It includes daily concerts, exhibits and competitions of animals, homemade crafts, shows, and many food/lemonade stands, and it lasts 11 days.

The state considered locating the fair in Centralia, Chillicothe, Marshall, Mexico, Moberly, and Sedalia.

After ten ballots, Sedalia received the majority vote; it had bid 150 acres (0.61 km2), the most land of any city to be devoted to the fairgrounds.

[7][8] In his speech at the Fair on July 15, 1940, Truman strongly endorsed the New Deal, including equality for African Americans.

It rivaled the 1969 Woodstock festival in size, and was notorious for chaos and mismanagement: although no more than 50,000 tickets were sold, an estimated crowd of 350,000 people showed up.

[11][12] There were no more than five portable toilets on site, there were several hundred drug overdoses, and some attendees raided nearby cows and pigs for food.

They include several red brick exposition halls and animal barns, concrete drinking fountains constructed by Works Progress Administration, and concession buildings.

[20] The Commission consists of nine members: eight appointed commissioners plus the director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, who serves ex officio.