Minnesota State Fair
Fairground · Como Park ·
Annual late-summer event featuring livestock, car shows, concerts & food
Annual late-summer event featuring livestock, car shows, concerts & food
"An annual late-summer event famous for inventive and indulgent fair foods—from freshly fried cheese curds and pronto-pups to butter-drenched sweet corn—where vendors debut new, often fusion-forward creations each year." - AFAR
"Three choices of lemonade served with a cotton candy cloud spun onto the drinking straw: Summer Strawberry, Happy Huckleberry, and Flower Power." - Clair Lorell
"When I'm hunting for an August peach, the Minnesota State Fair is the absolute hottest spot right now." - Justine Jones
"Returning Aug. 26–Sept. 6 after a pandemic pause in 2020, the 12-day sendoff to summer is being held as the largest U.S. state fair by average daily attendance, drawing upwards of 200,000-plus people a day to Falcon Heights. Spread across 322 acres, the event features over 300 vendors serving everything from cheese curds to footlongs to deep-fried candy bars. Officials will not require masks or proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for entry, though they strongly urge patrons age 2 and up to wear masks in specified indoor settings and note that top-down enforcement would be unmanageable for an event of this size. Masks are required only in certain buildings (Care & Assistance and First Aid) and on-site measures include free masks for those who forget, a recommendation to attend during weekdays to avoid peak crowds, fewer livestock and commercial exhibits to encourage social distancing indoors, and a new “Gopher Gauge” on the website to monitor crowd volume throughout the day. The fair has been held since 1859 with six exceptions (including the Civil War, the polio epidemic, and the 2020 COVID-19 pause), and historically has seen extreme variation in daily attendance (e.g., 245,243 on a final Sunday vs. 96,716 on an early Monday)." - Tierney Plumb
"Running 12 days in St. Paul from August 26 to September 6, this famous, historic fair hosts over 300 vendors who sling more than 500 menu items, and next month it will add the new vendors Baba’s and Solem Concessions on the east side of Underwood Street." - Tierney Plumb