2016 Minnesota State Fair Sets Overall Attendance Record

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The 2016 Great Minnesota Get-Together was one for the record books.

Officials with the Minnesota State Fair said Tuesday that a total of 1,943,719 attended the Great Minnesota Get-Together. That makes it the most attended State Fair in history and it breaks the previous record, set in 2014.

On Sunday, the State Fair only needed about 40,000 people to shatter the previous overall attendance record for 1.8 million, set in 2014.

This year also marked the most attended day in State Fair history. Officials say 260,374 attended the fair on Saturday, Sept. 3. It was one of three daily records, with others coming on Friday, Aug. 26 (141,023) and Friday, Sept. 2 (182,926).

Fair officials said more than 158,000 people attended the State Fair on Labor Day.

The large crowds even tested the ability of some vendors to keep up with demand.

"You don't want to run out. We get beer every night, food every night get delivered to us. And employee wise I have a lot of family who jump in," David Theisen, of the Ball Park Café, said.

Fair organizers said this year's mild weather certainly helped, but they also said new technology used to track attendance is giving them more accurate numbers compared to the old method of weighing ticket stubs.