No Fair
The 2020 Minnesota State Fair has been canceled due to COVID-19, the sixth time in the fair’s one hundred-year history that this choice has been made. I expected the cancelation and strongly believe that the fair officials made the right call.
Then why do I feel so sad?
Crowded, colorful midway
My depiction of the State Fair in Clockwise is as accurate as I could make it. Yes, over 118,000 people commonly attend on a weekday. The river of people that I describe is a reality. People are shoulder to shoulder in that river almost the entire day, and many fair-goers attend multiple days. Some people come every single day for the entire twelve-day run. They lean in to share food, and they eat it with hands that are, to put it gently, not freshly washed. The drinking fountains flow from one thirsty sipper to another. People pack into the buildings to witness calves being born, the field corn being judged, the Butter Princesses being carved. In the aptly named Food Building, the line for deep-fried cheese curds snakes back and forth onto itself, so that newly-entered people bump elbows with those far ahead of them in the quest for curds. Huge electric fans are ineffective in circulating the air in the Fine Arts building, where the juried art show is held, to the rapt interest of many.
No doubt about it, the State Fair is an epidemiologist’s nightmare.
But I will miss it terribly.
Pride of the patch
The fair is an explosion of color that signals the beginning of fall for me. The temperature may be close to a hundred, yet the exhibit halls are full to bursting with harvest fare as well as with people. The one exhibit that I never, ever miss is the one devoted to giant pumpkins. These behemoths are dun-colored, blaze orange, and sherbet gold, and they typically weigh in at least eight hundred pounds each, some over a thousand. The ribbons they proudly bear on their polished sides are black and orange, giving me a delightful hint of Halloween in late August. They share a room in the Agriculture Building with butternut squash, sweet corn, pie pumpkins, broccoli, potatoes, and more. That room is a cornucopia of autumn goodness that will soon magically appear in the local farmers’ markets, as well. I look carefully at every display and think to myself, happily, “Bring it.”
Not everyone agrees with me about the fair’s appeal, needless to say. Twin Citizens and Greater Minnesotans alike can be divided into two camps: fair people and non-fair people. I know quite a few folks who share Greg Bracken’s disdain for the heat, the crowds, the smells, and the deep-fried food; they can’t be dragged to the fairgrounds. Yet everyone knows about the fair and most like to talk about it, whether they themselves enjoy going or not. I’ve had people ask me if I’m planning to attend and then tell me vociferously why they are staying away. Love it or loathe it, the State Fair is a fact of life in Minnesota that we all must recognize. It is as much fun to knock as it is to embrace.
The slogan of the fair, “The Great Minnesota Get-Together,” is an apt description. I love seeing people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds there, from 4-H kids in immaculate white shirts showing their lambs, to grandparents sharing their ice cream with sticky toddlers, to dating couples shyly holding each other’s sweaty hands. City-dwellers, suburbanites, and rural denizens spend more time mingling on the fairgrounds than they do at any other time of year. And really, who wouldn’t want to see a litter of newborn piglets, a Ferris Wheel showing its sharp colors against the evening sky, or a team of Clydesdales high-stepping down the parade route? We’re all in the fair together. And during this summer of murder, protests, tears, and demonstrations, we could’ve benefitted from a positive shared event, frankly. COVID has robbed us of so much, including a chance to throw ourselves into the exhausting, extreme, exhilarating, extraordinary, ordinary, sensational experiences that bring us together during those twelve days.
I hope that next year will be better. There must be a platter of Australian Battered Potatoes in my future.