The State Fair Advisory Committee met last week to discuss the impact of the 2025 state fair and challenges members hope to address before next summer.
Cindy Hoye, Indiana State Fair Commission executive director, shared statistics from the 2025 fair—which drew 854,977 attendees in 15 days, a slight increase over 2024's attendance—as well as plans for renovation of the fair campus.
One topic of conversation for the committee was the renovation of the Hoosier Lottery Grandstand. Currently seating roughly 14,000, the Grandstand will be rebuilt to hold a more smaller audience of around 5,000.
“So the rationale behind it is we've taken a look the last three to four years, from band attendance, from tractor pull attendance, from harness racing and the rodeo, and have found that the maximum tickets that we have ever sold is around 4,000, so we think by coming back with a 5,000 seat facility would accommodate the events that are using that space,” said Hoye.
While the fair brought in over 850,000 guests this summer, one shortfall mentioned by guests was the price of concessions.
Rep. Beau Baird, R-Greencastle, agreed. “I would personally echo that concern, I took my nephew—he wanted to try the specialty pizza. I think it was $18, $19, $20 for a slice, and I was thinking, I could buy two large pizzas back home for that,” he said.