Since moving here, the Minnesota State Fair seems to be a Big Deal. I’ve lived in Iowa and Wisconsin before coming here and it seems that Minnesota makes the biggest deal about it. But it could also be due to a couple other factors:
-I live closer to a state fair location than I have in the past
-Minnesota has the most uneven population distribution of the 3 (I think it’s something around a half, maybe more, of the state’s population lives in the Twin Cities metro area, which is also where the state fair is held).
The big attraction here seems to be all of the foods you can get on a stick. Go figure.
The Minnesota State Fair is probably the best i’ve been to probably for the reasons you’ve stated.
The Wisconsin State Fair is pretty popular since it’s in the Milwaukee Metro area where Wisconsins population is fairly concentrated. It even draws people from Illinois and Madison both about and hour away. However, it does have to share the summer with Summerfest which occurs in Milwaukee about a month earlier.
The Florida State Fair was pretty dismal. Florida just has too many big cities too far apart (Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville) to draw the state together for one big fair.
And isn’t Illinois State Fair somewhere near Springfield? Hours away from the Chicago metro area.
Is that a fact? Funny, I’ve been here nearly 50 years, and don’t ever recall seeing a State Fair here. Back when I was a kid, we used to have the Southeastern Fair at the old Lakewood Fairgrounds, but not a State Fair.
On the other hand, I’ve been to the Georgia State Fair in Macon several times, and according to this site, it’s been held in Macon every year since 1851.
Macon being more in the geographic center of the State makes it a better place for farmers from South Georgia to bring their exhibits.