Minnesota State Fair: Labor Day re-cap (01 Sep 2014)

Marcia Ball Tour Dates 09/13/14 Strawberry Music Festival 09/17/14 Hill Top Cafe at Cherry Spring, TX 09/19/14 Boogie on the Bayou at Tucson, AZ 09/20/14 Boogieon the Bayou at Poway, CA 09/21/14 Saban Theater at Beverly Hills, CA 09/23/14 Waterloo Records at Austin, TX 09/26/14 One-2-One Bar at Austin, TX 09/27/14 Kessler Theater at Dallas, TX 09/28/14 Levitt Pavilion at Arlington, TX 10/09/14 Rockin' The Rails at Covington, LA 10/10/14 100 Men Hall at Bay Saint Louis, MO 10/11/14 Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival 10/16/14 Variety Playhouse at Atlanta, GA 10/17/14 Magnolia Music Festival 10/18/14 Clearwater Jazz Holiday at Clearwater 10/21/14 B.B. King's Blues Club at New York 10/22/14 Iron Horse Music Hall at Northampton 10/23/14 Bull Run Restaurant at Shirley, MA 10/24/14 Building 24 Live at Wyomissing, PA 10/ 25/14 Barns At Wolf Trap at Vienna, VA 10/30/14 Franklin Theatre at Franklin, TN 10/31/14 Infinity Hall at Norfolk, CT 11/01/14 Kents Hill School at Readfield, ME 11/ 05/14 Maverick Saloon at Santa Ynez, CA 11/06/14 Freight & Salvage at Berkeley, CA 11/07/14 Palms Playhouse at Winters, CA 11/08/14 City Winery at Napa, CA 11/14/14 Luna Live at Lake Charles, LA 11/15/14 Louisiana Vets Festival 11/19/14 Knuckleheads at Kansas City, MO 11/20/14 The Washington at Burlington, IA 11/21/14 Old Town School at Chicago, IL 11/22/14 Callahan's at Auburn Hills, MI 11/23/14 Music Box Supper Club at Cleveland 12/05/14 Funky Biscuit at Boca Raton, FL 12/06/14 Bradenton Blues Festival 01/10/15 Delbert McClinton Cruise at Miami, FL 01/17/15 Krewe of Lyra at Covington, LA Read More Minnesota State Fair As previously mentioned, the Minnesota State Fair is starting this week: August 21 to September 1st. While the paid events are out of my price range, I would love to check out Journey with Joan Jett …

The Minnesota State Fair is the largest state fair in the United States, based on average daily attendance. With this year's attendance as the highest it's ever been (new record of 252,092 people on August 30th, 2014), it's easy to see why they call this "The Great Minnesota Get-Together."

The fair, this year ran from August 21 and ending last night, September 1, Labor Day. Despite the rain fear, I still thought the attendance was the best it's ever been for its last day.

Corn Art

The MN State Fair offered something for everyone, from agriculture art displays (note: the Dr. Who corn art), animal exhibits, daily parade, music, shopping, health inspections, talent contests, tractors, and, of course, the various food vendors. One thing that the MN State Fair is known for is that almost every food item is battered fried and comes on a stick.

Norwegian Musicians

For the first time, we decided to check out the International Bazaar, which featured various goods vendors from Mexican, Chinese, Scandinavian, to Ireland, etc. There was a main stage, which for September 1st, the International Institute of Minnesota offered us "Norwegian Musicians". I'm not quite sure if they had a band name, but the band had a large cast of 11 musicians and they played traditional Norwegian music all day.

Twin Cities Hardingfelelag

Over in the market itself, were also Twin Cities Hardingfelelag, a five Hardanger fiddle group founded by Norwegian master fiddler Olav Jørgen Hegge. They also played 30 minute sets of Norwegian folk music throughout the day time.

Also, as tradition goes, we stopped by the Leinie Lodge Bandshell to catch a little set from Texas-born, Louisiana-based Marcia Ball playing some old time rock and blues on her keyboard.

Ball is currently on tour in support of her forthcoming album Tattooed Lady & The Alligator Man (set for release on September 23, 2014, via Alligator Records).

Overall, it was all good fun, and personally, I'm looking forward to attending The Minnesota State Fair next year.

Marcia Ball at Leinie Lodge Bandshell, Minnesota State Fair (01 Sep 2014)

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