State Fair officials say their Labor Day weekend is off to a good start.

On Saturday the fairgrounds were busy outside with thousands of people, and busy inside with hundreds of animals being shown. State Fair Board Chair Sallie Atkins said it was a great start to their Labor Day weekend.

"It's just been amazing," she said. Atkins said she found herself driving a courtesy cart for two hours as more and more people came through the gates.

"I think attendance is going to exceed even our expectations," she said. "We're blessed with beautiful weather, and everybody is just having a great time."

After thousands of people hit the fairgrounds on Tuesday for the Mel Tillis concert, fair officials released some attendance numbers. They said then that they felt they were well on their way to hitting a complete total of 300,000 visitors.

However, some thought that where home Husker football games had been a boon to Saturday State Fair attendance, it might be a hindrance this year. Atkins said they aren't anticipating that.

"We're hoping that since it's an evening game folks will go to the game and enjoy it in Lincoln, and then perhaps stop here on their way home tomorrow," she said. "Or they might make a trip to the fair tomorrow [if they watched the game at home]."

She said they were going to be showing the game on monitors in different buildings, and hoped to give score updates on the big show ring screens.

Atkins also said that having a majority of open class, 4-H, and FFA livestock at the fair on the same weekend was going well.

"The lines have been moving for 2 days now of people coming in to unload livestock," she said. "They are in awe of the barns they get to move in to. Everybody's smiling. Exhibits are up all across the board. We really couldn't ask for more this first year."

The goal of having different species and classes at the fair at the same time was to help families keep their livestock closer together and not have to choose between weekends and shows. Atkins said they had received positive feedback about the change.

"With a tough economy you want to be able to be family-friendly, and we've tried to do just that. They seem to really be appreciating everything we're trying to do," she said.

Attendance numbers should be helped this Labor Day weekend by the large number of livestock shows, and two more concerts. Martina McBride will be at the Heartland Events Center on Sunday at 8pm. Josh Turner will help finish up the fair on Monday at 8pm, also in the Events Center. For more information on the concerts, or other fair events, click on the link below to the State Fair's website.