Smoking at Minnesota State Fair will be confined to designated areas

The Minnesota State Fair is changing its smoking policy. Smokers will now have to use designated areas, rather than smoking as they walk around the fair. Smoking is already banned in the fair's buildings and entertainment venues, like the bandshell and the grandstand.

Fair spokesperson Brienna Schutte says the fair's board changed the smoking policy in response to feedback from fairgoers.

"After last year's fair, we did receive a high volume of emails from folks who were asking us to at least limit smoking on the fair grounds, if not ban it altogether," she said. "And so what we decided to do was take this step forward in creating those designated smoking areas for people to smoke."

Smoking will still be permitted in parking lots that surround the fair grounds. "There's a lot of confusion that the State Fair has banned smoking altogether, and that's definitely not the case," Schutte said. There will be 18 designated areas this year, across the fairgrounds, where fairgoers will be allowed to smoke on the property.

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