(AP) — The Nebraska State Fair has successfully settled into its new home in Grand Island, and organizers are looking forward to this year’s version.

The State Fair begins on Friday and runs through Labor Day.

When the fair moved from Lincoln to Grand Island in 2010 to make way for a new University of Nebraska-Lincoln research park, organizers had to offer financial guarantees to vendors.

This year, vendor space sold out in April and a waiting list for next year is growing. And carnival operators have been competing to run the fair’s rides.

Fair executive director Joe McDermott says attendance is now regularly higher in Grand Island than it was in its last years in Lincoln, excluding the final year.