High temps, thin crowds don’t kill good vibes for Great American State Fair attendees

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A crowd of people gathered at the Great American State Fair on Thursday stopped to gaze up at the sky as several fighter jets streaked over the National Mall.

Blake Boggs crouched down to his young son’s stroller and pointed up.

“You don’t get to see the Thunderbirds anywhere,” he told The Hill.

Despite the blazing heat, online mockery of attendance and partisan criticism, about a dozen people who spoke to The Hill on Thursday gave rave reviews of the festivities.

Boggs, who is visiting with his family from Grapevine, Texas, said the fair is “all for America.”

“It’s cool to be able to come out here and not just enjoy our nation’s history but each state, and so that’s great,” he said. “Absolutely, I don’t think there’s anything really partisan about that. I mean, if anything, it should be unifying.”

The 16-day fair has transformed the iconic green between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument. Booths representing all 50 states and various federal agencies line the mall, along with a giant Ferris wheel positioned in front of a large-scale model of President Trump’s proposed “Triumphal Arch.”

Many event attendees donned American flag accessories and some wore shirts featuring Trump’s name or “47,” in reference to his role as the 47th president. Most state and department exhibits had no wait time for entry late Thursday morning, although the line for Florida’s booth stretched about a dozen people.

Attendance at the event was notably lower Wednesday midafternoon than it was Thursday, as several attendees told The Hill they had arrived toward the end of the week for the holiday weekend festivities. The crowds picked up later in the day, even as temperatures climbed above 100 degrees.

The president, who kicked off the festivities with a rally last month, has touted the fair as a major success. However, Fox News’s live broadcasts through the week showing largely empty grounds have fueled mockery from critics online.

Several Democratic-led states opted out of the event, with many citing budget restrictions and some expressing concerns about the event’s ties to the White House.

After Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) decided against sending direct representatives to the fair, Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) helped organize a coalition of organizations to represent their state.

Debbie Arrington and Maria Stevens — two Republicans who were visiting the fair with a group from Florida, Texas and Louisiana — said they were “so proud” of Fetterman’s collaboration with his GOP counterpart on the state’s booth.

“Especially the significance of Philadelphia in our country’s history. Really? Pennsylvania decided they didn’t want to be a part of it,” said Raelynn Frederick, who was traveling in the same group.

CNN reported Wednesday that several White House insiders have begun to express fears about attendance at the president’s speech on the Fourth of July, which has delayed the start time of a planned fireworks show and prompted tightened security around the National Mall.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

A spokesperson for the fair’s organizing body, Freedom 250, told The Hill on Wednesday that more than 200,000 people have visited the Great American State Fair and its accompanying FIFA Fan Fest zone, which has hosted World Cup watch parties.

“We invite those praying for empty celebrations to stop being wrong and lazy, and instead join the Americans who continue to arrive each day at the Great American State Fair as our nation looks ahead to the historic Salute to America fireworks spectacular,” Freedom 250 spokesperson Julia Friedland said in a statement.

There’s no doubt that the holiday heat will take a toll on the festivities.

Fair attendees on Thursday swatted branded paper fans and ducked into air-conditioned booths for a reprieve from the heat, helping explain the sparse crowds outside. Freedom 250 handed out free water and several medical tents stood ready to treat attendees affected by the heat.

One woman told Fox 5 that she visited a medical tent and took a dip in a pool meant for baptisms after several of the booths she visited lacked air conditioning and she began “seeing stars.”

“There’s a religious tent because that’s the theme for today, and they had a pool — they’re baptizing people — but thank god they had the pool,” she said. “They said, ‘Do you want to get in?’ I said, ‘Yes, I think I do.’”

Just after noon Thursday, representatives at Texas’s booth closed their exhibit doors after a power outage.

“Temporarily closed sorry!!!” a sign on the door read, while another told attendees that the closure was only temporarily and encouraged them to “come back in a little bit.”

Kim and Jim Reed, who brought their two kids to the fair from Maryland, remarked that they were “blown away” by the scale of the fair and the types of people they saw visiting the booths.

“I really like how everybody’s here. All different kinds of people, all different orientations, but everyone’s here because we love America and we’re trying to do this together, and I love that,” Kim Reed said. “Like I was expecting it to be not so crowded and maybe more one-sided, but everyone’s here.”

When asked about the concerns of partisanship surrounding the event, Jim Reed said, “It’s OK to love this.”

“I think some people who don’t agree with — or have their own political views — it prevents them from loving this,” he said. “Like, it’s just America. It’s OK.”

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John Fetterman

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