Founded in 1889 as a stock and agricultural exhibition, the Neshoba County Fair was first held on this site in 1890 as a picnic where visitors arrived in ox-drawn wagons and gathered at a brush arbor, then quickly expanded after the property was formally acquired in 1893 to include a pavilion, exhibit hall, private homes, hotels, a racetrack, a midway with tent shows, horse racing, carnival rides, political speeches, and musical entertainment. During its first half-century, offerings included an old fiddlers contest, occasional country string bands, brass bands, minstrel shows, comical rube bands, stage players, musical comedies from local school groups, literary exercises, trapeze artists, acrobats, and demonstrations of new technologies such as silent films and aerial stunts. Cancelled from 1942 to 1945 because of World War II, the fair resumed in 1946 with rebuilt facilities and reorganized programming aimed at a modern audience, including regular appearances by stars of the Grand Ole Opry broadcast from Nashville over WSM. Over the years it became an important outpost for the Nashville-based country music industry while also featuring Mississippi performers and local favorites, helping showcase artists such as Marty Stuart and Carl Jackson early in their careers. Although country music dominated the main acts, the fair also broadened its entertainment with Jerry Lee Lewis's rock 'n' roll in 1957, local rock and soul groups, a disco band in 1979, blues performers, and Thacker Mountain Radio.
