Second weekend of the Big E comes to a close

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A very busy second weekend of the Big E came to a close this Sunday evening, but not without breaking attendance records! 22News took a closer look at the sights and sounds of a very busy Sunday.

Sunday is the first day of fall, which for many fairgoers made going to the Big E a little more special. Another weekend of the Big E is in the books! And the Autumn season, falling on a Sunday made the Big E fairgrounds this weekend the place to be!

"Fabulous it's this been the biggest day we've had of all, you know it's been big," said Rita Maheny of West Springfield.

Traditionally, the middle weekend of the Big E fair is by far the busiest. Breaking records, in fact, this past Saturday, during Vermont Day, the fairgrounds welcomed in just over 178,000 fairgoers This broke the previous record set in 2022, which was over 177,000 visitors.

"It was a huge day, it was certainly bigger than we've expected especially given the fact we had so much sunny weather since we've opened where last year we had a lot of rain," said Eastern States Exposition, President and CEO, Gene Cassidy.

But this time around, the sunshine was here all weekend long! And people across the region took advantage of it to enjoy all that the Big E has to offer, especially on Grange Day, a time to learn about New England and its agriculture.

"Without people patronizing the Eastern States exposition we cannot capitalize our agricultural program that is so important not just to the agriculturalists here in this region but the agriculturalists across the United States of America," explained Cassidy.

And the Big E isn't over yet, more excitement is ahead this coming week with more fall-like weather in store!

And Sunday closed out with 18,297 fairgoers, which is a daily attendance record.

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