I’m a New York native who visited the NC State Fair for the first time. My thoughts.

It didn’t even take me a full week to fall in love with North Carolina.

I moved to the Triangle last summer after having grown up on Long Island, going to the beach every weekend (even if I had to wear my extra puffy winter jacket) and getting a dozen bagels for the week ahead at our neighborhood bakery most Saturdays. Sunday afternoons were meant for simmering a slow-cook tomato sauce.

After attending school in D.C., I joined my relocated family — a short-in-stature but large-in-number Italian bunch — to move here. I wanted to go somewhere with strong community ties, a place that holds fast to their traditions while welcoming those like me who want to embrace them.

That’s why I loved my first visit to the NC State Fair.

My trip was guided by a story I reported last week: “One day at the NC State Fair? How to do (almost) everything in a single trip.”

I spent nearly 12 hours at the fair on Monday — getting lost more times than I’d care to admit, because the fairgrounds have so much going on. There really is something for everyone at the fair.

I didn’t quite get through everything in one trip, and since I was pressed for time, I often had to rush out of the areas I wished I could have explored longer. But I have my report.

Here’s what I loved, what I didn’t have time to enjoy, and what I wouldn’t mind skipping over during next year’s visit.

What I loved about the NC State Fair

The mission of the NC State Fair is “to showcase and promote the state’s agriculture, agribusiness, arts, crafts and culture through the annual agricultural fair.” That makes the NC State Fair a 101-level crash course in state history, commerce and pride.

For me, a newbie to the fair and the state as a whole, I couldn’t help but read every word, mouth agape, of the educational signs I passed in every corner of the fairgrounds, ranging from dairy farm maintenance to state park safety to pollinator significance.

The poor souls around me were forced to hear me audibly gasp “No way!” (probably louder than I thought I said it) over and over, as I pulled out my phone to take photos (which were not always for the day’s running Twitter thread, but to re-read when I had the time to think deeply about the Jersey cows or Italian honeybees or fir trees.)

Some of my best memories:

▪ I learned that families have their photos taken in front of the mum display spanning decades.

▪ I watched children and young men, dressed in heeled boots and straw hats, parade their fluffy cows, skipping around the hay-covered floor.

▪ I saw cotton with my own eyes for the very first time.

▪ I listened to beekeepers tell me, with tears running into their mustaches, how excited they are for the next generation of bee lovers.

▪ I heard a multitude of languages in excited chatter around the caged piglets, all pointing and saying (in the universal pig language) “oink oink!”

▪ I saw leather-vested, silver-studded-earring-wearing motorcycle gang members hurriedly pull $5 out of their wallets and take a seat on a milk crate, all too excited to learn how to milk a cow.

▪ I learned if you really wanted to, you could spend the whole day doing the one thing you especially love.

But I couldn’t really do everything (or even almost everything) in one day. If you try, you’ll be forced to stick to a not-much-wiggle-room schedule, and you’ll face a time-crunch at the exhibits at which you want the most time.

What I didn’t have time for at the fair

When I got to the fair, I thought about the five things I most wanted to experience. My list was:

1. Hang out with bees and beekeepers.
2. Milk a cow.
3. See pottery and woodworking crafts at the Village of Yesteryear.
4. Listen to the local Brazilian and pop bands.
5. Ride the Fair Flyer at night.

I did three out of those five things.

I had the time for cow milking, but decided against it.

I didn’t get to stop and listen to any music — the schedule didn’t allow for it. By the time I made it to the stages (both times), the bands had already packed up, and it was time for me to keep chugging along too.

I only did one thing that made me stand in line: I bought NC State’s Howling Cow ice cream. If I had eaten more fair food (yes, I actually packed my own lunch) or spent time on the Midway, I might have used much more of my time just standing around.

What I won’t do next year

Next year, I won’t try to do the whole fair in one day, that’s for sure.

As excited as I was to experience everything the fair had to offer in a single, extra-long trip, I knew it was going to be tiring. And I was right — my Apple Watch showed nearly 25,000 steps at the end of the day.

I didn’t care to play games or ride the carnival rides, and my reporting trip didn’t allow me time for it anyway, so that was fine.

But I did love dangling over the Midway at dusk, seeing the lights come alive. I felt the SkyGazer Ferris wheel was too expensive for the trip (and too far from the other lit-up areas of the fairground to really enjoy the lights from above), so I’ll spend that cash on a second Fair Flyer trip next year instead.

I’ll also focus my (much shorter) day hanging out with honeybees and piglets, ooh-ing and aah-ing at quilts and searching for the perfect wooden salad bowl in the Village of Yesteryear.

I’ll stand in line for Howling Cow ice cream again, too.

This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 11:21 AM with the headline "I’m a New York native who visited the NC State Fair for the first time. My thoughts.."

Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska

The News & Observer

919-419-6630

Kimberly Tutuska (she/her) is the editor of North Carolina’s service journalism team.