnesotans should be ready to see more severe weather in the region.
