Fair directors said they are trying to keep patron prices the same as last year by reducing operating costs.
"Our ticket prices will be the same as they were in 2007," Fair Manager Wesley Wyatt said. "We've made no changes to the price structure."
Instead, they're making cost cutting changes to the rides. Many are switching to efficient LED lights and gas guzzling generators will be quickly cut off each night.
While thousands, will spend money and the fair, hundreds will make some money as part-time employees.
More than 800 people applies for one of the fair's 350 available positions.
"I moved up here from Florida to get a job," one applicant said. "This is temporary, but I'll take any type of job. I'm not picky at all [it's] an opportunity to work."
The fair is also going green this year. There will be recycling stations and like last year, it stations will power generators with bio diesel.
The fair expects to collect about 8,000 gallons of waste vegetable oil from food vendors to turn into bio diesel.
And for those who would like to leave their mark on the North Carolina State Fair, there's a new roller coaster and a contest will decide what it's called.
Fairgoers can submit names on the opening day Thursday for what the midway managers call the world's largest portable roller coaster. It now goes by its business name of Pinfarri RC-48.
The person submitting the winning name will win a package of admission tickets, T-shirts and free amusement rides. The winning contestant's name will be displayed near the roller coaster throughout the fair, which runs through Oct. 26.
