With less than a month to go, we’re counting down the days until this year’s Minnesota State Fair.

And if the 2025 Fair is anything like last year, we’re not alone in anticipating our next Pronto Pup and Grandstand show: The 2024 Fair was the fifth-best-attended Great Minnesota Get-Together of all time, with total ticket sales topping 1.9 million.

Sure, we’ll admit there are things to appreciate about other State Fairs, like Iowa’s — but the truth remains that our Fair seems to have some secret sauce that keeps us coming back. (It’s ranch.) This year, along with more than 100 new foods and beverages, there are plenty of other updates and additions to the fairgrounds.

What’s changing

Put your two cents in: Well, two dollars, really. Fair admission tickets are going up by $2 a person this year to fund improvements to the fairgrounds. Admission prices did not change last year, but this year, regular admission for folks 13-64 years old is $20, and kids 5-12 and seniors 65+ get in for $18. Children under 4 get in free.

People queue up for the 7 a.m. opening of the main gate on Snelling Avenue on the first day of the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Pour one out: Two of the Fair’s biggest free stages have lost their longstanding beer-related naming sponsorships. Rather than hearing music at the Leinie Lodge Bandshell or Schell’s Stage at Schilling Amphitheater, you’ll visit “the Bandshell” and “the West End Market Stage at Schilling Amphitheater.”

Don’t get e-mart-ional: On a related note: The Merchandise Mart is dead, long live the Merchandise Mart! The building still exists and remains devoted to tchotchkes you definitely need, but now it’s called the “Merch Market.”

11 A.M.: Cows are shuttled in and out of the Lee & Rose Warner Coliseum during the 4-H Dairy Cattle Show at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Doesn’t look a day over 74: The Lee & Rose Warner Coliseum, built in 1951, is getting the first major renovation in its history. It’s a multi-year, $22 million project — and it won’t interfere with regular Fair operations much, but you can stop by and see the progress and plans for the coming year. Major highlights of the work so far include new wheelchair-accessible ramps in the north and south concourses and seating areas in the arena.

Accessibility upgrades: Besides the improved ramps and seating areas at the Coliseum, the Fair has improved or implemented a few other accessibility measures. The accessible changing restroom with hoist, from Momentum Refresh, now also includes a breastfeeding and sensory-friendly space. Audio descriptions are now available for select pieces in the Fine Arts Exhibition building, along with select crop art entries. And more entertainment options and demonstrations will be ASL-interpreted thanks to a roving team of interpreters on the fairgrounds from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Shows with pre-scheduled ASL interpretation are listed at mnstatefair.org/guides/accessibility/asl/, and you can contact the Fair to request interpretation at other events not listed.

Hide and go seek: Some popular Fair booths are changing locations for this year, including the Minnesota Lottery, Richie’s Cheese Curd Tacos, Minnesota Vikings Football and Australian Battered Potatoes, so double-check the State Fair website before you go. Also, the trio of vendors that were once located on a small patio behind Little Farm Hands — Baba’s, Summer Lakes Beverage and Scenic 61 by New Scenic Cafe — are moving a half-block south to a new food zone called “Street Eats,” on the corner of Randall and Underwood.

From left: Cousins Flo Beyan and her cousin Milly Beyan play with their younger cousin Delvin Williams (7) a he sit on his grandmother Garmai Beyan’s lap as aunt Mowu Beyan looks on with a smile while the family rest their feet at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on Friday, Aug., 23, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

What’s new

The featured design for the 2025 Minnesota State Fair is mocked up on a variety of merchandise. The design, created by in-house lead designer Samuel Tapia, consists of classic Fair icons that resemble the letters of “Minnesota State Fair ‘25.” (Courtesy of the Minnesota State Fair)

Back on Tapia: Last year, the Fair made headlines by stopping its artist-partnership program for commemorative posters and, instead, handing things over to in-house lead designer Samuel Tapia. His fun featured design this year, which will be offered on all sorts of merch, consists of classic Fair icons that resemble the letters of “Minnesota State Fair ‘25.”

Craftier than ever: Display cases over in the Creative Activities building have been expanded by quite a bit — 70 feet worth of exhibit space for crafts and about 30 feet worth for baking and canning in a new cooler. Plus, the demo area has been expanded and, in particular, now more prominently features artist displays from the fine folks at the Weavers Guild of Minnesota

Get your thrill fill: Several new rides are debuting this year across the fairgrounds. At the Mighty Midway, you can ride the Overdrive, a Tilt-A-Whirl-style situation that features “dazzling lights and fast-action spinning sleds,” and the three-armed spinning Scorpion. At the Kidway, fairgoers younger than you or me can ride Hampton Space Age, a sort of rotating track-based carousel, and Jumbo (Flying Elephant), with a helpfully self-explanatory name. Finally, at “Adventure Park,” which is the group of aerial attractions tucked over by the Dairy Building, you’ll find The Thunderbird, billed as the tallest portable swing in North America at 180 feet high. It’s also billed as being family-friendly; the Fair notes the ride “provides unparalleled views as it ascends and rotates, pausing briefly at the top to take in the sights before gently descending.”

Blast off: This year’s rotating exhibition at the North End Event Center is “Journey to Space,” which focuses on the experience of traveling to and living/working on the International Space Station. That runs all 12 days of the Fair, but if you can, come between Aug. 21–24: Those days also feature an additional NASA exhibition that contains five full-scale spacesuit models, a moon rock from the Apollo 15 mission and more, guided by NASA deputy chief flight director (and Albert Lea High School grad) Michael Lammers.

Helen Walden-Fodge of Minneapolis bites into a cheese curd taco from Richie’s Cheese Curd Tacos at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. “It’s the perfect platonic idea of fair food,” commented Walden-Fodge on the delicacy. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

100+ ways to eat, drink and be merry: This year’s list of official new foods looks, as always, both delicious and delightfully stomachache-inducing. Highlights include a couple of takes on cheese curds (including as breakfast — now you’re speaking my language!), a burger sandwiched between two PB&J Uncrustables and plenty of desserts. But it’s the beverages list that’s a real doozy, with a whopping 70 new beers, slushies, seltzers, ciders and fun non-alcoholic options. We’ve got a lot of work to do, folks.

What’s gone

Your super-secret free parking spot: At least, if it’s on the Falcon Heights side of the fairgrounds. The city council voted earlier this year to turn a number of city streets into temporary paid parking zones during the State Fair, creating about 1,000 spots that’ll run you a flat $25 per day. Affected roads include Asbury, Arona, Simpson, Pascal, Holton, Albert, Ruggles and Crawford streets and California, Idaho and Iowa avenues.

The only constant is change: As exciting as it is to explore newcomers to the fairgrounds, it also means some vendors are saying goodbye. Some stands from previous years, including Jammy Sammies by BRIM, are no longer listed as vendors on the “Fair Finder” website.

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MOUNT AIRY, Md. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy died after he was trapped in a storm drain in Maryland during heavy rainfall and flooding on the East Coast that also led to rescues from cars that were submerged in floodwaters, officials said.

Kids were playing in the rain Thursday in a common area between apartment buildings in Mount Airy, a town of about 10,000 people about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Baltimore, but floodwaters rushed in and the boy was swept into the pipe, according to Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company spokesperson Doug Alexander.

People tried to rescue the boy, but the water pressure was too strong and kept pushing him further into the pipe, he said. After the rain slowed, they were able to free him, but it was too late, Alexander said.

In Maryland’s Washington, D.C. suburbs, first responders received a handful of calls about cars submerged in floodwaters Thursday afternoon. In one instance, firefighters in Montgomery County found an 8-year-old boy standing on top of a submerged SUV while a woman and toddler were trapped inside, officials said. All three were successfully brought to safety, said Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service Assistant Chief Daniel Ogren.

More storms might bring flash and urban flooding to the northern mid-Atlantic and southern New England through Friday night, the National Weather Service warned.

Parts of the Baltimore area received 2.5 to 4 inches Thursday, according to the weather service, but isolated areas received more, including 5 inches in Mount Airy and 6 inches in Joppatowne northeast of Baltimore, where people were rescued from flooded cars.

A few areas in New York and New Jersey saw 3 inches or more of rain and one part of central Long Island reported more than 4 inches, according to the weather service.

By Friday morning, subways and commuter rail routes in the New York area were running on normal schedules after some sections were inundated by floodwaters. The city’s Department of Transportation also reported that roads and highways that had been shut down due to high water Thursday were reopened.

A few dozen flights were delayed or canceled at major airports in the New York, Boston and Washington regions Friday morning, but most were running on time, according to the FlightAware tracking service.

Power remained out to thousands of homes and businesses along the Eastern Seaboard on Friday morning, including nearly 5,000 in New York, 3,800 in Virginia, 2,500 in Maryland and 2,500 in Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us.

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Amtrak trains between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, were stopped Thursday evening because of high water over the tracks, but Amtrak announced a few hours later that service had been restored and water was receding from the tracks.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other local officials pleaded with people Thursday to stay off the roads and urged residents in basement apartments to move to higher locations as rain was expected to fall through Friday afternoon.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Nicks has postponed her Aug. 19 stop at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center to Nov. 12. A post Friday on Instagram said it’s “due to a recent injury resulting in a fractured shoulder that will require recovery time.”

Ticketholders can use their tickets on the new date or return to the point of purchase for a refund. St. Paul is one of nine shows that have been moved.

Nicks, 77, is the first woman to have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first with Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and then as a solo artist in 2019.

She returned to the headlines last week with the announcement that Rhino Records will reissue “Buckingham Nicks” next month. She recorded the album in 1973 with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. It was a commercial failure, but it led to Mick Fleetwood inviting the pair to join Fleetwood Mac. Until now, the album has never been reissued or made available to streaming services.

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