St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - The 2016 Minnesota State Fair was one for the record books. The attendance total for the 12-day run of the fair hit a new record high of nearly 1.95 million people by the time the gates closed Monday night. State Fair organizers say that is almost 119,000 above the previous attendance record set in 2014.

Three new daily attendance records were also set during the 2016 Great Minnesota Get Together and Saturday’s attendance established a new all-time single day record as over 260,000 people went through the turnstiles on the first day of the Labor Day weekend. Friday’s attendance of nearly 183,000 and the previous Friday’s attendance of 141,000 people also set new records for those individual days.

Preparations are already getting underway for the 2017 Minnesota State Fair, which will take place from August 24th through Labor Day, September 4th.

The fair also provided memories for two young Rochester area women. Annette Kyllo from Bryon and Kalley Berg of Pine Island were finalists in the Princess Kay of the Milky Way pageant.The Minnesota Dairy Princess program, is an annual competition organized by the Midwest Dairy Association.

 Although the two did not win the top honor, they were recognized through another part of the tradition - a butter sculpture they can take home at the end of the fair.

Kalley Berg
Kalley Berg
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Kalley Berg
Kalley Berg
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Annette Kyllo
Annette Kyllo
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Annette Kyllo
Annette Kyllo
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