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State Fair Attendance Up From 2012 (So Far)

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (WCCO) – The hot and humid conditions, at least so far, aren't keeping people from going to the Minnesota State Fair.

Officials released attendance numbers for the first three days and so far, the numbers are all up from the same days last year. This year's attendance figures, though, didn't threaten any record daily attendance numbers.

More than 106,000 people attended the "Great Minnesota Get-Together" on opening day this year, that's compared to the record of more than 119,000 on the 2010 opener. Nearly 122,000 were at the State Fair last Friday and on Saturday, nearly 171,000 people attended. The record for day three at the State Fair is more than 202,000, which was set in 1998.

So far over three days, there have been 399,179 attendees at the State Fair. That number is up by more than 26,000 from last year.

Sunday's attendance took a hit compared to last year, with more than 145,000 people attending. In 2012, more than 185,000 people attended the first Sunday of the State Fair. That's likely, officials said, due to the extreme heat and humidity that hit the Twin Cities metro.

That puts the total State Fair attendance going into Monday at more than 545,000 people.

The true test comes this week as the Twin Cities metro will experience extremely hot conditions most of the week. The heat index got well over 100 degrees on Sunday, and on Monday the high temperature is expected to approach 100 degrees. It could feel like up to 110 degrees in some spots with the humidity.

Fair-goers are urged to take precautions with the anticipated heat. Wear light clothing, drink plenty of water and if you're feeling any signs of heat exhaustion, head inside and find air conditioning.

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