Worth the Wait: Exploring the NC State Fair

The goals of the event?

I wanted to get the students out of their dorms and into the culture of North Carolina. There really is no better representative of what North Carolina is than the yearly State Fair in Raleigh. Through this event, I hoped to show the students on how local events work, what the fair is, and what it means to be in one so widely known in our state. 

If you had to recommend one thing, what would it be?

Bring your own water bottles. Everything sold in the fair was expensive, but water was doubly so. Another thing to remember is to bring cash. While many stalls do have chip readers, there are still some places that still only accept cash. Last but not least, wear comfortable shoes. You have to keep yourself comfy while running around, eating the various types of street food, and looking at all the attractions.

Some highlights from the experience? 

Just being in a big crowd after COVID was a new experience in itself. I haven’t seen so many people gathered around in one place for so long, I forgot how nice it was to be part of the crowd. The students seemed to love being there, seeing all the rides and how crazy charged the atmosphere was. I bought a turkey leg for everyone to share, and they thought the food proportions were interesting. 

Any anecdotes or comments from the students?

Getting to the State Fair was pretty simple because the Wolfline buses were easy to navigate. The funniest thing I realized was that the students loved looking at the rides, but they utterly refused to actually go on the rides. Most of the students wanted to go to the scary haunted house but didn’t. I think they probably just mentally added it to their plan for when they came next time. One thing I noticed was that there was a large number of people there with Asian descent. I hope the students noticed that as well because it’s a great way to show them that it’s not just an American event.