Inside the first day of the Minnesota State Fair

CATHY: Hey, speaking of the State Fair, gates opened in Falcon Heights at 7:00 this morning to kick off the 12-day run. Our intrepid fair reporter, Tim Nelson, has been at the fair all morning. He joins us now from the MPR booth with an update, hopefully, fully caffeinated, had some lunch. Is that right?

TIM NELSON: Ready.

CATHY: Good. So I'm thinking folks started lining up there last night, right? They always do that.

TIM NELSON: Well, no, Cathy. Not last night. Were talking yesterday afternoon. I got here this morning and found Clayton Burgett of Saint Paul and his first grade daughter, Mary Jane. They've been waiting at the gate there at the main gate at Dan Patch since 3:30 yesterday afternoon. They said, Mary Jane talked to her mom and dad too into trying to be the first through the gates. And he went along with it. And they spent all afternoon and all night there.

CATHY: Get out. Did they get any sleep?

TIM NELSON: Mary Jane, a couple hours. Dad, not so much.

CATHY: I'm sure dad is probably maybe even napping right now.

TIM NELSON: Yeah. Well I don't know about that. I asked Mary Jane about her plans, and she seemed raring to go to hit the whole fair, had a whole menu in mind, asked where they were going first. And they were planning for that jolt of sugar rush already this morning.

MARY JANE: Eat your breakfast.

CLAYTON BURGETT: Eat breakfast. Waffles and blueberries.

MARY JANE: Yay. Waffles, blueberries, and--

CLAYTON BURGETT: Probably cotton candy.

MARY JANE: [MUTTERING]

TIM NELSON: You know that classic waffles and cotton candy for breakfast. Mary Jane already had dinner plans at the fair, by the way, so it's an all-day gag there.

CATHY: Hmm. Waffles and cotton candy. Breakfast of champions at the fair, by the way. What else is going on today?

TIM NELSON: Well, there's a lot of first-day fields out here today. Some of the new vendors watching the crowds walk by with that what-have-I-done look on their faces. There are people eating pork chops and ice cream by 9:00 this morning.

There's already a big crowd at the butter carving booth, and the butter buses are taking shape at the cooler. And of course, Cathy, four archers and their families, they're getting ready. Pigs are going to be in the show room tomorrow. None too soon. I actually ran into a mom already sipping on a Margarita by the DNR building this morning.

NICKY SIMPSON: We had the pig weigh-in. So we brought pigs up yesterday and got them settled in. And now, this morning, they just went through the weigh-in process because want to get showed. They get showed in different weight categories. And IDs went through to make sure that the right pigs got brought. And now, they rest. And mom's got a celebratory drink for surviving, getting them here, especially in the heat yesterday.

TIM NELSON: That's Nikki Simpson from Austin, by the way. Yeah. The other thing, Cathy, I'm still seeing a few people here with face masks. The peak of the pandemic may be behind us, but it has not disappeared.

CATHY: Yeah. Yeah, I know. Absolutely. So we talked earlier this morning about marijuana legalization, and someone tweeted that they're already starting to smell just the little bits of maybe some marijuana smoke on the fairgrounds. A lot of cities are weighing smoking bans in public areas. I thought the fair banned smoking marijuana on the fairgrounds. Is that right?

TIM NELSON: They did. But let me tell you. I was walking around this morning, and it didn't take me long to find it. As we've expected, there are some advocates of legalization that are going to test this rule. I found Jeffrey Baker of Oakdale standing on the sidewalk outside the horse's building. He had a joint in his hand. He was smoking away while people walked by.

JEFFREY BAKER: I did it in years past prior as well. So in that aspect, not much has really changed. It's an outdoor social thing. It's a way to meet new friends.

TIM NELSON: So there you are. I've talked with law enforcement out here. They initially said that they don't plan to write citations, or take people, detain people, but they're going to stop people they find and talk to them and hope that a request a cease and desist is going to be enough. We're going to find out.

CATHY: So cannabis legalization kind of a new wrinkle to the fair this year. What else is new at the fair this year?

TIM NELSON: Well, it's not a big landmark year. There isn't a new west end. There's north end that got built in the off-season. No big deal. And always welcome, restroom buildings. There are some significant changes.

Midway and Kidway rides, they're converting from paper tickets to stored value cards. The old River Raft ride is completely gone now. It's been replaced by a very expansive new faregate down on the south end of the fairgrounds for taxi, shuttles, and other specialty transportation. And so you'll see those.

CATHY: All right. I know there are always new foods.

TIM NELSON: Always.

CATHY: Yeah.

TIM NELSON: There are 34 new foods this year, 7 new vendors on the fairgrounds this year. Maybe the most adventurous might be the crispy lutefisk steamed bun. That's at Shanghai Henry's at the International bazaar. Not just a lutefisk steamed bun, but crispy, Cathy. There's loaded lobster fries.

The Afro-Deli is out here with sambusas. You might remember them. They're fresh off winning the Small Business Administration Small Business of the Year Award back in May. And of course, everybody is talking about pickles this year, Cathy-- Miami mango pickles, dill pickle lemonade, dill pickle cheese curd tacos, pickle fries. It is the year of the pickle here. There's even a new pickle building on the north end.

CATHY: I'm still not sold on the pickle yet, but we'll see what happens. I'm assuming you've eaten something, so far, today.

TIM NELSON: For me, it's complicated out here. I had an apple and caramel sundae. But I'm headed over one of my all-time favorite food stands, Aunt Dion's. It's gluten-free, the only sure-fire gluten-free corn dog I've ever found.

Now, I have celiac disease. So there's a lot of really spectacular food at the fair. Most of it is off-limits for me. I love that corn dog. But you'd be surprised how much gluten free there is here at the fair.

If you go into the KARE 11 health fair building, right inside the door, there's a booth for the Twin Cities chapter of the Raising Our Celiac Kids, and they actually have a list of more than 50 food stands at the fair that have some gluten-free options. On Facebook, there's also the gluten-free Twin Cities Facebook page. There's always fair time. They're always offering reviews about the good food celiac can eat at the fair.

CATHY: Good information there. So let's talk about bodies. Last year, first day, I think-- what was it more? More than 122,000 people came through the gates the first day last year. That was short of that 2019 all-time, first-day record. Look around you. I mean, are there massive crowds out there right now?

TIM NELSON: It's really hard to say. I look at pinch points here like the intersection of Underwood and Dan Patch, Carnes and Nelson. They're busy, but this looks like a regular first day. I think the heat advisory that's out might be giving folks some pause. And you look out. The weekend just looks spectacular. And I could see some people waiting until it gets a little nicer.

CATHY: And by the way, how hot is it out there?

TIM NELSON: I think it was 79 when I checked. The sun has been peeking out a little bit. Sven said, it's going to be hot and sunny today, so I expect it to come out. There is that heat advisory through 7 PM here tonight. Highs expected to be near 90. Not as bad as the last couple of days. But there's limited shade and limited air conditioning out here, so be prepared and put on that sunscreen.

CATHY: All right. Good to talk with you. Thank you much. Enjoy yourself.

TIM NELSON: All right. Thanks much.

CATHY: That's our Tim Nelson. By the way, most recent temperature looks like at the fairgrounds, 82 degrees right now-- mix of sun and cloud cover.