The North Carolina State Fair

Instagram vs. Reality

I’m endlessly fascinated by the Instagram vs. reality photos and reels that circulate on social media. And, as I posted my own Instagram photos of the North Carolina State Fair last week, I thought it would be fun to do my own version.

So here it is—the Instagram view:

Now, for the reality, the thing that always seems a little… disappointing when it’s next to the Instagram version.

The reality is: I love the North Carolina State Fair.

Is it crowded? Yes. Is it expensive? Yes. Is parking sometimes a nightmare? Also, yes. Does a State Fair experience usually include getting jostled by people, trying to ignore that one concession purchase contains a week’s worth of calories, and explaining to your kids for the thousandth time that, no, you aren’t going to spend endless amounts of cash on all the games you want to play? Yes, yes, and yes. Did my feet feel like they would fall off by the time we finally made it back to our car?¹ Once again, yes.

But I don’t care. I love the State Fair.

I love seeing what ridiculous new foods the vendors come up with each year: deep-fried everything, Krispy Kreme burgers, and increasingly more bizarre flavor combinations (like dill pickle funnel cakes—who thinks of this stuff?). I love walking around the Village of Yesteryear, seeing old-timey artisans at work on their craft. I love climbing inside the school bus fitted with seats from different decades and showing my kids what school buses used to look like (they were especially amazed by the photo on display that showed a horse-drawn school bus). I enjoy meandering through the same display of vintage tractors and farm equipment every year. I can’t get enough of the giant pumpkins or standing by the incubator watching baby chicks hatch.

2019 NC State Fair

I could take or leave most of the rides, though my kids would disagree (and the younger version of myself would, too). But the art—I love the art. Wandering through the garden show, walking up and down the aisles of amateur photography and painting, seeing the creative ways people decorate their pumpkins—I’m here for all of it. Every year, I say I’m going to take a day to go to the fair by myself during the week so I can take my time appreciating all of the art. I have yet to make it happen, but one of these days, it will.

The State Fair has been a fixture in my life for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, my church had a booth on the now-extinct “Restaurant Row.”² When I was in middle school and high school, my friends and I would strategically sign up to work shifts at the fair booth—which meant free entry plus a shuttle ride that dropped you off right at the gate and sometimes a free meal, too—and then catch a later shuttle back, after we’d had our fill of riding Top Spin and Gravitron and catching the fireworks show. We mostly handled the waitressing jobs, though once, when I was 18 or 19, I got to help with making our famous ham biscuits—that was a real honor!

I loved that ancient little row of buildings; the people who would come every year for their ham biscuit, the man next door who spent ten days every October announcing, “Do you want some piiiiiiiiiiiieeeee? Come and get your piiiiiieeeeeeeeee.”

2022 NC State Fair

Eating at the church fair booth was always a must-do for me at the State Fair, but the booth closed for good post-pandemic (after a 100+ year run). My kids got to eat there a couple of times, but they were young—I doubt they’ll remember. It makes me a little sad—change is hard sometimes.

Speaking of change, did I grumble a little when the ride tickets this year were actually reloadable cards instead of tickets, with a $1 fee for every card you purchased? Absolutely.

But then my 10-year-old and I boarded the State Fair Flyer for the first time and the view took my breath away (score one for new traditions).

1. According to my Apple Watch, I walked 11.19 miles (24,648 steps) on our State Fair day. Not all of those steps were at the fair—but a whole lot of them were!

2. Did I cry a little on the inside this year when I walked past the place “The Home of the Original Ham Biscuit” once occupied, only to see the landscape changed, tents where a rickety old building should be? I most certainly did.