Minnesota State Fair business owners are excited by huge crowds again

Tracy Anderson, owner of French Crepes and More at the Minnesota State Fair, calls the way fairgoers move along crowded streets the "State Fair Shuffle."

Seeing it happen again after two years of diminished fair attendance made Anderson, 60, smile. "It's great," she said.

State Fair attendance numbers so far this season are similar to years before the COVID-19 pandemic — the fair was canceled in 2020 due to COVID — with a few days nearing 2019 levels. First day attendance this year was nearly double what it was last year; on Tuesday, 112,922 fairgoers passed through the gates, up from 89,618 on the same day in 2021. The highest single-day attendance so far this year was 161,252 on Sunday.

The all-time single-day attendance record was 270,426, set on the fair's second Saturday in 2018.

Fair vendors said they're excited to see the bump in attendance. Despite the bigger crowds, rising prices and supply-chain woes that have plagued some vendors, most said they're not worried about running out of stock this year.

Last year, Anderson said, she struggled to hire enough staff. She anticipated more people would come to the fair, only to end up with a 40% loss in sales.

"It's just hard on everyone, especially when they shut down a lot of places," said George Tom, 65, owner of Cream Puffs. "It hurt me, too, but I tend to save for the future. And luckily, I saved enough to where it didn't really hurt me that much."

Although prices for supplies have doubled this year, making it harder to turn a profit, Tom said he still believes in the Great Minnesota Get-Together: "This is the best fair in the U.S.," he said.

Over at Mike's Hamburgers, Terri Hohenwald is co-owner with her husband Mike. The two met at the fair when they were 18, and fell in love.

Comparing this year's attendance with last year is difficult, Terri Hohenwald said, since people were more cautious about COVID in 2021.

"It's not apples to apples," she said.

Charlie Torgerson, one of the owners of RC's BBQ, noted that this year's weather is better than last year's. Last year, he recalled, there were multiple tornado and thunderstorm warnings during the first few days of the fair.

"Weather was just kind of hit and miss," he said.

"It's always better to be busier, but we didn't complain last year or anything, we just went through it. That's what we do every day," Torgerson said. "You can't change the weather. You can't do anything different. You just take it for what it is. That's what we do."