MN State Fair Day 2 Tues ToDoTC.com To Do Twin Cities Date: Sept 3, 2026 265 Snelling Ave N St Paul, MN 551108 651-288-4400 www.mnstatefair.org Home All AllZIP # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

State Fair Second Time 2026

E&I have been going to the state fair every year for 30+ years. Independently we have been going for 40 years. At one time in the past, we drove & parked in the fair. That has been replaced with the busses. To us not a step forward. If you want to park on the fair ground, you must get there by 6Am, something we don’t do. 8 AM is fine with us. When you have grandkids add two hours to any time to be accurate, got to be flexible.

But our second time to the state fair was just E and me the grandkids went on day one. Something we will change next year. Next year E and I will go on day one we will take the grandkids on Tuesday, so we will swap the days. We are going to look at the schedule to make sure our granddaughter can see some horse shows which she missed on day one.

But the other change we will do as we did on this trip we Uber’d. It took us ten minutes to get an Uber to our house. Ten minutes to get to the U of M gate and a ten-minute walk in. Plus $30 for an Uber.

Since we DON’T do lines, we arrived an hour and a half faster than if we rode the bus. How much is an hour and half of YOUR time worth? Now that said realize we were dropped off at a non-legal Uber entrance at the U of M.

The two official Uber drop off and pick points are on Snelling on Como to the South and the Snelling northeast entrance to the fair. Anyway, you still need to deal with traffic and the Como Pickup traffic took us an extra five minutes to find our Uber.

We have a solution for next year. But since it turns out there is a lot of people that read my columns it will remain a SECRET. Find your own solution. This suggestion will save you hours.

So going to the state fair without grandkids, the second time, changes things. We spend about 45 minutes going through the new Marketplace by the Northwest U of M entrance. The Marketplace is not necessarily as place for kids, so I got a few pictures of it. Think mostly clothes, hats, signs and unusual stuff. There is also a good bar and a few newer places to eat.

So, after searching and finding nothing to give up our cash for we walked a few blocks to the grandstand to shop some more. Again, nothing to die for. But the second week of the fair has less crowds.

After which we walked to the main fair informational booth at the bottom of the grandstand upper ramp. It was at the information booth we asked about official Uber pickup/dropoff points. By the look on the informational specialist face you would thought I have asked where the fairs dragon Laire was. She was stumped. I looked it up on the map she handed us and is as I wrote earlier. But we now HAD a map to show her.

From the informational booth. We walked to the international Bazar on the Southeast corner of the grounds. We know a few vendors there… well we did last year. But we did see the return of the fun sign lady. And since we have a new Hot tub, we got a hot tub sign. That took 30 minutes to get the personalized aspect done and I think cost $40, worth every penny.

After the International Bazaar we walked the east end of the fair south of main entrance. BTW if you ever want to see controlled Bedlam the main entrance is the place for you. We did it last year when our bus stopped there. Never again!

But between the International Bazaar and the main entrance is their largest free music venue on the fair. If you are tired or need 40 winks that is where you should go. The musical groups may not be American Idol quality, but they sing their hearts out. It’s a good place to recharge and there are a lot of food and drink booths nearby.

Across from the bandshell is the round crop building. We could easily spend an hour there each year.

 There are about eight slices of building area. One is for apples & grapes, where the annual MN wine judging happens. We usually see winery owner friends there.

The building also has a bee area. And the area for breweries is a popular area. Then they have competition for the FFA chapters which as a former FFA President I enjoy. Then you can look for the long line, wraps halfway around the building. I would have pictures but remember we don’t do LINES!

But two years ago, we went through the crop exhibit. Why?  I don’t know, it was there and free. Any way I was looking at something and saw a sign for the MN Mushroom society for $20 a year. We know very little about Mushrooms but like them on food.

We joined the Mushroom Society for the year. If you are looking to join, you can search for it but their official name is the MN Mycological Society. The annual field trip was a fun morning, well other than the PhDs arguing over what Genus and Species the mushrooms were in. It was a fun informational day.

We normally go to the MN Wine building across the street where we see some more of our winery friends. This day we passed on that. So, we walked through the food building down the street to see what was new foods for the year. But we don’t do lines. Did you know some people actually stood in line for an hour and a half for food? I don’t need Peachy donuts THAT Bad.

We walked another block to Midway Men’s club for the best hamburger at the fair. The taste is fine. The price is reasonable, but what they do with the money for the St Paul kids is amazing. The are located across from the butterfly building.

The burgers are under $10 each and they have beer & pop and places to sit.

Then we walked past the kids rides up machinery hill to the north end. There we saw the dog exhibit since we own a dog magazine.

Then with rain looming we looked at the line of the sky ride and on this side, it was only a few people long, verses a block long line on the other side.

So, we rode the sky ride to the main midway. On the way to the midway we saw two buildings people throw their bra and panties on. It’s an interesting ride. We were one of the last ones left on the ride as there was lighting spotted and they were getting the sky riders off.

Once on the midway we returned to the International Bazaar and picked up the sign we had made. Well done and worth every cent.

Then we made our way to the southeast gate next to the haunted mansion. Once on Como we ordered our Uber. There was a lot of traffic, and it took a couple of minutes to find our Uber. The cost to New Brighton was about $35. It was a whole lot faster than the bus. It was a great day at the Fair.

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