Minnesota State Fair is not on pace for an overall record this year: Here's why that's deceiving

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (FOX 9) - Despite two record-breaking days to start it off, the 2019 Minnesota State Fair is behind pace to break last year’s overall attendance record, but that data could be deceiving.

Through the first three days at the State Fair, 499,655 guests walked through the gates, putting the 2019 fair on pace to welcome 1,998,620 guests by Labor Day.

While 2019’s fair is not on a record-breaking pace right now, the fair has seen more guests in the first three days this year than it did in 2018 and 2017.

401,726 people attended the first three days of the 2017 fair and 452,948 attended the first three days of the 2018 fair.

That put 2017 on a pace of 1,606,905 total guests through three days, but the actual finishing number was 1,997,320.

In 2018, the pace through the first three days was 1,811,792, but the fair eclipsed 2 million visitors, finishing with 2,046,533.

The reason the total attendance often outperforms the first three days’ pace is that the fair picks up steam as it goes along.

In both 2017 and 2018, the last three days of the fair far outpaced the first three days, totaling 668,489 and 683,116 respectively.

So, while the 2019 fair’s pace doesn’t suggest a broken record in 2019, overall attendance trends show that the highest totals are yet to come.