Gov. Kehoe proclaims Missouri State Fair ‘Great American Fair’ as celebrations kick off Thursday
Jazsmin Halliburton
SEDALIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri State Fair kicked off in Sedalia Thursday, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend over the next week and a half. The theme of the fair this year is Step On In.
Governor Mike Kehoe proclaimed the fair a “Great American Fair” at the kick off ceremony Thursday morning. This is the first step in what Gov. Kehoe is calling ‘Show-Me 250’ as the United States inches closer to its 250th birthday in 2026.
Leading up to the next Fourth of July, Kehoe said communities across the nation will celebrate 250 years of America. He said the state of Missouri is already celebrating with the Missouri 250 logo being pushed out and drone shows.
This is the Missouri State Fair’s 123rd year and hot temperatures mixed with thousands of people and 11 days of action can leave plenty possibility for some things to go wrong.
The fair is the state’s biggest agricultural showcase and can bring more than 30,000 attendees each day. In 2023, the fair broke the record for total attendees, with just under 350,000 people attending. In 2024, 345,643 people attended the fair.
Fair attendees will generally see the most traffic around the fairgrounds near the entrances. The entrances to the fair can be found at these locations:
Centennial Gate entrance – Hwy 65
Main Gate entrance – 16th St.
Gate 11 entrance – Hwy 65
Gate 6 entrance – Clarendon Rd.
General parking can be found along W. 16th St. and Hwy 65.
For those who choose to take the Amtrak to Sedalia for the fair, expect to see traffic around the train station in the morning and evenings on Main St. and S. Limit Ave.
Local, county and state first responders will be on site at the fairgrounds to keep visitors safe over the next week and a half.
Members of the Missouri State Fair’s Volunteer Fire Department have been coming together for nearly 65 years just to serve the state fair exclusively.
“This year we have 74 different departments represented here with personnel and we are going to average about 80 members each day at the fair,” said Larry Eggen, the spokesperson for the department.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol also assisting with work around the clock.
“We want to make sure that we have security going on 24 hours. So we have got a night squad and the day squad,” said Cpl. Justin Howard. “We have nine troops around the state of Missouri, and we’ve brought in a lot of members and personnel here to the state fair just for operational reasons.”
Emergency Medical Services and fire officials tell ABC 17 News they feel confident with the string of protocols on site.
“If you get sick our EMS serves our first aid, and we have our DMAT. They are like an urgent care, basically a little higher up than our first aid and then if they can’t help you, then we go to Bothwell with the patients,” Eggen said.
The “DMAT Tent” a Disaster Medical Assistant Team is set up with beds, monitors and an X-ray machine. Eggen said heat is important to plan for outside of physical injuries.
“We’ve had as many as 40 people, 40 calls in a day, the heat related,” Eggen said.
Seven water stations are set up around the fair grounds to help fairgoers cool down and beat the heat. The Missouri State Fair Foundation is also selling water bottles for $1 around the fair grounds.
“We’ll sell approximately 70,000 bottles in a week. There’s 32 pallets over there right now for this initial run and four pallets of Gatorade,” said Bret Kuhns with the foundation.
The money from the water bottle sales goes back into the state fair grounds.
Gates will be open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. If you are entering after 10 p.m., fairgoers will want to use the entrance on Clarendon Rd.
Box office hours will be from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Carnival area will be from Monday-Friday, 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to Midnight.