Ooh, fun subject! And timely too, as I returned from my own State Fair just a bit ago...

Our State Fair is a great State Fair,
Don't miss it, don't even be late...

Okay, so the musical's about the Iowa State Fair, and not the Minnesota one. But I've been to both.

The Minnesota one claims to be one of the biggest in the nation in terms of attendance, and my friends and I help with that statistic, sometimes attending more than once a season since there's so much to see. This is the 30th consecutive year I've gone (yikes!).

(County fairs are also a Midwest thing, and I attended my own county fair sometimes whilst growing up. But now the State Fair is most convenient for me).

Usual activities include eating just about "anything on a stick" as well as viewing some of the animals (now that our group includes kids aged between 9 and 12, it's fun to watch them enjoy the animals and other sights). The Minnesota DNR has a couple blocks of prime real estate; attractions there include a large outdoor fish pool with hundreds of native fish and climbing a fire tower that offers nice views of the fairgrounds (as well as the taller buildings in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul).

In my "younger days" I'd hang around until dark to see the Midway and other attractions all lit up, as well as watching some of the free entertainment (local bands and such) that's always going on somewhere. The day always ends with fireworks launched from near the grandstand stage.

I've never actually entered an exhibit, but it is fun looking at all the creative craft things as well as the animals (the girls especially like the rabbits and horses).

~ Is there a regular summer fair where you live - county or state? Yes to both. I was a member of 4-H, and most of my siblings still are, so for the past few years we've practically lived at the county fair. This year, we're taking animals to the State Fair. That should be exciting.
~ What is your favorite thing to do at the fair? I like watching the horse shows.
~ Do you have any special memories? This.
~ Have you ever entered an exhibit? Many times, and I have ribbons to prove it.
~ Anything else you want to tell us about your fair - unusual competitions, special traditions, neat performers, etc. Well, there's a local drill team that usually performs at the county fair. That's always a good show. And I've finally seen a pie-eating contest. It's not quite as appealing in person as it's sounded in books, at least at our fair. They make you eat the whole pie with your hands behind your back! Messy!

Oh oh!

Stargazer. We might have met, and not known it. As a Minnesotan I extend the hug of friendship across the border

Yep. We Marsh-Wiggles do enjoy the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" (With just as many swamps, and marshes )

As to the questions.

Favorit thing? You mean other than eating? (Cheese curds that is. With a personal quest for the perfect Bratwurst.)
I truly enjoy the music competitions. this years fiddle players were a gifted bunch of youngsters. I also am fascinated in watching the craftsmen who make their wares on site.
Memories? Just those of time spent with my family, sharing the experience together. Too many to call one favorit.
Entered once in the local county Fair as a young-wiggle, for produce. Actually won second place if I recall.
The only tradition we have really is that my wifes family took her since she was a wee babe, and we have continued it with our son.

But since I hav eonly returned from this tradition not two hours ago, I am still full of the rewards of my gluttony, and am now feeling quite groggy. Have no fear, no spirits were ingested by this marsh-wiggle, (there were no thimbles about ) So I bid you all a good night.

Strictly speaking it isn't even spring yet in the Southern Hemisphere, not until tomorrow. But in the weekend just past, I noted that locally we, too, had what you might call a fair down at the local fairground/paceway etc. Except that Down Under we tend to call them Shows rather than Fairs.

At our Shows we normally have farm produce and animals on display, as well as sideshows, carnival rides etc. The CWA or other special interest groups might have exhibitions of handicrafts, cake decoration or other artistic efforts. There are competitions of various sorts such as Wood chopping, shearing, or horse, dog and cat shows. The most noticeable carnival ride on display that I saw yesterday has an air raid siren with it which must have really thrilled those young enough to enjoy such rides. This particular show is yearly, but it moves around the calendar to fit in with other scheduled events in the state, most noticeably the end of the yearly Rugby League round robin competition, next Sunday which is Father's Day.

~ Is there a regular summer fair where you live - county or state?

The largest Show or Fair in New South Wales is the Royal Easter Show which of course is at Easter, our autumn. This is held in Sydney at Homebush now, where we had the main venue for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I heard that they had a flying pigs exhibition last April, which would have been interesting to see. Apparently the pigs wear little cloaks, jump off a diving board into a large tank of water, swim to a ladder and climb out. Or was this all just porkies?

~ Do you have any special memories?

I don't go to the Sydney Royal Easter Show now as a rule, though I have many memories of what it used to be like in pre-Olympic times when it was at the old Showground at Moore Park.

As a child I was entranced by kewpie dolls all prettied up with gauze and glitter, sometimes with wings and tinsel. These kewpie dolls were tied to a cane and if I got one it would last for weeks, until it got dusty, started to fade only to mysteriously vanish when there was a domestic cleanup. I used to take the cane off so I could play dolls with them before they finally bit the dust.

We also used to have windmills or whirligigs on canes as well which were fun to watch turning in the wind when we got home. And I used to like the laughing clowns, the sort of sideshow where one could win a small stuffed toy. And of course there were silly hats and masks which were fun to wear as there are still today. There were other things that I wasn't allowed to see, and which wouldn't be shown today, such as the bearded lady or boxing competitions like Jimmy Sharman's.

We used to get sample bags that cost next to nothing, being industrial promotions, and which really did have samples of useful products in them. Such as little tins of household paint, made by Taubmans or Dulux. Once afterwards I tried to paint my bedroom walls with them, making a right mess. And I agree we could really make ourselves sick on the food.

I remember we once took my mother and two oldest children to the show. The younger child, aged four at the time, managed to get lost in a trice when the crowd got a bit thick. And we were absolutely frantic trying to find her. Eventually we were told by the police that she was at the missing children tent, where we found her, calmly eating an icecream. I think it was about then that I lost my liking for going to the Show. After that we went normally to the local show, where losing children was far less likely, and from where they were able to walk home if the worst came to the worst.

~ Anything else you want to tell us about your fair - unusual competitions, special traditions, neat performers, etc.

Once upon a time we used to have an extra day off school so we could go to the last day of the show. It used to be called Children's day at the show and probably the best time to go. Nowadays the children are on School holidays at Easter anyway. Even at the local show we used to be able to get bags for coming films. I would have liked to know whether there was one last weekend for Voyage of the Dawn Treader or for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

If you ever see a film or a play called Summer of the Seventeenth Doll the Sydney Royal Easter Show is the fair portrayed in it. Is the Iowa State fair the one in Charlotte's Web? And which town is it held in? Spencer?

We've got the State Fair in Raleigh, NC (I've never been to that one) and we also have the local County Fair, which I have been too a few times. Last year marked my first ever corn dog....delicious...*mouth waters*. They were practically giving Cheerwine away and I nabbed a tasty funnelcake too. I also rode a Ferris Wheel for the first time in my life. Last year's fair was pretty memorable!

I love the State Fair. I love the state fair.

Up until the last few years of my life, I have always lived in the town that hosted a state fair so I've gone every single year. Nothing like the smell of fried food, the screams of kids riding rides, the livestock, the car and horse races... yeah.

The Kansas State Fair is right around the corner (the weekend after Labor Day weekend actually) and of course, I'll be there.

What is your favorite thing to do at the fair?

I know this is crazy, but eating all of the fattening food. Course I walk most of it off as I can walk several miles in a day while there.

It used to be the rides, but now I can do without those unless I'm dragged along on one. Unfortunately they took away my favorite ride several years ago which was the double ferris wheel. I only rode it once with my dad, and I'm so glad that I did cause the next year it was gone. *sniffles*

Have you ever entered an exhibit?

Last year was the first time I've ever entered anything in the fair. My own family never did when I was growing up, but my husband's family does all the time. So I thought that'd be kind of fun. I didn't win anything, but my father-in-law won best-in-show for his milo heads.

This year I'm entering a couple pictures of my pets, my salsa, and possibly some tomatoes (if they're still in any kind of decent shape, which they may not be). I have high hopes for my salsa.

Last year marked my first ever corn dog....delicious...*mouth waters*.

At the Kansas State Fair, we have Pronto Pups. I don't think that's exclusive to Kansas, but I'm not sure. They're a glorified corndog and my husband and I are addicted. We'll go through four to six each while we're there (that's over a period of a week and a half mind you ... for those of you who were becoming disturbed )

Another favorite, corn on the cob dipped in butter and sprinkled with some kind of unhealthy salty flavoring. I always get that one on the way out cause I need dental floss immediately afterwards.

Other foods I have to get at least once a year while I'm there is a deep-fried Snickers bar.... , my most recent discovery of deep-friend Oreos (truly my very favorite thing now). There's a place here in Kansas known as Krehbiels and they have the best bratwursts in the state. So I gotta get one of those.

And then there's the more usual caramel apples, onion blossoms (oy, these are killer), funnel cakes, cotton candy. I don't have to get these, but I'll usually get at least one or two of them.

I was listening to the radio the other day talking about the Texas State Fair (the inventors of most traditional and weird fair food). Lately it hasn't been terribly exciting. Just something that hasn't been deep fat fried before. But this year they are introducing deep fried lemonade. The radio djs were like "how on earth do you deep fry lemonade?!?!!" I guess they missed out on two years ago when they made deep fried Coke. It's not as cool or exciting as you'd think. They just mixed Coke (or some other soda) into the batter and fried it like a funnel cake. So I'll be curious to see if the deep fried lemonade makes it up here this year. It usually does.

Based on that description of deep fried coke, the deep fried lemonade might end up tasting like a lemony cake - and I love lemon cake!

I enjoy the state fair here as well. Ours is typically mid-August, so extreme heat can put a real damper on it. I wish we had our sometime after labor day when it is cooler. While I've still been unable to track down a famous deep fried snickers, I have enjoyed the Corn-on-the-Cob (my favorite) and those really big corn dogs. That corn batter tastes so much better. We also have a really good steakhouse and a pork producers tent. The steakhouse, in particular, makes me feel like I just stepped into a John Wayne movie.

Aside from the food, my next favorite thing about the state fair is the animals. Last year, we got to see a Llama costume contest - some of those Llamas were really put out to be dressed up! It was pretty funny. I had no idea what was going on until I came around the corner and met a grouchy Llama all alone in a stall with ballet slippers and a tutu on.

I also can't seem to see enough chickens or rabbits or pigs or goats, etc. Chickens and rabbits especially. I like ugly chickens.

My favorite OLD memory was seeing the President speak when I was a little girl and wearing a really big, bright yellow straw cowboy hat with strange feathers. There was a heckler in the crowd (which was packed into the livestock exhibit floor) and I thought that was weird, just because I didn't know there was such a thing. I do remember the bright red, white, and blue banners and the sweet smell of straw and how small the president looked from where I was standing. After it was over, I got my pony ride and a trip to the hall of mirrors.

My favorite NEW memory was taking my daughter there for the first time a couple of summers ago. She was four and in love with super heroes. A vendor saw her do something (I can't remember what, but it was very sweet) and he decided she needed a reward, so he presented her with a giant, inflated Incredible Hulk. He was taller than my daughter! She and I spent the rest of the day, not walking and holding hands, but holding the Hulk's hands as we carried him between us.

At the Kansas State Fair, we have Pronto Pups. I don't think that's exclusive to Kansas, but I'm not sure. They're a glorified corndog and my husband and I are addicted.

The Minnesota Fair has both corn dogs and pronto pups, and some of my friends have definite preferences for one or the other - and, at times, even which stand you buy them from.

I've tried the deep-fried Snickers bar and thought it was pretty good! There's also chocolate-covered key lime pie (not deep-fried but still on a stick) that's delicious. I also recall deep-fried Twinkies and Coke as well. Something new last year was "Big Fat Bacon" - deep fried, of course. I like bacon but couldn't bring myself to try it.

I do like eating the deep-fried foods, especially since it's just once a year. And we usually share portions; one basket of cheese curds is just enough to satisfy everyone (though now that the kids are getting bigger they want to eat more, so next year we may need to get more).

The Fair also offers some novelties (for the Northland, anyway) such as alligator or catfish on a stick, hushpuppies, and other "southern US" foods.

Is the Iowa State fair the one in Charlotte's Web? And which town is it held in? Spencer?

I think the fair in that book is a generic county fair; state fairs tend to be much larger in size and attendance. The Iowa State Fair is held in the capital of Des Moines, in south-central Iowa.

Stargazer. We might have met, and not known it. As a Minnesotan I extend the hug of friendship across the border

One never knows! It's very possible, especially since I actually live in Minnesota, and its State Fair is the one I attend most often. Sorry if I was unclear in my enthusiasm to quote the State Fair musical.

I enjoyed reading your memories, Cymru. Having kids along can be such a treat! After our group began including little kids a number of years ago, I saw old familiar sights in a new light. They were excited about everything, especially the animals, and that enthusiasm is contagious.

Deep fried lemonade sounds really gross!

Our family has gone to the Alaska State Fair almost every year since probably around 1999. (It's hard to remember exactly when, but I was still pretty young) My favorite old memory is going on a kiddie ride (flying cars) with my young siblings. It was probably the first ride I ever went on beside the merry-go-round. It was exhilarating, to a kid like me. I had so much fun. That was when our Papa still went to the fair with us. He doesn't come anymore; the crazy atmosphere is too much for him.

Confession:

I do go on the Ferris wheel every year, usually with a sibling. This year, with DP Miley. We had a great time giggling at the teen couple kissing in the other basket-thingy. (what is the proper term for those?) How immature of us.

waggawerewolf27, thanks for the Aussie Show report!

Or was this all just porkies?

Porkies?! My grandfather used that word when he was visiting. Us kids had never heard it before, but now we're all using it. It's nice to know another person uses it, too. /digression

This year I did enter a couple exhibits; sewing projects. I didn't win anything. In the past I have won a couple ribbons for small cross-stitch pieces, though. Meltintalle, that's so neat about your Narnia dress! Thanks for sharing that!

This year and last year there was an equestrian show group, Cavallo, that performed. It's kind of like a mini circus, and very good. They perform stunts on horseback, horse/human dances, all sorts of neat stuff. As a horse lover, needless to say I was almost drooling. Oh, and nice costumes, too.

Something new last year was "Big Fat Bacon" - deep fried, of course. I like bacon but couldn't bring myself to try it.

This year we discovered chocolate dipped bacon at the ice-cream bar booth. On a stick, of course. We couldn't bring ourselves to try those, either.

A favorite new memory, from this year: One of the big foods at our fair, along with onion blossoms and roasted corn (both of which I find mediocre), is sweet kettle popcorn. This year my family purchased two large bags and were snacking as we walked to the exit. It was getting late, so some of the vendors were trying to get rid of their cooked products. As we passed a kettle corn place, the proprietor called out to us, "Why are you guys eating that stuff! We've got the best stuff right here!" "Compare the ratio of dark kernels to light in your bags to the ratio in ours - the dark ones are the good ones!" and ended up giving us two bags of theirs for about half price in exchange for us turning over one of the competitor's bags. This exchange was all really loud for the benefit of passers by. Embarrassing, you betcha, but tons of fun.

Adeona, at our fair they give everyone green participation ribbons if you don't place in one of the top three spots. (Or is it five? *isn't all that clear on how the grand and reserve grand spots work*)

I've heard that it's really hard to get ribbons with cross-stitch. You have to frame it so that the grain is just so and you can't have tails showing through the back of your work... I've never tried.

The llama costume show is tonight at our State Fair. I'm missing it, but those who went are supposed to get pictures. There is a rumour that gypsies and Darth Vader will put in an appearance. I suspect your ballet llama did fairly well, Cymru. If you can get something on your llamas feet, you get a bunch of points.

*likes kettle corn* At the local fair, the kettle corn vendor knows us well. At the State Fair, we usually get mini donuts.

Their is the perth royal show(their is one of these for every state and it is quite soon) then their is the brunswick show(one of the biggest one day shows). They are the only one si go to.

There's a place here in Kansas known as Krehbiels and they have the best bratwursts in the state. So I gotta get one of those.

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Sure. Now I will have to wait until I can make it to Kansas to complete my quest.
But, how can I be sure Best in the state does not mean it is perfect. Just the right flavore, and texture, no fat, with the right mixture of seasoning.
Then there is the proper cooking time, and temprature. too little, and the skin is elastic. To much, and you have the overbearing charred tast.
Perhapse it is a fruitless search.

Last Saturday Lizzle and I were able to go to the fair again as part time helpers at a Bible Camp booth. We were partially responsible for the puppet show aspect. But there was plenty of free time for us to wander around with the other teen helpers. We would do a puppet show, then walk around until we got cold (it was raining busily all day), buy various snacks and go into Raven Hall,
the heated ( ) exhibition hall for the more moneyed vendors. Thaw and repeat.
We all had a great time. Oh, and all became forever indebted to the hot-tub/sauna salesman who took pity on us poor frozen waifs and let us soak our icy fingers in the hot-tubs and bask in the saunas.

Well, I used to always go to the Minnesota state fair, I liked the Luigi Fries and the ice cream in the dairy building...
But that's all that I can say for positive things. This year I didn't go and it was the best decision I ever made, lol. My allergies always get really bad at the fair, and I hate huge crowds of noisy people. And none of the buldings really interest me. So, I finally got smart and didn't go, lol