The Biggest Fairs in Missouri

Missouri's flagship state fair has run in Sedalia since 1901 and drew nearly 350,000 visitors in 2023 before dipping to 329,000 in 2025 amid heat indexes over 100 degrees. The 2025 edition logged more than 28,000 competitive entries, including nearly 8,000 4-H exhibits and roughly 6,500 FFA exhibits, anchoring it as the largest agricultural showcase in the state.

Known publicly as the Ozark Empire Fair, Greene County's fair has run since 1937 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds in north Springfield and is widely described as the largest annual fair in the Ozarks region. Organizers report attendance around 200,000 over its 10-day run, though an exact audited figure isn't published annually — treat this as a solid estimate rather than a precise count.

One of Missouri's oldest county fairs, tracing back to 1835, the Boone County Fair drew about 14,000 attendees in 2023, according to fair secretary Jessica Kempf. The five-day event blends a working livestock show and auction — where kids sell cattle raised over the school year — with a demolition derby that fair staff single out as the single biggest draw of the week.