I honestly don’t know where to even begin. BUT, let me at least try to give you a few helpful tips if you are planning on checking this place out in the next few days.

My kids LOVE the fair. I mean, really love it. Like probably as much as Magic Kingdom.

The NC State Fair runs for two weeks in mid-October.

We bought discount tickets a few days before the fair began at Food Lion. We purchased 2 adult tickets (kids under 5 have free admission) and 3 ride sheets. 1 sheet is 18 tickets. That ended up being enough for us. We could have rode more if we had more tickets- sure. But after 2-3 hours my kids were spent.

So, the kiddie rides. There is a carousel, a mini roller coaster (my daughter LOVED it!), lots of ride some sort of vehicle around a track rides and other mini versions of big kid/adult rides. A couple of trains as well.

For almost all the rides, kids have to be at least 32 inches (there are a couple of exceptions, not many though). To ride some of the bigger kiddie rides, 36 inch height is needed. My short little 2 year old barely made it past the 32 inch ride requirement and my daughter was just at 36 inches. So a good year for us to go. Some rides require a parent ride too, especially for the under 36 inch high crowd. Some of these rides charge the adult tickets and some of them allow an adult to ride free with child. No rhyme or reason as far as I could see as to which rides did which. My daughter did ride the adult Ferris wheel with her dad and they only took tickets from one person (7 tickets for that ride!!).

Speaking of tickets, according to their website most kiddie rides require 2-4 tickets. I did not see any 2 ticket rides. Maybe the giant slide? I am not sure, we didn’t scope it out.  Most rides were 3 tickets. So it adds up fast.

We went on a Friday and were fortunate enough to not have to wait in lines.

There is also an area for the kids to check out livestock and we saw the cutest group of piglets fighting over their mom. Mom pig looked like she had given up ever restoring any order to the chaos of piglets. I feel ya, mamma. The livestock area was SO crowded though that it was really hard to see much. Unfortunately no pics of cute piglets.

So here’s the bottom line on what you need to know:

• STROLLER. This fair is BIG and requires much walking
• Parking was $15
• You can bring in your own food/beverages
• LOTS of fair food. Seriously, like more that I have ever seen is available.
• Several places were offering $1 refills on drinks as long as you already had a cup. It didn’t matter where the original drink was purchased. Perhaps they would refill your personal cup? I don’t know for sure.
• bring cash. You go through lots of it. Fast.
• 3 sheets of tickets (54 total) was good for my 32 and 36 inch kids. You could get by with 2 sheets if you were more choosy, we let our kids ride a couple of favorites twice.
• Unlimited ride bands are $35. For younger kids I don’t know that you could get your moneys worth.

So is it worth the traffic, parking and expense? Depends on your family, but for mine it definitely is 🙂