My wife and I decided to take in the 2015 Iowa State Fair that was recently held in Des Moines from August 13 thru the 23rd. It had been awhile since we had both been to the State Fair and being that it's one of the true staples of Midwestern Americana I thought we'd share some of the pictures and experiences of that particular day.
First of all, the State Fair experienced an all-time record number of attendees this year. Unofficially, 1,117,398 people went through the gates of the State Fair including a record five-day stretch of at least 100,000 people. (There had never been a stretch of more than two days where the Iowa State Fair drew at least 100,000 attendees.) Even with one day where Des Moines received nearly 2.5 inches of rain, total attendance beat the previous record set in 2008 by 8,248 people. The day we were there - the second Saturday - a line of rain came through in the evening keeping the overall day's attendance down. Still, they had nearly 112,000 people on the grounds that day. Only one day - the Tuesday when it rained heavily - saw attendance down from the previous year. Overall, the 2015 State Fair drew over 102,000 more people than the 2104 State Fair.
Speculation as to why the State Fair drew record crowds centered on a new state law that was signed earlier this year by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad that decreed schools across Iowa could not start any sooner than August 23. Many school districts cried foul at the new law saying that they'd be forced to have classes into June, while the governor said that early school start dates hurt tourism and attendance at the Iowa State Fair. (Over the past few years, some schools in Iowa started during the second week of August.)
Another reason for higher attendance could have been the weather which was cooler than in some previous years. But one of the main reasons why so many people came out to the Iowa State Fair had to do with the number of Presidential candidates that came to the fair this year. With Iowa's "first in the nation" status with the Iowa Caucuses next February, nearly every Presidential candidate from both major parties attended the Iowa State Fair this year. On August 15, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were at the fair helping attendance soar to over 115,000 that day. Jeb Bush was at the fair the day before that and the day we were there New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal were stumping on the grounds. Here's a picture Cindy took of Chris Christie walking around with Governor Terry Branstad after I said, "Oh, hey! That's Chris Christie!"
After finding a great off-site parking spot near one of the main gates, we walked onto the grounds around 10:45 on that Saturday morning. My sister goes to the Iowa State Fair nearly every day and we met up with her to start off with the Agriculture Building. Outside the Ag building is a flower garden that is made by local landscapers for the fair.
My sister is a retired horticulturist for the City of Des Moines and my wife has quite the green thumb, herself. They were sort of immersed in the flower beds and rose bushes pointing things out and getting ideas for our backyard.
Also outside the Ag building is the largest pumpkin at the fair. This one was grown by a guy in Southern Iowa and came in at 1235 lbs. This pumpkin was about 90 pounds short of hitting the all-time record big-assed pumpkin of 1323 pounds.
The Agriculture Building is one of the more popular places at the fair with exhibits of plants, flowers and produce along with little shops along the upper tier of the building. It was especially packed on this busy day because of the pilgrimage all Iowans have to make when the come to the state fair - to see the Butter Cow.
Since 1911, the Butter Cow has drawn the attention of fair-goers who stop by the refrigerated room to look at, well, it's basically a wood and metal mesh frame shaped like a cow and then sculptor Sarah Pratt takes about 600 pounds of butter and puts it over the frame to eventually turn it into a cow made out of butter. I don't know a better way to explain it. Pratt is the fifth butter sculptor to work with the Butter Cow. She worked with long-time sculptor Norma "Duffy" Lyon for 15 years before taking over in 2006.
Each year, they pay homage to something or someone by making a butter statue in that person's - or thing's - honor. This year, Pratt paid tribute to the long popular board game Monopoly which is celebrating its 80th year. The Monopoly Man was depicted in one scene leaning on a pile of money, while another window had the board game in butter. In the past, Lyon and Pratt also made butter figures of John Wayne, Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, Elvis Presley and tributes to Dr. Seuss, as well as the first manned landing on the moon.
The dahlia competition was going on at the Ag building. Cindy loves dahlias and she was getting ideas from the different colors that were on display.
And where else can you find a competition to name over 30 different varieties of weeds found in the state of Iowa? They had an amateur and professional competition to name the different types of weeds on display. Actually, we did learn the names of some of the weeds we've pulled out of our garden in the past.
On the other end of the main floor of the Ag building is what I like to see - the prize winning garden produce grown by backyard farmers from across the state.
These heads of cabbage were HUGE! I've never grown cabbage and I don't know if they're actually supposed to be this big - at least I've never seen cabbage this big in a store. But these were the size of basketballs.
The tomatoes are always a favorite to compare to the ones we grow. We tried a new technique in growing tomatoes this year and we had ripe cherry tomatoes in six weeks and ripe Better Boy tomatoes by the 4th of July (we planted the bushes in mid-May). Our tomatoes were great this year, but these looked pretty darned good, too.
Onions, beets, sweet and hot peppers, garlic, zucchini, squash and melons were all on display. I wouldn't know the first thing about what makes a specific vegetable a prize winner at the State Fair, but there are definitely people who take it seriously.
The hot peppers they had on display are always interesting to me. I've grown hot peppers over the years - more for fun than anything - and they can be a little troublesome to grow in Iowa. Most of the really hot peppers - habaneros, Scotch bonnets, ghost peppers, Charleston Hots, Trinidad Scorpions - generally have to be started inside and then transferred to an outdoor garden when the weather gets nice. But jalapeños and chili peppers can be easily grown in Iowa gardens.
These ears of corn always amaze me. I see ears of corn, but there's different varieties and hybrids of corn that are grown across the state of Iowa. And somehow they get judged to be the best in the state. Once again, I wouldn't have the faintest idea as to what makes an ear of corn better than another one.
From the Agriculture Building, we went up a ways to the Cultural Center for what is always a highlight of our visit to the State Fair - the salon photography exhibits. Cindy has seriously thought about entering some of her photographs in the past, but some of the images proved that the photographers have some pretty expensive equipment to take the pictures and some pretty expensive programs to touch up the photos.
Adults and youngsters have separate categories in which they're judged. This year's theme was "Silhouettes" and over 3000 photographs were judged. There's also categories for Iowa Places and Landscapes, People, US Places and Landscapes, Plants, Flowers and Trees, and a handful of other categories that are judged. It's easy to lose an hour of time in the Cultural Building.
We went over to the Pigeon, Poultry and Rabbit building to see what was happening over there. My sister had a pet rabbit years ago - Fletcher - and I had a pet rabbit - Bunny (how's that for a unique name?) - that I had to give away before I went away to school at the University of Iowa. The kid I gave my rabbit to raised rabbits for competitions. When I gave him my pet rabbit he was floored. "This would have won at the County Fair and I could have showed this at the State Fair," he told me. Unfortunately, the rabbit died before he could show it the next year.
Because of the outbreak of the avian flu in Iowa earlier this year, there were no chickens on display at the State Fair. However, we did see that someone had a good sense of humor by putting ceramic chickens in cages.
One of the more popular food places at the Iowa State Fair continues to be the Iowa Pork Producers tent. (Once again, it's actually a fixed building and not a tent.) There were long lines for the famous "Pork Chop on a Stick" at the stand next to the Pork Producers tent again this year.
When he wasn't hanging out with Chris Christie, Governor Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds were hanging out at the Pork Producers tent greeting people as they went in. Lt. Governor Reynolds is known as Governor Branstad's "shadow" as it seems that they're always seen in public together. I've never known a Lt. Governor - anywhere - that has had more camera time with a sitting Governor.
Actually, we walked past the Pork Producers tent to get to one of my favorite places - the Bud Tent! The Bud Tent has been around since 1947 and is a favorite gathering place for fair-goers. In fact, we met up with a good friend while we were at the Bud Tent.
The Bud Tent really isn't a tent but a permanent structure that has more of a barn feel to the place. The local band Fat Tuesday and the Greasefire Horns were playing in the Bud Tent that particular day. Beer ain't cheap at the Bud Tent. It's $7 bucks for a 16 ounce cup of draft beer. I got 5 tickets for $30 bucks and bought another one for $7. $37 bucks doesn't last long at the Bud Tent.
Drinking a couple beers made me hungry and I had to go to what I call the Holy Grail of State Fair food - Carl's Gizmo. The gizmo is - well, click here to see what a gizmo is all about. It's basically a sandwich on a hoagie bun with ground beef and Italian sausage cooked together, topped with a seasoned marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. They are to die for.
I garnished my gizmo with banana peppers and sat down to enjoy the wonderful sandwich. Some people like the all-Italian sausage Jennie Grinders that are sold right across the way from Carl's. My blogging buddy - The Slakingfool - has told me that he's sort of partial to Aunt Mary's Great Grinder which has a small booth down by the giant slide at the fairgrounds. But for my money, I haven't found anything at the State Fair that is as good as a gizmo from Carl's.
My sister was on the hunt for something that she had read about - chicken fried bacon. This tasty sounding treat emanated from a fair in Texas and a couple of the stands were selling it last year. We went around to a couple of the stands but found out that they didn't have the deep fried bacon this year. Probably for the best, health-wise.
Cindy was looking to get a steak sandwich and we ended up at my favorite drinking establishment at The State Fair - the Stockman's Inn. Stockman's always seems to have cheaper - and colder - beer than other places around the State Fair. We ran into a buddy and his wife while we were at the Stockman's Inn.
The steak sandwich at the Stockman's Inn was a big piece of meat for a steak sandwich. Generally, a steak sandwich is thin cut of ribeye. The one at Stockman's was a half-pound thick cut of sirloin strip steak and served on a hoagie bun. She ordered it medium, but it came out more medium rare. But that was fine with her. She gave me a bite and I have to say it was pretty delicious. Not as good as a gizmo, but very good. And a great deal at only $9.50.
Of course, next door to the Stockman's Inn is the cattle barn. It's always one of the big stops during the State Fair. Raising cattle to show at fairs is serious business for many farm families across Iowa.
Above - This is Samson, the biggest bull - or "Super Bull" - at this years fair. Coming in just a shade under 2900 lbs., this red angus was raised by the Zellmer family of Atlantic, IA. Samson definitely had some size to him, but he's still over 500 pounds lighter than the all-time record Super Bull shown at the 2009 Iowa State Fair that weighed in just over 3400 lbs.!
Pictured left are two Scottish Highland cows penned up in the cattle barn. There are 20 different categories of judging for the cattle competitions at the State Fair. In fact, the cattle competitions have gotten so big that they've outgrown the cattle barn and have to stick cattle in other buildings nearby.
Over at the horse barn, it was Clydesdale and Percheron day. The Clydesdales and Percherons were on hand to be part of one of the biggest nights at the fair - the draft horse competition. Friends of ours that we ran into at the Stockman's Inn said that the annual competition held over at the Richard Jacobson Exhibition Building is generally sold out.
We snuck in and took a look at some of the draft horses and wagons getting ready to parade out for the competition. My buddy was right - there didn't appear to be a seat in the newish Jacobson Exhibition Building. The amount of money these competitors put into their horses and wagons was pretty impressive.
From the horse barn, we had to go take a look at the Big Boar winner at the swine barn. This guy - Big Mac - weighed in at 1166 pounds beating the next largest pig by 57 pounds. Big Mac is a Blue Roan - which is a cross between a Hampshire and a York - and was raised by Tom and Nancy McDonald from Ryan, IA. (I had to look up on a map to see where Ryan was. It's about 35 miles north and east of Cedar Rapids.) In fact, Big Mac took second place last year for the Big Boar title at the State Fair and he packed on a few pounds in the off season by eating Twinkies and drinking Old Milwaukee to get to his fighting weight.
The Avenue of Breeds in the swine barn is always a popular place to take a look at nearly every type of animal on display at the Iowa State Fair. This is the place that if you don't want to trudge through every barn at the fair, you can pretty much see what you want to see at the Avenue of Breeds.
They had goats, sheep, cattle, horses - even an elk - on display on the Avenue of Breeds. It's the place where city people who don't like the smell of money to go and get the "looking at cows and stuff" out of the way. (When I was a little kid, I turned up my nose at a farm we were passing because of the smell. My dad told me that smell was "money".)
These long-haired goats were interesting. I don't remember the breed, but they were pretty cool to see.
Before she left for the day, my sister bought Cindy and I two tickets to Ye Old Mill, basically the Tunnel of Love at the Iowa State Fair. This ride is the oldest permanent ride at the fair dating back to the early 20th century. Now here's a shocker - I've never gone thru Ye Old Mill. Ever. Not that I'm the non-romantic type, it's just never been high on my "to-do" list when I go to the Iowa State Fair. Well, this time we went. While my wife thought it was romantic, I thought it was sort of schlocky.
From Ye Olde Mill we made our way back up the hill to the new MidAmerican Energy stage to say "hi" to our friends Bob Dorr and the Blue Band before they started their first set. I've known Bob, guitarist Jeff Peterson and drummer Steve Hayes for years, as well as their equipment guy/stage manager/road manager Dennis MacRunnel and part-time organist Sam Salomone from working summer events for the City of Davenport. Dennis and Steve gave us a tour of the backstage area of the new stage and it was pretty impressive. By the time they started their set, the rain that had held off for most of the day had started up. True troupers, The Blue Band not only played the first set, but got in a second set at 9:00 p.m. to the delight of rain-soaked fans. The new stage kept them dry.
Before we left the State Fair that evening we stopped off at the Iowa Craft Beer Tent. The tent features 48 beers on tap from a variety of microbrews around the state of Iowa. It is generally populated with insufferable urban-hipsters, pretentious 20-somethings, and pompous self-professed intellectuals bloviating on the aggressive cloying and the refined robust nature of a specific beer. Oh! And there's also a number of regular guys like me who like a good beer at the State Fair. I got a Peace Tree Brewing Co. Soundcheck Session India Pale Ale while I was there. Peace Tree is located in Knoxville, IA and they do have some pretty good beers.
The rain was really starting to come down and it was time to get out to our car which was parked about a ten minute walk from the Iowa Craft Beer Tent. We got a little wet and decided to head downtown to get some sushi from the wonderful akebono. (Click here to see the entry on akebono.) The Iowa State Fair is always fun to go to, even if it brings back the memories of my youth that the end of the fair generally meant that school was just around the corner. Even today, to me the Iowa State Fair means that summer is almost over - and I love summer in Iowa. But that's the only negative thing I can think of when it comes to the fair. If you want to find out about anything and everything that Iowa has to offer, you can pretty much see it all at the Iowa State Fair.
We were at the fair on the same day! Actually, we were in the Bud Tent watching Fat Tuesday at the same time! Loved your recap.
Posted by: Amy | September 05, 2015 at 09:00 AM
Missed the fair-sounds intriguing with all of the candidates hanging out. Still haven't eaten a Gizo before.
Posted by: Jeni F. | September 05, 2015 at 12:24 PM