Overview The Wilson County - Tennessee State Fair is a ten-day August agricultural fair in Lebanon, east of Nashville, and in 2025 its fairgoers came from all 95 Tennessee counties, all 50 states and 25 countries. It is the Tennessee State Fair and the Wilson County Fair run as one: the state fair left the Nashville Fairgrounds after 2019 over room for parking, the midway and livestock, and merged into the county fair in 2021. Wilson County Promotions runs it on the James E. Ward Agricultural Center, a property of about 350 acres. On site Nine stages are spread across the grounds, among them the Opry Stage, the Hee Haw Wagon Stage, the Back Porch Stage and the Hometown USA Stage. The motorized events include a Super Pull, an antique and farm stock tractor pull, a monster truck show, a jump-and-run derby, go-kart races and a kids' four-wheeler rodeo. Fiddlers Grove, a permanent village of more than 50 restored and replica 19th-century buildings - schoolhouse, blacksmith, general store, church - sits on the grounds and is open with fair admission. The midway runs kiddie, major and adult spectacular rides until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Each year takes a theme: in 2025 it was Goin' Hog Wild and Bacon Memories, and 2026 marked America 250 and a Year of Forestry. Audience The gate swings hard on weekends. In 2025 the opening Thursday drew 33,592 and midweek days ran around 36,000, while the first Saturday drew 127,315 and the closing Saturday 145,882; another 77,490 came on season tickets. Competitors are a crowd of their own: 15,260 exhibitors entered 29,981 items, 4-H and FFA members made 2,494 entries across 32 competitions, and livestock exhibitors came from across Tennessee and beyond. Track record The fair counts 2025 as the second-largest crowd in its history, behind a 2024 record of more than 860,000; the pre-merger high was 589,229 in 2013. In 2025 it ran 158 livestock shows with 6,404 livestock entries, paid $242,250.66 in premiums, worked with 3,388 volunteers who logged 131,722 hours, and hosted 127 concessionaires, 155 commercial vendors and 58 parade entries. The fair's website drew 512,098 users that year, up 69% on 2024, and it expanded Tennessee's Largest Outdoor Classroom, its education program for students. Brand presence The fair counted 211 sponsors in 2025, from a title sponsor - Mid-South Ford Dealers for 2026 - down to a long list of local businesses, banks, healthcare providers and farm services. Partnerships are sold at four levels, from presenting partner down to community partner. Each fair day carries its own sponsor spotlight in the wrap-up, and the fair's own campaign ran on 20 billboards across Tennessee in 2025.