Overview The Minnesota State Fair is the Great Minnesota Get-Together, twelve days ending on Labor Day on a 322-acre fairground between Minneapolis and St. Paul, where every year a 90-pound block of butter is carved into the head of Princess Kay of the Milky Way. It began as a territorial fair in 1855, became the state fair in 1859, moved to its present grounds in 1885 and went to twelve days in 1975. The Minnesota State Agricultural Society runs it, and the fair stopped taking state government money in 1949; it pays its way on tickets, vendor fees, rentals, sponsorship and foundation grants. The grounds are known for their gardens and their Art Deco and Works Progress Administration buildings. On site A day runs from the barns and the Miracle of Birth Center to Machinery Hill, the 4-H building and the Creative Activities displays, with a parade through the grounds every afternoon at 2. The Mighty Midway and the Kidway carry the rides, alongside fixtures like the Giant Slide, the Space Tower, the Skyride and Ye Old Mill, a tunnel-of-love boat ride that opened in 1915. Sweet Martha's sells its cookies by the bucket. The Grandstand seats 17,000 for the headline concerts. Trolleys loop the grounds, and Park and Ride and State Fair Express buses bring people in. In 2025 the North End Event Center housed a Journey to Space exhibit. Track record Attendance set its record in 2019 at 2,126,551, and ran 1,925,904 in 2024, 1,940,869 in 2025 and 1,923,325 in 2026. The fair put its economic impact on the Twin Cities at $268 million in 2018, and in 2024 its app had 166,400 users and 31.7 million page views. USA Today readers voted it the best state fair in 2025, and Travel and Leisure named it the state fair most worth traveling for in 2026. Sleep Number, a sponsor, said: "Our participation as a sponsor has elevated our sales and lead capture year after year; due to these successes we have been able to increase our commitment three years in a row." AARP reported, "We reached our goal for the entire event in one day!" Brand presence The fair sells whole pieces of itself. A day sponsor takes one of the twelve days, a trolley sponsor puts its name on the trolleys and their stops across the grounds, and others take a zone such as the Mighty Midway, the Kidway or the Creative Activities Building, or an exhibit in the North End Event Center. Trolley and day packages come with exhibit space on the grounds, and the fair's sponsorship team builds each package to the partner.