The Iowa State Fair set three one-day attendance records on the way to breaking the previous attendance for the 11-day celebration.
From Aug. 8 to 18, 1,170,375 people visited the fairgrounds in Des Moines, according to a fair spokeswoman.
The recipe for records included unseasonably nice weather, an outstanding grandstand lineup, competition from livestock to quilts, new daytime programming, more than 50 new foods, and a parade of presidential hopefuls, she said.
Attendance bested records of 1,130,260 set in 2018 and 1,117,398 set in 2015. The fair consistently has attracted more than 1 million visitors since 2002.
With the exception of Aug. 9, each day’s attendance this year was greater than the same day in 2018.
Three one-day records were set this year: Aug, 13, 14 and 16. The 122,111 attendance Aug. 10 was the second-highest attendance on a Saturday, surpassed only by 127,277 in 1991.
A breakdown of daily attendance:
• Thursday, Aug. 8 — 84,928
• Friday, Aug. 9 — 103,096
• Saturday, Aug. 10 — 122,111
• Sunday, Aug. 11 — 108,283
• Monday, Aug. 12 — 97,682
• Tuesday, Aug. 13 — 102,953
• Wednesday, Aug. 14 — 109,323
• Thursday, Aug. 15 — 104,247
• Friday, Aug 16 — 112,891
• Saturday, Aug. 17 — 119,276
• Sunday, Aug 18 — 105,585