The fair closed out its 17-day run Sunday at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis. The Indiana State Fair Commission said in a news release that this year's attendance total is the fifth highest on record.

The state's new Indiana Grown program has added around 100 members in its first month. Yet educating the public about the initiative remains its biggest challenge, and program leaders say the State Fair will be vital to that effort.

Sarah Kaufmann is one of just a handful of professional cheese artists in the U.S., and she's spent the first week of the Indiana State Fair whittling away at more than 1,500 pounds of Indiana cheddar. Cheddar's her favorite medium.

It's "The Year of the Farmer."

Fair spokeswoman Lesley Gordon says the event "wants to be welcoming to all" by removing "objectionable material." She says vendor contracts contain language that would allow the fair to prohibit the sale of such material.