PRESS RELEASE
The Alaska State Fair celebrated its 80th birthday at the 2016 event, which took place August 25th–September 5th at the fairgrounds in Palmer.
An estimated 293,424 people came to help the fair celebrate in 2016. This was down from 299,698 last year, but on par with the 293,827 fairgoers in 2014. Following the historical trend, Saturday was the most popular day to visit, with attendance of 19,064 on the first Saturday and 22,337 the second.
A total of 26,294 music-lovers attended the AT&T Concert Series this year, compared to 31,986 attendees last year. A total of 5,150 fairgoers attended the rapper G-Eazy concert, making it the most popular performance, followed by The Band Perry and Volbeat.
After a 16-year hiatus, monster trucks returned to the fair, drawing sell-out crowds to the Grandstand. The All Star Monster Truck Tour made its debut at the 2016 Fair, with 5,327 fairgoers attending.
In celebration of its 80th birthday, the fair raffled off a commemorative fair quilt, with all proceeds benefiting the fair scholarship fund. Lorraine Stotts was the lucky winner of the quilt, which featured artwork designed by Alaska artist, Ruth Hulbert, and was sewn by local quilter, Kathy Rockey.
The quilt raffle brought in $3,990 for the fair scholarship fund. Those funds, combined with the proceeds from the fair’s Concert Kick-Off Party in April and the Cabbage Classic Lottery, will allow the fair to triple scholarship awards to Alaska high school students in 2017.
The 2017 Alaska State Fair will take place August 24th–September 4th.
Find more highlights of the 2016 Fair on the fair website. For more information, please visit alaskastatefair.org or contact Dean Phipps, Fair Director of Marketing and Communications, at dean@alaskastatefair.org or 907.746.7153.