(The Center Square) – The second Illinois State Fair kicks off Friday in Du Quoin, running through labor day.
While the downstate fair doesn’t receive as much taxpayer funding as its Springfield counterpart, one state representative said it’s an economic benefit to the area.
The 2027 fiscal year budget allocated less than $7 million for the year’s operations of the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, including the 11-day fair for Southern Illinois.
By contrast, the Springfield fairgrounds had more than double allocated, $15.5 million.
State Rep. David Friess, R-Red Bud, told The Center Square he’d have to compare this year to previous years data on state spend for the fair, but noted the state has been improving the downstate fairgrounds lately.
“The fairgrounds went through a period of time where they were not maintained well, but as of late, they really have started to rehab some of the buildings, the grounds so they have really, I think, made some big improvements to the fairgrounds,” Friess said.
Jerry Costello, director of the Department of Agriculture, said earlier this month that the state had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on renovating and maintaining just the Springfield fairgrounds under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration.
“That’s about $190 million coming off of the heels of an administration that went over 2 years without a budget,” Costello said, in reference to the state’s budget gridlock under former Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The state allocated $1.64 million between the current and previous year’s state budgets for repairs, maintenance and improvement projects solely at the Du Quoin fairgrounds, and additional funds went to the Department of Agriculture for the same at both fairgrounds locations.
Friess said based on previous years, the fair has been beneficial economically in his district.
“It is a huge shot in the arm economically for the immediate area. It just brings in people from all over all, over southern Illinois, to it,” Friess said. “I go down there every year. It’s a nice fair.”
Last year, the fair drew in about 282,000 attendees, which Costello noted meant the state broke 1 million between both fairs.
“He told me when I took this position six and half years ago, we have to beat Iowa. And at that point in time, they were at a million attendees. They’re at like 1.2 million. Exactly to his point, we broke a million last year and we’re going to get them,” Costello said before the Springfield fair this month.
The Du Quoin State Fair runs through Labor Day, with six grandstand performances, a governor’s day Saturday and a Republican day Tuesday.
