LEBANON, Tenn. (WTVF) — Helen McPeak described it as that feeling you get the day after Christmas.
"So, this is literally hands-on-the-ground getting everything done, and we've got three days to do that," said McPeak, the Executive Director of Wilson County Promotions.
Volunteers are cleaning up the fairgrounds after this year's Wilson County-Tennessee State Fair.
"We were hoping that we would meet the 600,000," said McPeak. "We'd been trying to do that for the last few years, and this year it exceeded that."
The fair saw a record-breaking 776,195 people attend, but none of it would have been possible without the help of more than 1,800 volunteers.
"We had 15 students come in here from Germany on a bus. So they must have heard this in Nashville or something and brought their group here," said McPeak. "We had a couple from Ireland that heard about it — they were on their honeymoon."
But thousands of visitors means thousands of cars.
"That is probably our biggest challenge, is getting people off the interstate," McPeak said.
Organizers said they're hoping TDOT and Governor Lee will help with improving parking and traffic flow next year.
"We have already started the evaluation process, and we have been doing this for 43 years of tweaking and making the next year better," said McPeak.
Now, with this year's fair in the past, organizers have their eyes set on 2023.
