State Fair and Mountain State Fair honored by peers

The North Carolina State Fair recently won six awards from the International Association of Fairs and Expositions at the association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas.

In addition, the N.C. Mountain State Fair won nine awards, including three first places.

The State Fair, which competes against other fairs with an attendance of 500,001 to 1 million, took home a first-place communications award for its Web site. The fair also won second-place honors for television commercial, third place for best use of social media and third place for black-and-white newspaper advertisement.

In the agricultural competition, the State Fair received second place in the new green program category for its Green NC exhibit. The Got to Be NC Festival, which takes place on the State Fairgrounds in May, won second-place honors in the category for non-fair agricultural event or program.

The Mountain State Fair won two firsts in the agricultural competition for overall program for commercial agricultural exhibitors and for newly established or developed exhibit to promote agriculture. The fair also earned first for use of theme throughout competitive exhibits and new or unique strategy to increase the number of competitive exhibitors.

The Mountain Fair took second-place honors for competitive exhibit display method and competitive exhibit display photo series. Three third-place awards for fair agriculture photo, agriculture photo series and fair and sponsor/partner joint exhibit program rounded out the prizes.

“It takes tremendous effort to put on successful events of these sizes, and being recognized is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all of our staff and supporters,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.
Entries were evaluated and judged by a team of fair-industry leaders selected from the membership of the IAFE. Programs were judged on theme and goal, promotion, scope and acceptance, coverage by the media and overall achievement of the program.