The North Carolina State Fair closed Sunday night with 946,811 people through the gates, a strong showing that still came in below last year’s total.

The 11-day run drew crowds through mostly good weather from October 16 to 26. Attendance was down from the 998,926 who came in 2024 and ran about 8,000 below the 10-year average. Monday and Tuesday were unusually busy, posting the second-largest Monday and third-largest Tuesday on record.

Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler called it a very strong year and said attendance is not the only measure the department uses to judge the fair.

The daily spread followed its usual shape. The smallest crowd, 41,287, came on opening Thursday, and the largest, 116,426, on the final Saturday. Weather is typically the deciding factor: in 2023, rain on the first Saturday held that day to 62,501 against 115,586 on a sunny first Saturday the year before.

Competition for attention came from downtown this year, with concerts at the Lenovo Center pulling crowds during fair week.

The fair had its share of incidents and controversies. On the first Thursday, the Vertigo spinning chair ride stopped midair because of low voltage, leaving riders suspended for 45 minutes before a manual evacuation. A Department of Agriculture spokesperson said the ride came to a controlled stop and no one was at risk. Earlier in the month, the Raleigh Jaycees announced the end of the fair’s long-running Turkey Shoot.

The all-time attendance record remains 1,091,887, set in 2010. The fair has run in Raleigh since 1853 and occupies 344 acres off Trinity Road.