Minnesota State Fair

I enjoy the state fair. This year was my 48th year attending the fair. I went three times this year. I know you all kid me about my love of the fair, but I don’t care, I go anyway. Even with three days, there were a couple things I didn’t get to see.

I heard some good music again this year. The best were the Fairlanes (a doo-wop quartet), Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits, the Quebe Sisters, and Mac McNally. McNally is a singer/song writer that has written songs for some very famous singers and has had multiple songs go number one. He is an amazing guitar player. All of these were at free stages.

I ate onion rings, ice cream, foot long hot dogs, pronto pups, ice cream, onion rings, deep fried Twinkie, and cheese curds, then some more ice cream.

I saw the draft horse halter class judging. Those are big horses. So fun watching them. I went to the draft horse six-horse-team competition. That is very impressive. They had 19 entries this year, the largest group ever. They were from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Idaho, Utah, and Manitoba. Idaho won. In past years I have seen the teams heading to the arena on the street. It feels like a freight train when they go past you only a few feet away. Massive horse power there.

I saw the chickens, pigeons, and rabbits; my favorites. Largest hog boar weighed in at 1180 pounds. The largest pumpkin was 971.5 pounds (a whole lot of pies from that one).

The largest portable ferris wheel in the country was there again. Fifteen stories high with a half million lights moving in a multitude to colors and patterns. Those colors with the closing fireworks in the background was beautiful.

See some photos here.

Lots of people at the fair! Last year, 2018, was the record breaking year. The largest single day attendance was 270,426 people. Total attendance for the twelve days last year was 2,046,533. See the photo below? It was like that on all 322 acres of the fair. Fun!