159th annual Goodhue County Fair

From 159th annual Goodhue County Fair Website:

Join us at the 159th annual
Goodhue County Fair!
August 11-15, 2020 in Zumbrota, Minnesota

The fair has changed and diversified over the years to entertain, educate, and draw people of all ages with a broad range of interests. There is still a strong emphasis on animals and traditional 4H projects, but entertainment and educational programs and events are the key to hosting a successful 5day fair.

The carnival and commercial exhibits attract fair goers from the area. The quilt show has enjoyed a rebirth as more people practice that art and even more enjoy the beauty and artistry of their works.

Evening grandstand events now include the always popular demolition derbies, tractor and truck pulls, and concerts. Smoke, noise and steel always seem to attract fair goers.

Food, food, and more food! This alone is a good reason to take the family out to the fair. Deep fried cheese curds, American Dairy Association shakes and malts, brats with sauerkraut, cotton candy, footlong hotdogs are among the carnival and traditional foods available.

The Beer Garden hosts live entertainment each night. Traditional and up and coming bands are included in the mix.
Our annual attendance for the 5 day fair is around 35,000, with weather playing a huge factor in the fairs success. The outlook for fair activities seems positive. We are a tradition and have entertainment, fun, and education for all. We are truly a family friendly fair, with something for everyone, whether young or old, rural or urban.

Zumbrota celebrated their 150th anniversary as a city in 2006. As a part of that celebration, we hosted the famous Budweiser Clydesdales during our fair that year, culminated with them included in a parade through town and back on the Sunday after our fair. In 2011, the fair celebrated its own 150th anniversary.

Presently, the expanded golf course and related housing subdivisions has really brought the city out to us. In years past, the fair was always outside the city, but it appears the city has come to the fairgrounds. In the future, we hope and expect our fair will still be a gathering place. Its the only countywide happening that draws everyone to a place for neighbors to connect, old friends to greet each other, and all ages to walk the grounds and remember the past, while talking about the future.

Couples meet at the fair, and recreate the classic story of Brigadoon. The grounds light up like a city for the fair once a year, and then shut down until August rolls around again. Its a tradition begun in infancy, a place for a youngsters first carnival rides, farm animals, snow cones, and pronto pups. The future will bring changes, fairs always evolve. We wonder what the changes will be, but we look forward for many more fairs in the years to come. Entertainment, fun, and education. Built on tradition, but changing for the future.

More information can be found in the books, Zumbrota, the First 100 Years, Till the Cows Come Home, and Baileys Folly. Information about the area can be found at www.ci.zumbrota.mn.us, and through various historical societies with the county.