New Mexico: In Albuquerque about 50 Miles from Santa Fe.
Kentucky: Louisville, about 55 miles from Frankfort. The KY State Fair Midway is also Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom the rest of the year.
Here ya go, a listing of fairs in each state.
Mississippi has 13 fairs listed there, including a State Fair, a Tri-state Fair, a central mississippi fair, a south mississippi fair, and a north mississippi State Fair.
Wisconsin: in West Allis, about 74 (by Map Quest) miles from Madison
Colorado: in Pueblo, 100 miles from Denver.
My ex-wife and I went frequently. When she was married to her first husband, her son raised goats and sheep for the Massachusetts fair (as already corrected, in W. Springfield), and she enjoyed going on the days when judging happened for those species. I just sat next to her and expressed bewilderment: “Donna, why is he grabbing that goat by the balls? Donna, she’s not really sticking her finger up that sheep’s ass, is she?” And so on.
The State Fair of West Virginia is in Lewisburg, about 112 miles from Charleston, the capital.
:eek: Gee whillikers, but you scared me! You had me thinking they’d gone and moved it since I moved out of state! {Oh, Michigan, my Michigan <hums loudly>}
But they haven’t.
(from here)
It’s been in Detroit for (IIRC) a century or more, or at least many decades (like, before I was born, which was during WWII). Of course, I wouldn’t call Woodward & 8 Mile in Detroit “centrally located”. It’s practically as far in the SE corner as it can get! Bureaucrats, hmmmmph!! :smack:
The site is a large acreage (the city of Detroit has been rather frustrated in recent years that there’s that much land from which it can derive no revenues; the complaints got louder after “outstate” visitors {read=farmers & their reps} started complaining about illegal activities on the periphery. The Detroit City Council would love to redevelop that nice, big plot.) with a number of large, permanent buildings, which were probably built during the depression by one of FDR’s employment programs. The premises, or parts thereof, are rented out for other events throughout the year - dog shows being the “other event” with which I am most familiar. And, I can tell ya, those big barns are pretty &*(@#$ cold during the winter! <brrrrrr> And that’s what color your fingers turn, when you’re showing a dog (no gloves, etc., in the ring) at a dog show in December or January! :dubious: 
North Carolina has an official state fair in the capital of Raleigh during October. In my neck of the woods, we have the Mountain State Fair, also sponsored by the state Department of Agriculuture, for a week in September. Fried green tomatoes, roller coasters, and llamas…I can’t wait!
What’s really fun about the New Mexico State Fairgrounds is that they are in the middle of Albuquerque and actually about three miles from my house. And I mean really in the middle of the city–it’s bordered by Central, Louisiana, San Pedro, and Lomas. There’s a big wall all around it.
Also: South Dakota: in Huron, 116 miles from Pierre (pronounced PEER).
BTW, in SC, “State Fair” has absolutely nothing to do with any official sanctioning of the State. The South Carolina State Fair is just the name of the company that brings in the fair operators. It’s probably that way in a lot of states, too.
The Big E isn’t just marketed to other states; all of the New England states (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, and VT) are active participants. You can walk down the Avenue of States and see life-size replicas of each New England state’s original statehouse sitting on land actually owned by that state. Reportedly each building is akin to an embassy, and when in the New Hampshire building, you are legally in New Hampshire. To that end, they sell NH lottery tickets in their building, for example.
So you can steal something out of the Vermont building and hit a security guard and then run into the New Hampshire building and demand that you only be turned over to the local authorities if you are extradited?
I don’t know if states can grant extraterritorial status to other states.
Nor do I, hence the “reportedly” in my previous post. They do sell New Hampshire lottery tickets in their building, though, which is not done anywhere else outside of New Hampshire, so far as I’m aware. In fact, the NH Lottery is one of the official exhibitors for the NH state building.
Alabama: Birmingham, 91 miles north of Montgomery
Vermont: Rutland, 67 miles south of Montpelier
In New England, they don’t seem to have a tradition of an official state fair, instead having various local fairs, some of which have gained prominence, and the title “state fair.” Vermont is the only one of these where the state’s name is included in the title of the fair, which is nonetheless run by a local organization. Connecticut and Rhode Island do not appear to have any state fair, while
New Hampshire has the Hopkinton State Fair, in Contoocook 16 miles W of Concord, and
Maine has the Bangor State Fair, 77 miles NE of Augusta.
Likewise Pennsylvania seems to have a lot of local fairs, one of which refers to itself as “The State Fair”, in Bensalem 115 miles E of Harrisburg.
The New Jersey State Fair® is in Augusta, 85 miles N of Trenton, but should not be confused with the Bennigan’s State Fair Meadowlands, 66 miles N of Trenton.
In Idaho they have the Eastern Idaho State Fair, in Blackfoot, 255 miles E of Boise. And the Western Idaho Fair, in Boise.
Some other state fair locations:
Oregon - Salem
Minnesota - St Paul
Iowa - Des Moines
Utah - Salt Lake City
Virginia - Richmond
Kansas - Hutchinson, 177 miles SW of Topeka
Florida - Tampa, 278 miles S of Tallahassee
A good resource for state fair dates and links is
http://www.fairdates.com/
Yeah. And this time of year, you can drive out to the produce stands east of Pueblo on US50 and experience a true delight - the smell of fresh chili peppers being fire roasted, bushel at a time. Man I miss that!
tpayne, former Pueblo (and Sphinx Park) Colorado resident
The “state fair” that’s held in Harrisburg is officially the state Farm Show.
It’s interesting that when I was growing up in Altoona, PA, that Blair County never had a county fair, while the surrounding counties always did. It never dawned on me that this was because Blair was probably the most urban county in between Dauphin and Allegheny and county fairs are primarily agricultural in nature.
Hey, I was a city boy!
You know there’s actually only 48 states.
In addition to what has been noted above, Fryeburg, Maine has the Fryeburg Fair, which, according to their website, is “…Maine’s largest agricultural fair complete with six days of harness racing, a farm museum second to none, the world’s largest steer and oxen show and a reputation known throughout North America.”
Fryeburg is about 85 miles from Augusta, and is practically on the New Hampshire border.
The wife and I stumbled upon the Fryeburg Fair during our honeymoon. Lobster-on-a-stick…yum!!