MN State Fair 2025: A Very Delayed Recap
The Start of a New Tradition?
It’s October but let me take you back to Labor Day 2025 for a minute or two. Team Anders checked “the Great Minnesota Get-Together” off our list of family adventures and here’s the recap of our three-hour adventure. We’re proud to have contributed 4 attendees to the 1,940,869 Minnesotans who attended the state fair this year. We figured what the heck — Jace hadn’t been since his middle school years, our house was put together enough, and we all needed a distraction from feeling a little sad after dropping Easton off at boarding school earlier in the week.
We debated whether to ride the bus or not but not knowing how the boys would do – 8yo and 5yo – we opted in on the “self-park” and headed in to St. Paul. Ignoring many locals’ warnings, we went on Saturday morning around 9:00 am and were pleasantly surprised when we found parking on the north side of the fairground in a private lot. We paid private lot prices (and apparently demand was high that day) but nonetheless it was close, available and a short walk for the kids to the north-side Gate 2. The temps started out nice and cool so it was a perfect day to be outdoors after some of the crazy heat we apparently brought from Florida. The crowds were moderate and we plotted our way, first, to the rides!
Rides, Games, and Sightseeing
We strolled down Cooper St. (why not?) with our eyes on the prize – the rides at The Kidway. Along the way we stopped to see the Vikings merch tent, gawked at the car of my hockey mom dreams at the Chevy dealership, threw some {inflatable} hatchets at the Boy Scouts of America booth, complete with a complimentary side of poison ivy/oak education, and 50% of us tried out the haunted house. I know my limits.
Once we ran out of tickets – and kudos to Jace who only bought 400 this time after learning his lesson at last year’s Strawberry Festival – we moved along to see the cool stuff at the Agriculture Horticulture Building (and the crowd goes wild!) We saw bees, and honey, and all types of food made with honey, and scarecrows, and lots of cool native grass and plant displays…and wait, where did the kids go?
Oh. Bored. Dang.
So we found a game for them to play that involved talking about poop and they were happy {enough} again.
What We Ate
My Instagram feed was filled with “try this!” and “must have!” that so I had an idea of a few things that sounded kind of tasty before I went but Jace needed no influencing. His first culinary adventure was a decisive walk to the corn dog stand. He isn’t picky and quickly found BigDog Corndogs, apparently a MN State Fair favorite! 100% of Team Anders agreed. We only got one and shared it so I might make plans for 2026 just to get one just for me.
We also had some fresh and tasty sugar/cinnamon mini donuts, delicious ice cream cones and the worst crab rangoon I’ve ever had. The rangoon came from an IG recommendation and if I remembered the account that touted it as worthy of my $13 I’d definitely unfollow… but hey, you win some, ya lose some. All-in-all, the food choices are just way too overwhelming so I’ll need a better game plan next year. One thing I regret was not walking out with a buck of cookies from Sweet Martha’s but by the time we walked by the kids were on E.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, Jace and I were glad we rallied the troops for the trip. It was a fun day with the boys and it was neat to see how important this event is to so many Minnesotans! I mean just LOOK at how many people made it in the gates in the three hours from when we started… the crowd was Disney-like!
Although we said we’re on the fence about a 2026 return, I suspect we will. Jace and I may just go back for a date day to explore a little more — the littles can only cover so much ground before wanting to tap out. I could easily nerd out for quite a while in that agriculture building and and we never made it to the butter sculptures or the livestock area! Check back in around Christmas next year to learn all about the 2026 fair 😛