Every year I go to State Fair at least four times during the 11-day run. I love the Dairy State and it’s all right there for me to wrap my arms around and hug. I tease my husband, Dale, that we should have gotten married in the Swine Barn.
I ask people where they are from and they enjoy responding. Great places to ask are in the Coliseum or the barns during judging. I don’t understand what is going on and rural folks are happy to inform me.
Dale taught me the joys of people watching. I used to feel embarrassed about this, but there is nothing quite like sitting on one of the benches around the Central Mall Fountain and seeing Wisconsin pass by.
I learned to mind my manners. One year I got in trouble when I was viewing the annual Pom Competition (this year Sunday, Aug. 9). I told a friend the girls looked like horses with their long legs, manes of hair and big teeth. A mother of one of the girls turned around and I split before she could belt me.
Half the point of State Fair is the food, so I enter ready to chow down. My first stop is the Products Pavilion, where everything is “Made in Wisconsin.” It is a moral imperative to have a baked potato, the tart cherry juice and to tempt someone I’m with to buy maple syrup cotton candy so I can snag a piece.
I will go to hell for this, but I don’t like cream puffs. I still check out the Cream Puff Pavilion to watch them being made. In the same pavilion is Morgan’s Fudge stand. The way this three-generation family business pours out and molds fudge is performance art. Other fair foods can also be art. Eight finalists will cook off in the Sporkies, the annual food competition, Wednesday, Aug. 12.
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The hucksters inside the Exposition Center fascinate me. There are people in every aisle demonstrating products. One of the familiar faces is Larry. He has manned his booth for more than a quarter century selling peelers, a sacred tool for potatoes in our kitchen.
When the noise gets to me, I either head to the Department of Natural Resources Park or the Horticulture, Craft & Culinary Pavilion. I always have questions for the DNR staff and keep adding to my knowledge about the Great Lakes and Wisconsin wildlife. You can even find an Indian mound within this sanctuary.
I have no patience to make quilts, so I deeply admire the ones hanging in the Horticulture, Craft & Culinary Pavilion. Exhibits change daily. Here I pick up the Garden Walk punch card with a map to all the floral displays around the fair. This year I might get it punched at each location for a chance to win a $500 Gardener’s Supply Company gift card. The prize is new this year, as well as new carnival rides and games in SpinCity.
I always get over to SpinCity when I stay through the evening. The colored lights are something to behold in and of themselves, and what a blast to watch kids with more nerve than me get turned upside down or spun around.
I have to attend the fair on Monday, Aug. 10. There will be 60 artists around the grounds creating paintings in one day. The art will be hung in the Exposition Center on Tuesday, Aug. 11 and a panel will give out seven awards, including one for “Best Fair Animal.”
A great way to get to State Fair is by biking the Hank Aaron State Trail. You can find free bicycle racks near the Main Gate and Gate 2. You can take in backpacks and even wagons. I always carry with me sunscreen, earplugs (for getting close to bands), hand sanitizer (for after petting the animals), a poncho and dental floss (for after eating corn on the cob). Food and beverages are allowed, though no alcohol, cans or glass bottles. I bring a bottle of water to get me started, and then move on to the 25-cent glasses of flavored milk at the Milwaukee Bucks Milkhouse.
To avoid bad lines, I head over to the restrooms underneath the grandstand. There are four bathrooms and I have never had to wait to use a stall.
Why waste a minute buying tickets? You can visit wistatefair.com and purchase them to “Get Into Somethin’ Good” even faster.
