Tag: Minnesota State Fair

The lights have dimmed and the gates are closed, but for crews on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds the work is far from over.

“No time for rest. You can probably hear my voice. We don’t get much sleep. And it’s showing,” said vendor Nate Kulenkamp.

Teardown begins almost immediately after the fireworks wrap up on Labor Day. 

“Fireworks went off, and we all sat down for a second, gave a little high five. We may have had a small barley pop … but then it’s pressure washers,” Kulenkamp said.

That cleanup means pressure washing, scrubbing and packing away equipment that just served hundreds of thousands of fairgoers.

“Teardown is a totally different pace. It’s a lot of degreasing, a lot of bags of garbage, and then making sure everything is put away where we don’t have to think about it in a month or two,” said Samuel Parotti of Old English Fish and Chips.

Vendors say it’s also about community. 

“Whether it’s the folks from the Giant Slide, whether it’s Butcher Boys, whether it’s mini donuts, Sweet Martha’s, we’re really a small family. We all know each other. If they run out of a cup of sugar and we’ve got sugar, we’re gonna give it to them,” Kulenkamp said.

Fair CEO Renee Alexander reflected on the fair’s purpose even in a year marked by tragedy in Minnesota. 

“We proved once again why the Great Minnesota Get-Together is more than a fair — it’s a reflection of who we are and what we can be, together,” she said in a statement.

The 2025 fair drew 1,940,869 visitors — the fifth-highest attendance ever recorded — and continued a three-year trend of growth. With teardown underway, the countdown is already on. The 2026 Minnesota State Fair opens Aug. 27.

As the Minnesota State Fair comes to a close, families are rushing to the fairgrounds to make last-minute memories.

Twins Jacob and Joseph turned 4 years old on Sunday. To celebrate, they visited the fair for the first time alongside their grandpa and their dad, Larrie.

“They’re having a good time. They’re excited,” Larrie said.

Marilyn Johnson has been coming to the State Fair since 1975.

“This is the first time my whole family is here,” she said.

For Johnson, every year at the fair is about adding to your history of experiences.

“Whether you listen to a band, or eat a Pronto Pup, or sit on a horse, or, you know, you drive on a tractor, whatever. You just experience a whole gamut of everything,” she said.

“Everything is like rainbows and butterflies,” Gabriella Kuvaha said.

Tristan and Gabriella Kuvaha want their daughter Stevie to experience that same feeling.

“Every year we’re going to come, she’s going to be able to do more things, and enjoy more things and remember more things,” they said. 

For early visits their daughter won’t remember, the Kuvahas say they are going to do a picture booth every year — a momento capturing their love as family and reminding them why they keep coming back.

The latest numbers show more than 1.8 million people have attended the State Fair as of Sunday. Final attendance numbers will be released Tuesday.

Jill Nelson is from Olmar Farms near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Her family has been showing off their cows at the Minnesota State Fair for eight decades.

“I think our family has been showing here since the 1940s or early 50s,” Jill Nelson said.

She’s been coming to the fair since she was a kid, and this year her family had the showcase herd — which means they brought 14 of their cows for milking demonstrations and other events. 

“It’s kind of a year-round thing to get them ready because you have to get them in the right physical condition,” she said. “Just like any athlete is going to train year-round, we do the same with our dairy cows.”

The ladies get a special feed and they also go through a sort of makeover. Kind of like cosmetology for cows.

“When it comes time to going into the ring, we’re going to brush them off and gloss them up and put on a little bit of dazzle,” she said.  

Her son, Isaac, is a fifth-generation dairy farmer.

“Just like I might throw some gel in my hair later, we’re going to throw a little bit on the cow to make them shine just as much,” Isaac Nelson said.

And because much of the herd is at the fair, the Nelsons are getting extra help.

“They’ve been very instrumental in making this whole thing happen,” Issac Nelson said.

One of those helpers is Mao Nagai, who’s at the fair as part of a Japanese trainee exchange. 

“Mostly I milk cows on the farm, and sometimes I help Jill clip the cows,” Mao said.

But she is also learning about “the Great Minnesota Get-Together,” and the thrill of being a part of the big show. 

“It’s very fun. I like cows so it’s very fun for me,” she said.

The Nelsons’ dairy cows all participated in the open show, and they finished with a number of top 10 places. 

You hear us say it all the time at the Minnesota State Fair, “Stop by the WCCO Booth at the corner of Carnes and Nelson.” 

Dominated by foot traffic, it’s easy to forget the Minnesota State Fairgrounds is paved to handle vehicle traffic, complete with street names.

“If I cannot see anything I’m familiar with yeah, that’s what I go to,” said fairgoer Dalton Kautz, as he analyzed the street names on his paper map.

Others said they use landmarks like Andy’s Diner or the Giant Slide to get their bearings.

“Having the streets also helps people say, ‘Come over to this corner and the building will be right over here,’ but of course landmarks are helpful, too,” said Keri Huber, an archivist for the fair.

How did the streets get their names at the Minnesota State Fair?

“The streets are based off of people who have been a part of the Minnesota State Fair from its beginnings, like the 1880s into the early 1900s,” said Huber.

Consider them the founding fathers.

Cosgrove Street is named for one of the fair presidents from 1902 to 1906.

Underwood Street is named after a former superintendent of horticulture and agriculture.

“[Cosgrove] goes next to the Agriculture Building so, I think that’s a really appropriate space,” said Huber.

Carnes Avenue is named after Norris Carnes, a former superintendent of horses who lived to be 102 years old.

Nelson Street is named after one the fair’s vice presidents.

Judson Avenue, running along the livestock buildings, honors a former secretary of the society from to 1875 to 1887.

While those are all named after men, there’s one street with origins to a legendary animal. Dan Patch was a famous racehorse.

“In 1906 at our second grandstand he did one mile in 1:55. That was a world record,” said Huber.

Commonwealth Road became Dan Patch Avenue in 1995, passing the grandstand where his well-known story was born.

Those street names came in handy back in the day when drivers could pull right up to a booth and park, a luxury that ended as crowds grew in the 1990s.

There were several parking lots on the grounds going back to the early 1900s. Some of last areas people could park were on Machinery Hill near the turn of millennium.

With almost three dozen new foods to try at the 2025 Minnesota State Fair — not to mention the classics and personal favorites — it can be difficult to plan the menu for your visit.

WCCO is here to help. Our digital team members are sampling the new offerings throughout the fair, offering ratings and reviews so you know what’s a must-try and what’s skippable. Each item will get a rating from 4 (worth the wait in line) to 1 (stick with a Pronto Pup).

If you need to catch up on the last couple of years, check out our 2023 and 2024 ratings, too.

4: Best of the best, and would be worth coming back to the fair to get in the years to come. Elbow your way to the front of the line!

3: Solid and/or intriguing work, and well worth giving a shot. You might find your personal new favorites among these.

2: Recommended, but with reservations. Take the plunge if it’s really high on your list, otherwise maybe look elsewhere.

1: Maybe just stick to the standard cheese curds and mini donuts instead, this is a misuse of your caloric intake at the fair.

Bon appétit!

The Minnesota State Fair is 322 acres of food, fun and all things farming nestled in between Minneapolis and St. Paul in Falcon Heights.

It’s a location that feels like a no-brainer today, but it wasn’t so clear in the mid-1800s.

“The fairgrounds used to be in many different places,” said Keri Huber, a fair archivist. “It started off in Minneapolis as a territorial fair in 1855-56.”

Once officially a state fair in 1859, it bounced around the southeast portion of the state, with time spent time in Rochester, Red Wing, Winona, Owatonna, Fort Snelling and, of course, the Twin Cities. Touring, however, became a logistical challenge.  

“Almost every year there would have to be new buildings created, new fences put up,” Huber said.

So how did the fairgrounds end up in its current location? 

“Henry S. Fairchild was part of the St. Paul chamber of commerce and suggested [the current location],” she said.

The parcel of land, west of Lake Como and near St. Anthony Park, was farmland owned by Ramsey County. It was a little more than 200 acres in size. The county would go on to donate the land to become the fair’s permanent home. There were other locations being considered.

“Minnehaha Falls was one of the options as a permanent site, even Shakopee and Rochester suggested to have the fair as a permanent location. But being truly midway between St. Paul and Minneapolis was ideal,” she said.  

How have the grounds expanded since 1885?

“The biggest expansion was in 1907 when we had 40 acres that we purchased up north known as Machinery Hill,” she said.

Decades later, more parking lots and administrative buildings were added in and around the main fairgrounds, pushing the fair’s footprint past 300 acres.

Minnesota’s state fairgrounds are larger than its neighbors’ in Wisconsin by nearly 200 acres, South Dakota by 190 acres and North Dakota by 188 acres.

Iowa’s fair, however, is much larger. Its fairgrounds reach 445 acres, but more than a third of the land is composed of campgrounds.  

In the History and Heritage Center near West End Market, visitors will see a glimpse of the state fairgrounds from 1934, courtesy of a large map on the floor. The fair’s two oldest buildings on the northeast end of the property — the Fine Arts Building and Progress Center — were both built in 1907.

“Originally the Fine Arts Center was dairy, and the Progress Center was poultry,” she said.

Next oldest is the Grandstand, built in 1909, but it’s clearly upgraded to accommodate 21st Century entertainment. Nods to the past can be found across the grounds, a historic site ready to write another chapter.

“It’s just a really special last 12 days of summer,” Huber said.