THOMASVILLE — Residents were eager to get out the house this week as the 63rd Deep South Agricultural Fair made its return.

In past years, the annual fair averaged 15,000 visitors throughout the week, but this year, fair president Jeff McCutchen said two days alone has garnered record high numbers in fair attendance.

“We had a record number of derby car entries and visitors coming in,” he said. “Last night’s participation and entrance tickets was an all-time record in the 63-year history.”

Tuesday night, which was the fair’s opening night had 2,750 visitors and Wednesday night had around 1,700 visitors show up for the fun festivities.

McCutchen said with numbers coming in this early, he’s confident that this year’s numbers will be around 22,000 ticket entries, which will top 2019’s fair that averaged close to 18,000.

“2019 was our largest fair and now we’re seeing that maybe this year we’ll be even larger than that. We’re well on our way to beating that for sure,” he said.

The Deep South Agricultural Fair is a fundraising effort hosted by the Thomasville Exchange Club.

All proceeds from the fair are donated to various service organizations throughout the year that support abused women and children such as the Vashti Center and Halcyon Home.

McCutchen added that this year’s fair is important when it comes to fundraising because of the missed opportunity last year due to COVID-19.

“We actually were not able to pay out a few scholarships and give as much to some of the other organizations,” he said. “Now that we have a fair this year, we hope to make good on all of our other promises and maybe give a little extra if the turnout is a record number like it’s looking to be right now.”

Fair preparation and maintenance doubled this year which required more volunteers, but McCutchen said it’s been all worth it in the end.

“It’s exciting when I walk out into the parking lot and see cars just parked several rows deep and we haven’t even opened yet,” he said. “It’s a good feeling for a lot of the work we’ve put in to preparing for the fair this year.”

Fair vice president Lee Gerald added being able to give back to the community also makes the hard work put into the fair worthwhile.

“We’re really excited to do a fair again this year and to be able to support our community with our big fundraiser,” he said.

With the early success from this year’s fair, McCutchen is looking forward to making the fair even bigger next year with possible live performances and new fair attractions.

“We’ve got a lot of ideas that we’re tossing around for next year, a lot of new things that are more popular for bigger fairs and try to maybe bring it to Thomasville,” he said.

The fair will be open  at 2 p.m. on Saturday which is the last day. Free kids day admission will also be available Saturday until 5:30 p.m.

For more information about the fair visit https://www.deepsouthfairgrounds.com/