Movement through the fairgrounds was nearly at a standstill on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 20. Fair attendence remained high during the second weekend of the popular annual event. Photo by Caide Wooten.
The North Carolina State Fair is in Raleigh, but due to heavy traffic it’s not all fun and games for N.C. State students.
Johanna Donovan, assistant director of student services and multicultural affairs in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Dean’s Office, said the State Fair traffic has led to many frustrations.
Donovan said that all the traffic makes it hard for faculty members to get to work. As a result of the school parking lot having only two exits, it’s even harder for faculty and students to leave in the evening, when the traffic is much worse.
It has also made coming and going from main campus to the vet school very difficult.
“If you have to go to main campus for a meeting, it will take a really long time to leave here and get to campus, even though it’s only about a mile and a half,” Donovan said.
Some students who usually take the Wolfline to campus also have had to find alternate methods of transportation, as the busses are not running to the vet school while the fair is in Raleigh, according to Donovan.
Additionally, some people attending the fair have tried to park in the vet school parking lot, which would take away from student and faculty parking. This resulted in the need for guards to be placed at the entrances.
The fair has also changed the way students who live off-campus get to school.
Some of these students utilize Park and Ride lots, taking the Wolfline to school. One of the Park and Ride locations has been relocated to the northwest corner of Carter-Finley Stadium’s parking lot, due to heavy traffic, according to the N.C. State Transportation website.
“Even though I’m on the opposite side of where the fair is, you can definitely tell where the fair traffic is,” said Peyton Brown, a sophomore in human biology. “And people don’t know where they’re going, and they’re confused and it just takes them a lot of time.”
Kylie Williams, a freshman in agricultural science, volunteered at the fair last week and experienced first-hand how congested the roads were.
“I had to volunteer last Sunday at one and left campus at 12:30 and got to the fairgrounds at 1:30,” Williams said. “It’s like two miles away, but Hillsborough and Blue Ridge were awful.”
This year, the N.C. State football team won’t play at Carter-Finley while the fair is in town.
Annabelle Myers, the assistant athletics director for media relations, said that though it is preferred that the team doesn’t play home games during the fair, it has happened.
In those instances, Myers said that the football team had to change where it entered and exited the Murphy Center.
Despite the difficulties, some say that there are also benefits to having the fair so close to campus.
Stacy Fair, director of the Joyner Visitor Center, said they purposefully plan Open House to coincide with the State Fair.
“People are coming from all over the state to come to the state fair, so they might as well come visit us here while they’re in town,” Fair said.
The State Fair ends Oct. 27.