2024 Fair Visit #5

One Last Visit

We were on the fence about making our traditional Labor Day visit to the Fair because we felt like we had already covered the Fair pretty well this year. What tipped us towards going after all was that we hadn’t seen any of the horse show yet, and that when we told Henry at the last minute that Kidz Bop was playing at the Grandstand on Labor Day, he was really excited to go see them. So, we snagged some last-minute Kidz Bop tickets and away we went!

Katie wasn’t up for a full day at the Fair so Henry and I headed out early to check out the horse speed event finals starting at 9am.

The plan for the day was to take it easy, taking in a series of shows until it was time for the Grandstand concert. That would keep us from getting too tired hiking all over the Fair.

We wanted to bring breakfast to the horse show, so we hopped in the line for Paella Depot, a new vendor this year. We were in line before opening, so we got to watch them get their operation up and running. Check out the size of these pans and the paella shovel!

We picked up a bowl of the chicken & chorizo paella with a fried egg on top (because in life when you have the option to add an egg on top of something, you add the egg. Always.)

This was really quite good! The rice was carmelized which gave it a great texture and made it super yummy. The veggies in it were super fresh, and the chicken and chorizo were both tender and flavorful. Henry scraped every last bit of rice out of this bowl!

We also got their guava flavored agua fresca. We also watched them make this and they are definitely hand crafted with fresh fruit. This was also yummy, but I would probably try one of their other flavors next time around.

We took our breakfast into Warner Coliseum and set up shop for the horse show.

First up was barrel racing. The horses burst into the arena from the entry gate and immediately hit a jump, then race down to do a figure eight around three barrels, then race back over the jump to the finish. A good run takes about 16 seconds or so.

A lot of the riders are quite young, and the winner today looked like she was about 10 - and she beat her mom who was also riding!

We washed down breakfast with some all-you-can-drink milk from across the street.

As the horse show went on, I did a quick food run, returning with a never-before-tried item, Duke’s Poutine.

This has never looked good to me before, and it also felt like a big commitment, but it seemed like something Henry might like, as he loves soft french fries and also mashed potatoes and gravy. Turns out this was also really good! The fresh cheese curds give us an alternative curd form at the Fair, and the flavor of the gravy was nice. I don’t know that I need this at every Fair, but I’m glad I tried it, and Henry once again scraped the bowl clean!

The horse show continued with the pole-weaving event, which is pretty self-explanatory.

After a couple of hours of the horse show, we headed up towards the Family Stage for our next show. After all the savory food to start the day, we were ready for something sweet, so we stopped at Bridgeman’s.

They’ve been on this corner of the Fair for 50 years serving up ice cream and nostalgia - Bridgeman’s has been a local Minneapolis ice cream destination for generations.

Henry wanted chocolate so he opted for the classic brownie sundae.

His third bowl scraped clean of the day, so I guess he liked it!

I tried their new sundae, the Lady Slipper Marble Sundae - a layered concoction of strawberry ice cream, lemon marshmallow cream, and ladyfinger cookies.

I love lemon things, and I don’t love chocolate with ice cream, so this was perfect for me. Bridgeman’s ice cream is always nice so the strawberry was a great base. The lemon cream was definitely the highlight for me - lemon is one of my favorite flavors. And the cookies were a nice crunchy counterpoint. My only complaint is that it was actually too much of a good thing - it’s pretty sweet, and there was probably one too many layers for me, so I couldn’t finish it.

Our next show was basically a DJ dance party for kids at the Family Fair stage called Kidsdance. You-know-who of course was front and center on stage.

I relaxed in the shady seating while Henry worked off that sundae.

After that, on the same stage was Alley-Oops, billed as a circus comedy show. It was more comedy than circus, and it was quite silly and funny. There were some impressive tricks though.

Katie joined us during the show, and she didn’t arrive empty-handed - she snagged the Hamline Church Dining Hall’s new Swedish ‘Sota Sliders. They are famous for their cranberry-wild rice meatball, and here they’ve made it into a slider patty and topped it with dill havarti and a relish of beets, red onions, peppers, lingonberries and cranberries, on a brioche bun.

This was just ok for me. The meatball was good as it always is, and the brioche bread was nice too. Where it missed for me were the toppings. The cheese was undetectable and the relish was a bit bland, considering all of those ingredients. Not bad, but I don’t need them again.

After the shows, Henry wanted to ride a few more rides. Since we were next to the Kidway, Katie and Henry popped in there while I ran a shopping errand.

Katie said that the scream decibels were high on this one!

I know it feels like we’re just scarfing down the food, but we’ve been at these shows for a couple of hours. It was almost time to head into the Grandstand for the big concert, but we needed to grab some lunch first.

Katie split off for some Mouth Trap cheese curds while Henry and I beelined for the pork chops, which are more popular than ever now that our hopeful future vice president showed up at the Fair on Sunday and had one.

Food secured, we found a nice little patch of shady grass in the newly spiffed up area near the new welcome wall, between Miracle of Birth and Adventure Park.

The chops were excellent today! I’m sparing you the picture where Henry was attacking the bone like a Tasmanian Devil, but suffice it to say that it was yet another dish that Henry completely devoured.

We also forgot to take a picture of the curds until they were almost gone, so cue the sad curds picture:

Mouth Trap is the same every time, which is to say, amazing!

We’re done eating now, right? Ha. HARDLY! We were right across the street from Pitchfork Sausage, home of the steak tips!

Now, here I will readily admit that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I ordered the large steak dinner and a side of mushrooms.

I forgot how much food that was! The toppings are piled on so high that you can’t even see the steak tips or the mashed potatoes. We did eat almost all of it eventually. It wasn’t quite as amazing as it has been in past years, but it was still a solid B for me. And the mushrooms are so good! This is a must-share dish though, or else it will do you in for several hours at the Fair.

We were finally ready for the Kidz Bop concert. If you’re not familiar, Kidz Bop is a group of tweens-to-early-teens who do covers of popular songs with kid-friendly lyrics. They’re insanely popular (11 billion streams, 24 million records sold) with several groups in countries around the world, their own SiriusXM channel, tons of YouTube videos, and a tour each summer.

Henry’s outgrown Kidz Bop but it was a huge part of growing up for him, his favorite stuffed animal is named Kidz Bop, and we still put it on in the car for fun from time to time. We had never seen the show live and tickets were reasonable so we went for it!

It’s of course all highly coreographed and completely lip synced, but the performers are really talented dancers for their age, and of course all the kids in the crowd go nuts. We had fun singing along (for the adults, it’s amusing to see how they change the lyrics to be kid-friendly)!

After the concert we were all pretty tired, so we headed for the exit. Henry requested one last taste of Sweet Martha’s cookies.

The line was ree-diculous! Martha is just rolling in dough somewhere right now (see what I did there?!?!) I finally made it to the front. My instructions were to buy a cup of cookies, but if you send me into the gauntlet that is the Sweet Martha’s line on a busy day, I’m not coming away with no measly cup. Bucket me!

(Don’t worry, many were eaten by the time this photo was taken!) Hey, at least I had SOME restraint - the guy in the next line over ordered FOUR buckets! And most of our cookies would survive the trip home to be enjoyed later.

Ok, one last treat in hand, we really did head for the exits. EXCEPT - along the way we passed the DJ booth across from Turkey to Go where they’re always playing music and trying to get the crowd to dance. As we passed, the opening notes of Thriller played, and that was all the invitation Henry needed.

After Thriller, they kept the Michael Jackson flowing with Billie Jean, and that’s when Fair magic struck!

I’ll let this Go Henry! video speak for itself!

Yeah, that’s the most Henry thing ever! Of COURSE he wins over the Fair crowd and has everyone chanting his name!

Well, we certainly weren’t going to top that, so we exited on a high note. I can’t think of a more fantastic and memorable way to wrap up the 2024 Minnesota State Fair!

And so another year of Fair-going is in the books for the Fabrizio family. So many foods tried, so many miles walked, so many talented Minnesotans appreciated, and so many new memories made.

Of course, my work isn’t quite done here - I still need to put together my annual Fair awards post! I feel like we REALLY did the Fair this year, so I think it’s going to be a tough year to pick winners! Give me a couple of days to get it together.

I hope your Fair visits were as fun and memorable as ours were this year! And if you’re experiencing the Fair from afar through this blog, I hope I was able to help you feel a little bit like you were there alongside us. There’s nothing quite like the Minnesota State Fair, and I love sharing our adventures with you all!