News

Over 1 million attend 2025 Illinois and Du Quoin State Fairs

The manager of the Illinois State Fair says planning is well underway for 2026.

Rebecca Clark says over 1 million people visited the Illinois State Fair and Du Quoin State Fair this year.

“We are pleasantly surprised.”  She says, “We have such loyal, faithful, fair goers. It’s so great to see. This is a family tradition for so many families.”

In a release, Governor JB Pritzker said the attendance demonstrates the value of state fairs, with Springfield welcoming over 723,000, marking the second-largest turnout in its history. 

Clark tells Brownfield that ongoing improvements to the fairgrounds, including the planned demolition of Building 29, should continue the momentum.

“It’s really been the poster child of deferred maintenance on our fairgrounds.”  She says, “And so just to have that blank landscape and to start re-envisioning how we can help our livestock exhibitors on this side of the fairgrounds is so exciting.”

Clark says record-breaking grandstand crowds and increased numbers of exhibitors in some livestock competitions helped boost this year’s attendance numbers despite the hot weather much of the week.

The Du Quoin State Fair drew 282,202 people, breaking the previous record of 204,004 set in 2024. 

As Brownfield previously reported, a recent study conducted by the International Association of Fairs and Expos (IAFE) found that fairs in America’s heartland, defined by IAFE as Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, had a $2.7 billion regional economic impact.