• Skip to main content

Alex Gessner

Sometimes I make things.

straight to honeymoon pics

Minnesota State Fair 2018

September 9, 2018 By alex Leave a Comment

Having experienced 5 hours at the Minnesota State Fair, I can’t help but imagine a post-apocalyptic storyteller spinning a yarn that’s half as indulgent and twice as unbelievable as the real thing. Millions of people gather to celebrate the epitome of the epitome of life 150 years ago. Today’s best of yesterday’s best? You know what I mean.

Many of the attractions are judged. Judging things and ranking them and ribbons seem to be really big parts of the fair.

pretty iconic and expected. also, very good lookin’ corn.
mmmmmmm
cheese!
my mom makes better than this
grand champion oats
someone’s gotta put down all those ribbons
infusions and wines and vinegars and things
there was a lot of non-award winning bread on display
not so impressive
natural color crop art. plus word play. plus a mullet.
michelle obama in seeds. minnesota is a purple state.
leah judges the dahlias without her ribbons
amateur dahlias
award winning crop art
spring wheat
award for the best jarred tomato mixture.

 

In the dairy building next to the butter scrupltures, you can find some amazing chocolate malts.

The miracle-of-birth barn is gross, unless you enjoy seeing a two-hours-old calf that’s still sticky thinking about standing up for the first time, or 20 squirrel-sized piglets struggling to find an available teet on the recovering, ginormous sow. I mean, it’s also pretty cool, but there’s a reason there are hand-washing stations at every exit.

Here’s an assortment of random pics.

so many people
flower kaleidoscope
flower kaleidoscope
inside the miracle of birth building. drink it in.
inside the miracle of birth building. drink it in.
as my brother-in-law’s wife’s brother (my brother-in-law?) said, “who the fuck comes to the fair and says “i’m going to buy a pillow today”?
constant reminders that minnesota is a purple state
constant reminders that minnesota is a purple state
another look at the butter scuplturing up close
wat?

Last and foremost, there’s the food. There’s so so so much to be eaten here. It’s truly overwhelming. We ate a lot and only bothered to photograph a small number of things. I think the sentiment is really best captured by the young, overweight, boys in attendence. I heard one angrily exclaim to his mother in the tone that implies <I know I’ve said this a couple of times before and you thought I was kidding, but I know what I’m saying and I’m totally serious> “I want to try everything here that is sweet or fried.”

i challenge anyone to capture the mood of this fair better than an overweight tween with a gigantic corndog
the location of the best cheese curds in the world
leah holding the best cheese curds in the world
close-up of the best cheese curds in the world
pizza waffle sticks
lol. ashkenazis encouraged not to apply
spaghetti meatball dinner on a stick
amazing fries
CORN
mmmmm
hand dipped double bacon corn dogs
i wanted this bacon, but the line was too long
this place must go through a million cookies. they had a dozen lines full of people buying buckets of fresh cookies
excellent cookies considering the scale at which they’re produced.

Filed Under: Blog, Photos

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *