Overview The South Carolina State Fair fills 104 acres beside Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia with 11 October days of midway rides, livestock, fair food and competitions, and its meeting spot is the Rocket, which went up by the north entrance in 1969 and gave the fair's official history its title, Meet Me at the Rocket. The fair has run every year since 1869 except 1918, when influenza closed it, and it stayed open through World War II. It is the official state fair but not part of state government: a self-supporting 501(c)(3) run by the State Agricultural and Mechanical Society of South Carolina, which awards $500,000 in college scholarships a year. On site The grounds hold six exhibit halls, eight livestock arenas and barns and 125,000 square feet of indoor commercial exhibit space, including the 36,000-square-foot Goodman Building by the south gate. Competitions run from 4-H students showing their animals to senior citizens entering home crafts and gardening. The 1,000-seat Pepsi Place Stage near Nutt Cattle Arena books local and regional acts, a daily circus took over the 5,000-seat Grandstand from national touring acts in 2019, and food tents carry stages of their own. Hampton Plaza, by the Rosewood Drive gate, is green space for eating outdoors. Most visitors park in Lexington Health Fair Park, 4,105 spaces on nearly 40 acres. Audience The gate calendar shows who comes when. Children five and under get in free every day, and weekday Lunch Bunch admission is free from noon to 2. Physics Day, Future Farmers of America Day and 4-H days bring school and farm groups on their own dates, and there are Military Appreciation Days, an Exceptional Citizens Day for people with disabilities and a Sensory-Friendly Morning. The fair says its visitors come from across the state and the wider Southeast. Track record The fair marked its 150th anniversary in 2019 with a new daily circus. In 2020 it ran as a free two-day drive-through that drew tens of thousands, and in 2021 it lent the grounds for COVID-19 testing and vaccines. It gave $200,000 to flood relief in 2015 and another $200,000 after Hurricane Helene in 2024. The scholarship program opened in 1997 with ten awards of $2,500; it now gives 50 awards of $10,000 a year and has paid out nearly $6.5 million. The fair puts its yearly economic impact at more than $45.5 million, with $16.6 million in wages. Brand presence Partners put their names on the fixed parts of the grounds: Lexington Health on the main parking area, and Pepsi, the official beverage, on the Pepsi Place Stage. Circle K and EMC Tickets add money to the scholarship fund; their $42,314 in 2026 paid for four more $10,000 awards, one reserved for a Circle K employee or dependent. The fair also sells a presenting position on the entry gates and every commercial, naming of the Rocket with repeated PA calls to meet at it, naming of entertainment and food-tent stages, category rights across the grounds and single days of the fair.