The Minnesota State Fair opens today and runs through Labor Day on September 7, a 12-day event that drew 1,940,869 people last year. The fairgrounds are open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, closing at 8 p.m. on Labor Day, and the health problems that send fairgoers to a first aid station are almost entirely predictable.
Gate and admission details are posted by the Minnesota State Fair. Heat leads the list, and Minnesotans reliably underestimate it. Late August in the Twin Cities routinely produces afternoons in the upper eighties and low nineties, and the fairgrounds are largely asphalt and concrete with limited shade. An Axios Twin Cities analysis of attendance and climate records since 1994 found that attendance on midweek days above 90 degrees averaged about 103,000, roughly 13 percent below cooler midweek days, which means substantial crowds still turn out in exactly the conditions that cause trouble.
