They’ve had lobster lollipops, giant shrimp, king crab legs and swordfish bites on a stick, all coated with bright lemon pepper and glistening butter. But not this year.
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Oak City Fish & Chips won’t be pushing its seafood skewers at the 2026 North Carolina State Fair, sitting out for the first time in six years.
Oak City developed a reputation as one of the most decadent fair food vendors, serving luxury seafood on a stick. One year, its crab leg skewer cost as much as $76 and sales could total more than $200,000 over 10 days.
But Oak City is skipping the 2026 NC State Fair in response to vendor changes that could see them paying tens of thousands of dollars more in fees. Oak City co-owner Isaac Horton said the vendor changes coupled with a rising economy could dampen sales at this year’s fair as customers face higher prices.
“The economics of the country and the economics of the fair have really changed since last year,” Horton said. “It’s going to really be reflected in the fair experience this year.”
For the 2026 NC State Fair, most food vendors will pay a 15% commission of gross sales back to the fair, after sales taxes. The four vendors in the new food hall will pay 20%. The commission format replaces the previous flat-fee structure, where vendors paid $180 per foot of booth frontage.
For Oak City, they previously paid a $4,500 flat fee to serve at the fair for 11 days, Horton said. Under the new model, Oak City could pay as much as $30,000, they said, based on an expected $200,000 in sales after taxes. That would be more than a 550% increase.
“We’d have to charge 25 to 33% more on prices in the midst of already extremely high inflation (to meet previous margins),” Horton said.
Amanda Ezzell wrote a public letter to the fair on Facebook over the summer, saying that her family’s Ezzell’s Something Good food truck wouldn’t be at the fair because of the fee and vendor changes, including a required digital point of sale system.
The state fair saw a higher than usual number of longtime fair vendors decide to skip 2026. Fair organizers say two dozen vendors did not renew for this year, double the normal rate of attrition. Iconic vendors like Al’s French Fry Shack and Charlie Barefoot & Sons are among generational favorites that won’t be back after decades at the fair.
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Horton noted that getting into the fair used to be the hard part, as vendors could sometimes wait years to get off the waiting list and get their chance to serve the throngs of fairgoers.
“People told us it could be a lifetime waiting list,” Horton said.
Fair organizers said the vendor changes like the commission fee put the North Carolina State Fair in line with most other state fairs around the country.
“The 15% is the lowest of any major fair in the country,” fair manager Kent Yelverton said in an interview. “Most fairs do charge more than that. We are one of the last fairs to convert to a percentage. We were slow to make that decision coming out of COVID, but we feel like it’s the right time to catch up with the industry.”
Among other percent-charging states, the Virginia State Fair charges a 17% fee on gross sales after tax, while Indiana charges 21% and California charges 27%.
Yelverton argued the commission format makes the fair a partner with food vendors and motivates organizers to address any needs or issues complicating the experience.
“When we’re making our revenue based on their revenue, then we have incentives to help drive those food sales and help drive those things that help bring revenue into the fair,” Yelverton said.
Longtime vendor D&J Concessions, one of the best-known funnel cakes stands at the fair, attends state fairs up and down the east coast, usually paying a percent commission to organizers.
“Honestly it’s the way of the future to tell you the truth,” said owner John Peterson in an interview this summer. “The 15% is not an unreasonable percentage in our industry, it’s a very fair percentage.”
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This story was originally published October 13, 2026 at 5:03 PM.