Even though I am giving the fair two stars I want to preface the review with the fact that we had a blast here and stayed for hours having the best time. But my review is not only based on the good times we had but the fact that the State Fair used to be something very different than it is now, and compared to other states' fairs, this is not the best of the best out there. It is conveniently located in Novi for those who live in the area at a hotel. So I basically parked for free in the hotel parking lot. That was great, very convenient, but it did not give epic State Fair feels. This is also at the same place at Comic Con. For Comic Con, this is a great spot but as a pavillion for the entire state, it is pretty sad. You walk into the conference area of the hotel and get tickets. We only spent $10 a person plus free parking, not bad at all. But then you walk through the doors at you are at the fair where the comic booths usually are. It is so small, like the tiniest art fair ever. Mostly local vendors selling stuff, but not enough and not enough variety. Kind of like Comic Con, my child did find some cool anime stuff to buy but it was so sparse. They had a "Cool Zoo" trying to sell exotic animals cooped up in tiny cages looking sad or selling $10 and up hugs, but were a bit deceitful, as they asked my child to touch and hold the animals but did not indicate it was for pay. Meanwhile, the livestock are thrust in the same space as the vendors in the teeniest of spaces. We enjoyed seeing the animals and giving them free pats and pets with permission from their keepers, but when this was once in Detroit, they had their own separate area. Then tucked in the same space were the kiddie rides and a few food areas. The best was the all you can drink chocolate milk for a buck, worth it! Outside were a handful or rides, a few food trucks, the midway games, the concerts, and the circus. It was a tiny backyard behind the hotel, like a teensy parking lot of things to do. It was a lot of fun. We tried a couple stuffed pepperoni pizza rolls, a tiny taco, a mini mango lassi, listening to some good music under a tent, played some games, saw some clowns and tiny dogs driving a car. You can come here for hours and have fun. The downside, most of the food trucks charge about two dollars to use a credit card (not even a percent a flat fee) so I went through most of my cash here. The main problem is when I was a child the State Fair in Detroit was huge, an epic yearly event I looked forward to. They had multiple buildings for selling art, seeing animals, a very large variety of rides and games and even more interesting food. The food trucks were the same ones from all of the summer art fairs, nothing special. Just hot dogs, pizza, and funnel cakes. I even confirmed with my parents that the fair was really large on a nice size property. While it was more convenient for me to drive 20 minutes to the fair, I miss the Detroit location and do not understand what happened. It is a shame. But, as I mentioned, we did have so much fun. We did spent hours on end doing all of the activities, eating, shopping, seeing animals. When we went there were really small crowds, so we could do things multiple times. We had no problem with too many people. My kid really enjoyed it because this is the only state fair here. I would probably go again next year if they price is the same. But many of the other reviewers are correct and perhaps there is a better fair in Michigan to go to, or maybe just visit Michigan Adventure if you want some good food and rides. It costs a bit cheaper to go there for a Cedar Point type experience instead. read more

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No Shrine Circus?? What happend? It cost $15.00 to see the Moto Cross. Not good, should be free with cost to the fair.

Over priced on everything particularly the food. Had 4 teenagers with me over $170 for entrance (mine was $10 no rides just to get in). Spent another $120 on food and drink for sub par carnival stuff. No Shade except in the building that has the animals and smells like a farm. Lines were too long. The atmosphere was not nice. Recommend you go to Cedar Pointe it cost the same, the food is better and their are places to sit. Very disappointing. read more

The state fair was an awesome attraction this year. Charlotte the pig was the Supreme Supreme!! If anyone happen to see her strut around in the show pen, it was amazing read more

Absolutely the worst fair set up ever. Takes forever to get in even if you pre-pay. Staff all in shitty, lack of care moods. Lines are an hour plus, Eve to get most food. Took forever to get into the parking lot (30 minutes+), 30 minutes waiting in pre pay line. Then we walked around to see a literal sea of people, lines so long you don't even know what the line is for. I would never recommend this fair to anyone. Absolutely a waste of money and time. Appalled that they don't have a cap on how many people can attend. They're just money grabbing and don't offer refunds. Covid is very real and the fair gives zero care about it. Never will go again. read more

State fair was fun!!! Make sure you bring plenty of cash to have a blast. Food was awesome. Didn't sit well with me seeing the animals locked up in a small confined space. The fair being at a new location will take time to get use to. The city of Novi did a nice job taking over. I will be back new year! read more

Parking is $10, and for a bracelet to do everything is $30. Definitely pretty pricey, so plan your day to be here for a while to make it worth your money. It's possible to park outside of the suburban center, but it can be a small hike. I would recommend not wearing your favorite shoes here, it's pretty dirty between the animals and just the unpaved ground that you're walking on. Definitely do not wear white shoes or flip flops unless you're looking for a mess. We saw some people who became messes from just walking around and they had to go clean their feet after. There were a lot of food options, we looked around and it was mostly just too dirty for me to eat. We watched one vendor wear gloves to touch food, kept their gloves on to take money, to scratch their head and go back to touching food. Who knows what else they were doing with those gloves. So it's just not my thing, but expectations on sanitary food handling at the fair is not very high. Eat at your own caution. Overall, it's a decent night out with friends and family. read more

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Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. This is the most disorganized, disgusting, and overcrowded state fair (or possibly just event) that I've been to by far. It takes more than an hour just to get in, plus parking is overpriced and terrible. They oversold tickets by a wide margin, so lines for every single thing we're 45+ minutes (and I mean everything; every food stall, ride, and bathroom was like this). Everyone there seemed miserable and I spoke to multiple people (in the never ending lines) who said they were only still there because they already paid for parking and wristbands. Not to mention the fair itself is absurdly tiny for the cost to get in and, while fair food is typically overpriced, this place takes it to the next level with vendors taking store bought frozen food (clearly from Costco) out of the packaging and tossing it into the deep fryers in front of you while up charging you to hell and back. I'm struggling to think of any positives to my time there. I had a few laughs with other people in the lines about how terrible the fair was, and the shuttle driver was nice. If that sounds worth $30/person to you then please go ahead, otherwise avoid at all costs. read more

This was an awful experience for my family. There was like no one with a mask, people were smoking everywhere and my husbands wrist band broke so we were just holding it and someone told us to go get another one at the booth , so we went and the lady had the AUDACITY to ask him "what kid did you steal this off of?" Excuse me ? My husband told me and I immediately went to her and she didn't have that tone with me AT ALL. I can't help but think it was racially motivated. We left after 40 minutes , my 5 year old even hated it. read more

This was our first Michigan State Fair since we are not originally from here. It's $8 for general admission if you want to do the rides it costs $30. We enjoyed ourselves. The majority of the exhibits were inside which we thought was a good idea that way one doesn't have to worry about bad weather. The fair had many animal exhibits and competitions. I would agree that one should wear casual clothes and shoes you don't care about since the animal waste and smell is apparent. One of the sponsors was RAM which had several RVs to explore inside. Also the Raminator had a monster truck show which was really cool and they had free rides,photo There was also a dog show which was fun to watch as well. The food is pretty typical fair food elephant ears, and various junk food, which was priced reasonable. So overall, a great family past time. read more

We absolutely loved the Michigan State Fair! The key is to get there right when it opens and leave before it gets too crowded. The circus was great and we liked that it was included with the ticket price. It's very clean and the people working were very nice. read more

I have to say I have not been to the State fair since it was in Detroit. It was 8 to get in the fair if you were not doing anything, we were there for 3 hours and never rode a ride watch the pigs races saw the new Dodge truck, they had the petting farm, tons and tons of food and they had a room with tons of vendors selling things. This was definitely a high light to the end of the summer and will definitely make this a new tradition with my family read more

Michigan State Fair - Festivals Near Me - Novi, Michigan

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This is terrible the way they treat these animals. They should not be used for entertainment it is so sad.

The rides and food were great and we had a good time. Although, the man running the funny farm called me and my friends "a bunch of two year olds" instead of telling us that we couldn't spin the wheel that was spinning when we pushed it. It was ok if he had redirected us but his approach was completely inappropriate. read more

Family fun, had a great time!! Lots of rides, animals and even got to ride an ATV for free:) plenty to do inside in the cool air conditioned building, demos, dog shows, cows, sheep, pigs, horses, and shopping!! read more

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You walk into the vendor exhibit hall and get knocked over by the smell of urine and manurere. Why are the farm animals in the same exhibit hall as the vendors who sell food and other household things? Gross. Speaking of vendors, there were few. Probably because they didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars to be right next to sh**. I could understand if this was some small local carnival but this is a state fair in major mid west state. Do your self a favor and visit other state fairs and recruit better vendors so you can make money and actually support the people who raise the live stock. Who claim you are doing it for. No wonder the former governor took funding away for it. It's really disappointing for a state fair. read more

I been there since 11 this morning just leaving at 6. We had a good time. Can't wait untill next times (next summer).

What a great fair! Lots of fun things to do for the whole family!! Rides, animals, carnival games, Contest Central is my favorite!

Since it moved to Novi it doesn't feel like a state fair. It's a basic carnival with some gratuitous animals. Food is basic fair food. Nothing special. read more