Our friends at the Mackinac Center in Michigan make the case for privatizing state fairs--there are similar events done privately all over the country, and government funded state fairs often drain state coffers (not just in Michigan, but also Colorado and Utah) .
In fact, a word of warning--avoid "privatizing" the way Utah did. Their non-profit corporate state fairs still sucks around $600,000 a year out of taxpayer funds and isn't progressing towards self sufficiency as intended.
