Overview The South Dakota State Fair is six days of livestock shows, 4-H and FFA judging, grandstand concerts and bull riding over Labor Day in Huron, on a 190-acre fairground where more than 1,900 campers stayed on the grounds in 2025. The state's Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources runs it. The first fair was held in Huron in 1885, by act of the territorial legislature; it moved between Mitchell, Aberdeen, Sioux Falls and Yankton for twenty years before settling in Huron for good in 1905, on 85 acres deeded by the Chicago and North Western Railway. The grounds now carry more than 100 buildings and host over 130 events a year. On site The grandstand carries the ticketed shows. Free stages spread across the grounds, among them the NorthWestern Energy Freedom Stage, the Farm Bureau Dakotaland Stage, the DeSmet Farm Mutual Insurance Stage and the Midway Roadhouse, alongside a beer garden, a wine pavilion and the Tap Haus. The Independent Midway carnival, antique tractors, the Expo Building and the Dakota Marketplace fill the rest, and Flippenout's extreme trampoline shows ran through the 2025 fair. The Dakota Events Complex seats up to 5,000 and can hold two full-size rodeo arenas. The SHED, a 40,000-square-foot sheep and multi-use barn, broke ground during the 2024 fair. A sensory-friendly experience is part of the program. Audience Much of the fair is built by kids. In 2025, 4-H display, livestock and youth-in-action entries passed 9,800, and over 1,100 students and teachers from 45 schools came for South Dakota's Largest Classroom, while 55 schools and libraries handed out 8,300 youth admission passes. Open-class exhibitors, close to 1,500 of them, brought more than 8,000 exhibits. Talent and Influencers The Tuff Hedeman Bull Bash opens the grandstand over two nights; over 6,000 people watched it in 2024. Larry the Cable Guy, Lee Brice and The All-American Rejects played the 2025 grandstand. The 2026 grandstand booked The Fray, Nate Smith and Jake Owen, and closed on Labor Day with the Thunder at the Fair Truck and Tractor Pull. Track record Attendance: 211,371 in 2016, 186,255 in 2024, 180,916 in 2025. Fairgoers spent more than $3.2 million on goods, services and concessions in both 2024 and 2025. The grandstand sold 20,836 tickets in 2024, and 20,000 printed event guides went out that year. Brand presence Sponsorship is sold attraction by attraction. A brand can present the Flippenout shows, put its name on the bull riding replays so the announcers call every replay by it, or buy a year-round 15-by-4-foot sign on the front of the grandstand, which the fair says about 275,000 people pass in a year. Display ads rotate on the grandstand video screens at least 15 times a night, and posters and barricade signs go into the fairground bathrooms, the ends of the Independent Midway and the front of the Expo Building. Sponsors produce their own banners and signs, and the fair builds custom packages beyond its menu.