MUSIC PHOTOS | Toby Keith kicks off 2014 Minnesota State Fair

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It takes a big boot to kick-off opening night in the Grandstand at the Great Minnesota Get Together and Toby Keith was just the man to fill it August 21st. There is something about the fair that creates and energy and excitement that’s different from any other venue and when you get a beautiful night like we had on Thursday, you just can’t beat it. The Grandstand was packed to the edges with all kinds of music fans fortunate to be in attendance for Keith’s two-hour hit packed “Shut Up & Hold On” tour performance.Showing his Patriotism with Old Glory streaming from a microphone stand and cowboy boots decorated with the stars and stripes, Colt Ford started the evening out in style with a spirited performance. Day one is in the books, but the fun has only just started so don’t miss out on this year’s great line-up and we’ll see you at the Fair. 
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A peek at the Cold Climate Wine Competition

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It is a few days before the gates open at the 2014 Minnesota State Fair and I find myself peeking into a conference room at the University of Minnesota. Wine glasses and flutes clink together as official-looking-types wheel carts of red and white samples to the judging tables that flank the room. Grape growers, wine makers, chefs, instructors, and wine-loving volunteers are gathered to help judge the 6th Annual Cold Climate Wine Competition. I can smell wine on their collective breaths and worry that the light fragrance I tucked under my blouse early in the morning will contaminate the judges’ refined palates as they swirl and sip. Continue Reading

Spotlight on access – physical and virtual – at the 2014 Great Minnesota Get-Together!

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The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt form normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life. – Robert MacIver, sociologist

It’s State Fair time — when new taste treats compete with cheese curds for olfactory prominence, military issue 4-H dorms house weary teens demo-ing the latest in control of frac-sand or groundwater pollution, research-in-progress shares space with Goldie Gopher at the aU of M show-and-tell. Still, as J.V. Bailey (for whom the building that now houses the Minnesota State Fair Foundation is named) observed the “the State Fair approaches in scope and effort an institution of learning.” Continue Reading

This week in Saint Paul: Monday, August 18,–Sunday 24, 2014

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I have noticed the State Fairgrounds getting busier and busier. Folks have been breaking in the place and the anticipation is enough to stave off the pangs that come with the last gasp of summer. Over the next two weeks, a lot of people, young and old, will be back to school. Something will be different soon, if nothing else than a temporary reprieve from the change of scenery, staving off the fits of boredom that visit youngsters and some of us grownups who insist to a parent or caretaker, “There’s nothing to do!” Continue Reading

A dark side to the 12 days of fun

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Living in the neighborhoods surrounding the Minnesota State Fair grounds has many advantages, including easy access to all the events that take place at the grounds year-round.

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Minnesota State Fair: Good deed treat among new foods for 2014

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Not often do new food products at the Minnesota State Fair have a great taste, a feel good story and a pay it forward note after you finish. But that’s exactly what JonnyPops delivers. JonnyPops, one of 28 new foods debuting at the 2014 Fair, were created by a group of St. Olaf College entrepreneurs, who donate a portion of profits to Hazelden in hopes of helping teens battling addiction. Johnathan “Jonny” Jeffrey was a cousin of founder Erik Burst. Continue Reading