It’s mid-September, so that only means one thing: The Big E! It started as an agricultural fair over 100 years ago, and still features a lot of agriculture and animals, but it’s also your state fair on steroids. This would be Josh and my third time going together; we went last Thursday because it’s a lot easier to go during the week than on the weekends. (The total attendance for Thursday was 61,000+ people compared to yesterday which was 178,000+. No thank you.)

Our plan was to go from 1:00–7:00 p.m.-ish. The highways always have so much traffic, so we took the backroads and had no trouble getting there. Parking options can vary (the fair has its own parking area but it can be tricky traffic-wise to get to); as you get closer to the fairgrounds, you can park on people’s front lawn for like $40. This note is for future me (since I look back on these previous posts to see what we did/ate): if you park at the neighboring town’s town hall, it’s $10. (And about a half mile walk to the main gate.)

Where We Went

Avenue of States: Each of the New England states—Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine—has its own state building full of vendors from the state. We like to go through these earlier in the day because they can get pretty crowded.

Better Living Center and Young Building: The Better Living Center, and more recently as well, the Young Building are basically in-person infomercials. There are a ton of booths inside full of random products and a lot of mattress vendors, and the number one rule is that you don’t make eye contact with anyone because they’ll try to sell you something weird. But we still like to walk through each building?

Farm-A-Rama: This building has a lot of live farm animals, like chicks, chickens, goats, pigs, and alpacas. Plus giant pumpkins and squash competitions. Unfortunately, the dogs weren’t there like they were last year—and Josh was devastated.

Coliseum: When we first we to The Big E together in 2022, Josh and I stumbled upon horse shows in the Coliseum, and now it’s tradition to go after 6:00 p.m. to sit for an hour to watch them. We don’t know what’s going on, but we’re there cheering on the horses.

What We Ate + Drank

Really the only reason why people go to The Big E: ridiculous fair food. For the most part, Josh and I split everything we got.

Also pictured is the pumpkin beer I got (on the left) and the beer boot Josh got (on the right). My plan was to drink my weight in pumpkin beer—JK. We also got a couple of water bottles throughout the day since it was so hot.

Apple cider slushie and fancy s’more: Both of these were in the Vermont state building. I forget if the slushie was from a specific vendor, but the s’more was from the Vermont Marshmallow Company. Both were super good.

Other Notes

For the first time that we’ve gone, we wore t-shirts and shorts and sweat for half of the time. Well, we’ve also gone in the last week at the end of September instead so it’s usually a bit cooler weather-wise.

We also walked 18,000 steps, matching about what we did last year. Boy, were we tired when we got home. But we don’t mind all of the walking since we can work off what we’ve eaten.

Oh and most importantly: I, of course, ran into people I knew. Doesn’t matter where you take me, I’m going to see someone random that I know. That afternoon, I saw a former co-worker, the waitress we have on date night with my parents, my current co-worker/friend and her boyfriend, and Josh’s best friend and his wife.