Tuesday A Great Day To Visit The Fair

Tuesday might be the best day of the 11-day run to attend the Iowa State Fair.

Our last visit to the State Fair, a five-hour trip through the fairground, cost us a total of $98. Granted, $48 of that was spent on beer, but the other $50 disappeared rather quickly, too. We spent $20 for a 3-pack of cotton Iowa State t-shirts at the Varied Industries building, $6 for a couple of Big Slide tickets, $12 for round-trip tickets on the Sky Glider, $6 for a giant turkey leg, $4 for a couple of melon cups from Beattie’s and pocket change for a variety of odds and ends.

But Tuesday offers the best money saving opportunity of the fair: the annual Farm Bureau Cook-Out, which features a variety of samples of delicious grilled meat from contestants. If you don’t act too needy, you can get your fill of the best pork, chicken and beef that will be so tasty you’ll want to suck on a briquette.

But there’s more. A tri-fecta of free acts on the stage offers a tantalizing sample of great musical acts that have either enjoyed stardom or are on their way to the musical plateau. Santana lead singer Greg Rolie plays on the Anne and Bill Riley Stage at 8 p.m. John Ford Coley (of England Dan & John Ford Coley fame) entertains on the Budweiser Stage at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and country star - and Iowan - Jason Brown performs on the Susan Knapp Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Auctioneers from across the state face off for the Iowa championship at 9 p.m. at the Riley Stage. The popular Pedal Power Tractor Pull occurs at 10 a.m. on Rock Island Avenue. The Outhouse Races are at 2:30 p.m. on the Grand Concourse. And Century Farms will be honored all day long at the Budweiser Stage.

And the best kept secret of the fair, the Pigeon Rolling contest, occurs at noon southeast of gate six. A little explanation: there is a breed of pigeon that doesn’t so much walk as it rolls in a sort of somersault style. The contest involves seeing which pigeon will roll the farthest. It’s fascinating.

A few years ago, an intrepid television reporter showed up at the pigeon rolling with animal right activists, ready to blow the lid of the event. Seems she expected that pigeons would be rolled like bowling balls, rather than tumbling on their own. She left with some great video but a bit disappointed. This is the event you’ll love telling your neighbors about. And after you’ve seen it once, you’ll never desire to see it again. Perfect for your State Fair bucket list.

State Fair To-Do List for Saturday, August 9

To do list:

1.)    Clean litter box.

2.)    Stop at ATM, deposit pay check, withdrawal daily limit from bank. Head to the fair.

3.)    Eat a good breakfast at one of the food stands near the livestock barns. (See our over-promoted interactive map for details.

4.)    Cheer on contestants at the Best Tasting Tomato Contest at 9 a.m. outside the Agriculture Building.

5.)    See Sheep shearing at 11 a.m. at the Sheep Barn.

6.)    Lunch at the Iowa Beef Promotions building. Hot Beef Sundae, anyone?

7.)    See preliminaries of the state fair talent show at the Anne and Bill Riley Stage at noon.

8.)    Learn all you need to know about chicken grooming at 1 p.m. at the Chicken Washing and Drying Demonstration at the Poultry/Pigeon/Rabbit Building.

9.)    Visit the State Fair Museum; see the amazing video featuring two trains Read more

Best Bets for Friday, August 8

From an emotional standpoint, the first Friday of the Iowa State Fair is like Christmas morning, when you’re halfway finished opening presents. You know there’s still plenty of fun and surprises ahead, but you also have this nagging feeling that it will all be over before you know it.

Actually, Day 2 is nothing like that. And we should all be concerned that this early on, we’re already stretching analogies like a warm piece of saltwater taffy. (Note to editors: that’s not a bad metaphor. I’ll stick with metaphors and lets someone else on the team handle the analogies.)

None of that matters for  two reasons. First, in celebration of the date (08/08/2008), State Fair admission is a meager $8 today instead of the normal $10. Second, tonight we celebrate East Side Night at the Iowa State Fair. It’s the one time of the year when everyone wishes they grew up in one of the hard-working, mostly blue collar neighborhoods of the East Side.

It’s hard to say exactly when East Side Night was established, but it’s been going on for at least 15 years and centers around $6 beers and million dollar smiles at the Bud Tent near the Midway. (See our handy-dandy map for the exact location.) East Siders describe as a big reunion and it seems to get bigger and bigger every year.

In its early stages, even the active participants didn’t really have a name for it. Then, a handful of folks in the neighborhood knew what you were talking about when you said “East Side Night”, and now it’s as familiar to Read more

State Fair Is Iowa’s Great Summer Reunion

The Iowa State Fair is Iowa’s great summer reunion, a place where old friends get reacquainted and new friends are made.

If there’s a better State Fair in the country, you’d be hard-pressed to prove it to the one million visitors to the State Fairground on the east side of Des Moines. It’s an event ripe with tradition and punctuated with surprises

Where else would throngs of people:
Read more

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