Celebrate the 150th State Fair with food, fun and prizes

There are only 12 days left until the doors open on the 150th N.C. State Fair. The fair opens Thursday, Oct. 12, and we plan to kick off the celebration with a special admission price, commemorative buttons, food specials and prizes! Here are the deals and prizes to watch for on opening day: Admission on kickoff day is $1.50! Gates open at 3 p.m. on Oct. 12. The admission price is good for one day only, so don’t miss the opportunity to have bragging rights on getting the lowest price of the season. The first 15,000 people through the gates…

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Celebrating historian Paul Blankinship’s last State Fair

While 2017 marks the 150th N.C. State Fair, it is also fair historian Paul Blakinship’s 25th and final year educating fairgoers about the event’s history. Blankinship grew up in Brevard in Transylvania County. After graduating high school, he went to college in Florida to pursue a degree in physics. In 1971, he moved to Raleigh to earn a graduate degree in oceanography at N.C. State University, and shortly after he met his wife. They married in 1977. It wasn’t until they settled into their first home that Blankinship developed an interest in the history of the fair. “We bought a house…

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