What makes ‘The Great Minnesota Get-Together’ the nation’s best state fair

Renee Alexander, CEO of the Minnesota State Fair, describes her job as “a dream come true that I didn’t know that I had as a kid.”

“I was in grade school, and I remember just sitting right around the corner over here on the space tower and watching the parade go by,” Alexander told Straight Arrow News during the first week of the 12-day event, which runs through Labor Day.

“And that was when we used to do the parade at 6 p.m., so I remember it was golden hour and seeing a high school marching band go by,” she said. “And the parade is still one of my favorite things, and high school marching bands still make me tear up a little bit today.”

Billed as “The Great Minnesota Get-Together,” the fair draws nearly 2 million people each year with the promise of fried food, concerts and — most importantly — community. 

The sense of community is especially powerful this year as the Twin Cities mourn the victims of a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School on Aug. 27. Flags at the fairgrounds were lowered to half-staff, and a moment of silence was held to honor the victims.

What makes the Minnesota State Fair the best?

Over its more than 100-year history, the Minnesota State Fair has received its share of accolades. In 2025, USA Today 10Best ranked it as the best in the nation ahead of the state fairs in Iowa, Wisconsin and Texas. 

More than 1.9 million people visited the fair during 2024’s 12-day run. By comparison, the State Fair of Texas — which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 19 this year — drew nearly 2.4 million visitors to its “24 days of fun” last year, giving Minnesota the edge on daily attendance. 

Part of the appeal in Minnesota has been the event’s longevity. 

“The fair was in place as a territorial fair in 1855 before we were even a state, and it was about encouraging people to come here and build agriculture and industry in this area that people thought was a frozen tundra,” said Alexander, who has worked on the event for 20 years, including three as CEO. 

The fair has not recently studied its economic impact. However, Alexander estimated the event brings close to $300 million a year into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

“So that’s about the size of a Super Bowl that goes into a market and leaves,” she said. 

And the fairgrounds in St. Paul see plenty of use outside of the 12 days leading up to Labor Day. There are more than 150 non-fair events throughout the year, including a Kickoff to Summer event over the Memorial Day weekend. 

“We have entrepreneurs that are on these fairgrounds, that are building small businesses, that are sustaining businesses,” Alexander said. “Kids that have their first job, retirees that are coming in to work during the fair. So it really is an economic driver for these 12 days.”

Sense of community

The Minnesota State Fair is about the people who work and visit the event. 

“This fair belongs to the people of Minnesota, and they take such ownership and pride in their fair,” Alexander told SAN. “Our goal is to have something for everyone, whether it’s food or music or arts or livestock. It really is a place that brings people together from throughout the state.”

It’s the sense of community that has kept author and TV host Andrew Zimmern in Minnesota for more than three decades. 

“It’s where I got sober,” Zimmern explained to Straight Arrow News. “I had tried to kill myself. It didn’t work. I was a user of people and taker of things, and had a really horrible drug and alcohol problem that had literally cratered my life, and some very loving people sent me on my way to treatment in Minnesota. I stayed, I got sober here, stayed sober, still am sober and never left.”

Zimmern believes the Minnesota State Fair is arguably “the greatest cultural event in the world.”

“[The fair] doesn’t define us, but it’s the best cultural tent pole to explain us,” he said. “And the entire state turns out for it. And it’s actually not too hard an elbow turn from this idea of a community that loved me up when I finally landed here to this explanation of why this community, in so many ways, is as close-knit as it is.”

The Minnesota State Fair is written into the history of the United States for more than just Minnesotans. 

“Famously, Teddy Roosevelt gave his ‘Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick’ speech here in Minnesota at the Minnesota State Fair,” Zimmern said. “Some of the buildings are 150 years old — permanent structures. Some of the food booths have been there for over 100 years.”

But like at any fair, Zimmern said, it’s the agriculture community that makes the event “hum.”

“So, you can go to the cow barn and see 75 species of bovine animals and 14-year-old kids sleeping on a hay bale next to their prized heifer,” he said. “Obviously, there’s blue ribbons for everything from needle pointing to 800 types of maple syrup that are graded in jars and on display in our creative activities building, there’s an arts gallery that is massive with thousands of submissions every year, and it’s the place that everyone in the state comes at least once.”

Come hungry

State fairs are synonymous with fried foods like mini-donuts, cheese curds and corn dogs. Meanwhile, they’ve also become homes for innovations like deep-fried butter and ranch dressing. Zimmern, who has traveled the world for shows like “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern,” says where there are people, there will be food. 

“As I’ve seen in jungle markets in Africa and South America and Southeast Asia and anywhere else that you gather people for one purpose, and people are stationary for more than three or four hours, food springs up,” he said. “And entrepreneurship is not a 21st-century idea. We write books about it now, but it is an ancient idea, the most ancient idea.”

“‘How can I make a few extra pennies doing something while all these people are gathering?’ And so people started building holes in the ground and barbecuing meat. Grandma started making pies, jams and jellies and lefse.” 

While Zimmern considers the Minnesota State Fair the world’s greatest cultural gathering, he acknowledges the same might be said of similar events around the country.

“I don’t know of a state fair that isn’t a good time,” he said.