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I’m learning that Minnesotans don’t typically toot their own horns. That’s a bit refreshing as a recent transplant from Cleveland, a city that considers the verbose boxing promoter Don King a favorite son.
Modesty has its limits, however. Approaching the Minnesota State Fair as domestic tourism seems like an exercise in reductionism. It strikes me as more of an experience.
I’ve visited other state fairs, but the visual and culinary spectacle hosted in Falcon Heights the past week and a half feels different. The annual Minnesota State Fair features the requisite Noah’s Ark sampling of livestock, carnival rides, the likes of Ludacris and Blake Shelton, and more fried food and sweet treats than you can shake a stick at. But I sense that there is much more to this annual spectacle, which humbly bills itself as the “Great Minnesota Get-Together.”
I met U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar at the fair Tuesday when she stopped by the Minnesota Star Tribune stage to listen in on a conversation about the innovations we’ve recently unveiled at the paper and our web presence. When Klobuchar learned I was taking in my first fair, she asked what I thought.
“It’s a lot,” was my immediate response.
I know what I saw. I saw an authentic Minnesota gathering.
