SC State Fair

A visitor's guide to the Friendly Midway, Columbia, SC, an area Where Friendliness Flows

S.C. State Fair

October 10 through 21, 2007

This year, the South Carolina State Fair will be held October 10 through 21, at the State Fairgrounds in Columbia.

The Fair was established and continues to be presented each year by the State Agricultural and Mechanical Society of South Carolina. This society, with its predecessors, dates back to 1839. Buildings were erected with an initial $5,000 appropriation from the Legislature. These buildings were occupied by the Confederate army and used to manufacture Civil War munitions. In 1865, Sherman's army burned the buildings.

In 1869, the city of Columbia reconstructed the buildings, and the Legislature appropriated $2,500 annually to assist the Society. The original location on Elmwood Avenue grew too small for the event, so in 1904 the fair was moved to its present location on Bluff Road.

In 1912, the Hippodrome Building, which housed the Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk in 1907, was purchased and moved to Columbia. The building was destroyed by fire in 1966 and replaced by the present buildings.

Today, the South Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Society has full responsibility for the operation of the fair. Although it's called a "State Fair", it is not state-owned and receives no monetary support from the state.

The Society has 6 buildings, totaling more than 125,000 square feet of space. The prizes offered for the annual state fair have grown from $5,000 in 1882 to a quarter-million dollars today. At the same time, attendance has increased from 3,000 to almost 600,000.

For more information, including a schedule of events, history of the fair, and pictures of previous fairs, go to the State Fair website at SCStateFair.org .