Overview The Florida State Fair is the first state fair held in the United States each calendar year: twelve February days in Tampa that put more than 90 midway rides beside the livestock barns, the Creative Living competitions and Cracker Country, a living-history village of original rural Florida buildings from 1870 to 1912. It opened in 1904 in downtown Tampa as the South Florida Fair, took its current name in 1915, and moved in 1977 to the grounds at Interstate 4 and U.S. 301. The Florida State Fair Authority, created by the Legislature in 1975, runs the fair and the 330-plus-acre fairgrounds, which host hundreds of other events a year: Live Nation concerts at the 20,000-seat MIDFLORIDA Amphitheatre, trade shows and consumer expos in halls of up to 87,000 square feet, and horse shows at the 23-acre Bob Thomas Equestrian Center. The fairgrounds get no operating money from the state. On site Wade Shows runs the midway. The agricultural side covers livestock shows, the rabbit and poultry barn and the fair's Ag at the Fair programming, and Cracker Country stays on the grounds year-round. The 2026 fair ran 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with bluegrass, country and rock on its stages, circus acts, motorcycle daredevils, sea lions and jugglers, and new foods that included a deep-fried Cuban burrito and a Dubai chocolate funnel cake. The fairgrounds also carry three outdoor show rings, a 60,000-square-foot covered arena, five barn complexes, campgrounds and botanical gardens. Track record The 2025 fair drew 398,000 guests and set several attendance records. Advance sales reached 59,000 tickets, the most the fair had sold, and midway sales passed $5 million for the third time. That year's paid campaign delivered 89 million impressions, up 11.5% on 2024, and the fair launched its own mobile app, downloaded more than 10,000 times. Brand presence Partnerships are sold two ways. At fair time, the top level takes a major attraction or event, official partner status and a place in the fair's $375,000 paid-media campaign; a corporate sponsor takes an attraction, promotion or stage with its own activation, signage, PA reads, daily use of the hospitality room and invitations to the Governor's Luncheon; and a friend of the fair gets activation space and recognition on gate signage and in the visitor's guide. Year-round, brands can put permanent signage on the grounds or buy naming rights to an arena or exhibit building. The fair's in-house team builds the creative and takes trade and in-kind deals; in 2025 its campaign ran on billboards and on point-of-sale displays in Wawa stores.