State Fair

Curious about the Ford F150 Lightning or Mustang Mach-E? Head to the Minnesota State Fair to learn more.

With a little more than two months left before Election Day, the frontrunners in the race for Minnesota governor took different tacks to making their presence known at the annual end-of-summer event.

There’s a lot of money at the fair. Beyond the cash and cards used by visitors, vendors have to pay for their business spaces. In this edition of Infrequently Asked Questions, MPR News Reporter Tim Nelson traces the fair-wide money flow.

Nearly 1,000 high school students have moved into the barracks at the State Fairgrounds for the big weekend of Future Farmers of America competitions. Cathy Wurzer talked with T.J. Brown, FFA superintendent, about the changing FFA and what all those young people are up to this last weekend of the fair.

The Minnesota State Fair police say they're looking for a missing man who got separated from his group on Wednesday.

Most people associate 4-H kids at the Minnesota State Fair with animals. When you go to the fair, you see these hard-working farm kids prodding pigs, shearing sheep and cozying up with cows — all in hopes of earning a ribbon. The animals stay in the barns. But where do the kids that brought them go at night?

On the last Appetites, Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl made some predictions about which new state fair foods will get the glory. She returns to see how they held up and fields questions from fairgoers in a special live broadcast from the fairgrounds with MPR News host Tom Crann.

Hundreds of farm animals are shown every year at the Minnesota State Fair — and where you find farm animals, you know you’re going to find something else. Manure. Lots and lots of manure. Where does it all go?

Jillian Nelson, Community Resource and Policy Advocate with the Autism Society of Minnesota, talks with Cathy Wurzer about strategies to find places of calm at the fair, particularly for those who are neurodivergent.

The best bakers of Minnesota submitted their breads, cakes, cookies and pies and this year there was a tie for Supreme Baker — or so they thought. Chad O'Leary and Kimberly Maize both were named the Supreme Bakers for this year. But then in a twist, competition organizers realized they made a mistake. Cathy Wurzer talks with runner-up Chad O’Leary.