Preparations are underway for the 100th Du Quoin State Fair. 

Preparations are underway for the 100th Du Quoin State Fair. 

DU QUOIN (WSIL) - Last minute preparations are underway at the Du Quoin State Fair grounds this week. It takes a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen. With the 100th anniversary this year, fair officials said they expect around 175,000 people to attend.

On Monday afternoon, some of the rides are starting to arrive at the fairgrounds. While it's relatively quiet, the fairway is going to be busy on Friday at the official kickoff of the Du Quoin State Fair.

The expectation is, that with North American Midway providing the rides, the 100th Anniversary, and a leveling out from COVID, Fair Manager Josh Gross siad, he expects a good year.

"Our advance sales in wrist bands, parking passes are all above last year's numbers," Gross said.

Gross also said a lot of improvements across the fairgrounds have been done ahead of this year's fair, including $6-million in state funded improvements to the grandstand, the front gate has been renovated, a return to the neon fair signs, and resurfacing the stage.

"They use the same process they used at Disney World, on all of their stages," Gross explained. "We expect it to be top of the line. It should allow for a little bit better sound quality for the artist, and it allows the entertainers on stage the flexibility to perform however they like to perform."

Gross said it's wrapping up to be an excellent centennial, celebrating a century in pictures, displayed in the exhibition hall.

"We've collected from social media and historians across southern Illinois," said Gross. "We were able to blow those up and make yard sign size images, so that you can just walk through the exhibition hall and walk back through and see everything from the fair's original buildings and plans to things that happened just this year."

And Gross said, this year's fair will have, as always, a week's worth of entertainment and eats for the whole family.

The fair officially kicks off on Friday evening with the Governor and ribbon cutting at the Grandstand. Then Gross said, there will also be a little surprise for spectators as well.

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