Your complete guide to Day 12 at the Minnesota State Fair
Monday is Day 12 of the Minnesota State Fair -- and sadly the fair's last day of 2022!
It's Kids Day, featuring $12 tickets for kids ages 5-12, as well as all-day discounts at the Mighty Midway, and discounts for kids at many food and merchandise booths.
Take advantage of Last Chance Deals all day by visiting an information booth, or by clicking here.
Monday is also Hmong Minnesota Day, with great activities planned at Dan Patch Park between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
You can meet fair mascots Fairchild and Fairborne from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Visitors Plaza.
And check out the "baddest bull riders and barrel racers" during the Bulls & Barrels Championship at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in Warner Coliseum.
For a full list of activities, you can click here.
Sept. 5 Admission Prices: $17 (Ages 13-64), $12 (Ages 5-12), $15 (Ages 65+), Free (4 and under)
At the Grandstand
It's Free Kids Day Fun Fest at the Grandstand Monday, featuring "special kids performances by high-energy musicians B2wins, yo-yo master and juggler Mark Hayward and the singing sisters The Dollipops!" No tickets are required for admission.
Second straight day of over 200K admissions
State Fair attendance remained high Sunday, though just a bit short of Saturday's figures.
There were 222,202 admissions Sunday, compared to the 249,490 on Saturday.
Like all the days so far, the Day 11 figures bested the 2021 numbers, but did not break the all-time record, which was set in 2019 with 245,243.
With just Monday's attendance figures left to count, the fair's unlikely to break the all-time overall attendance record, also set in 2019. That year saw 2,126,551 admissions. This year's tally as of Sunday sits at 1,685,237.
Last chance for a photo op
There's still time to get pictures with SpongeBob SquarePants at the WCCO booth this afternoon at the fair!
One more chance to meet characters from PAW Patrol and SpongeBob SquarePants! Stop by the WCCO Booth on Carnes and Nelson this afternoon!
— WCCO - CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) September 5, 2022
PAW Patrol: 1-1:30, 2-2:30
SpongeBob: 1:30-2, 2:30-3
Post your photos with #MyStateFair pic.twitter.com/CA0T7G2DBo
It's Kids Day on the last day at the fair
Labor Day is also Kids Day at the Minnesota State Fair and for many families it's one last hoorah before they head back to school.
Kristian and Courtney Bellefield and their mother said they normally go during the first days of the fair, but they now want to make the last day their new tradition.
"There's not a lot of people, the lines are not that long and you can kind of enjoy the moment," they said.
In addition to discounted admission for kids under 12 years old, there's plenty of deals on merchandise and food and all-day specials at the Mighty Midway and Kidway.
Brothers Will, Henry and James were looking forward to enjoying all their fair favorites including Sweet Martha's Cookies on the last day.
They and so many others said going to the fair was a must before the summer officially ends.
"We typically come earlier with the fair, but there's been so much to do with baseball and end of summer that we were like 'Oh, gotta cross it off the bucket list item and come to the fair today,'" said their dad Matt.
There's also the Free Kids Day Fun Fest happening at the Grandstand at 4 p.m.
Families also reflected on how special this summer was with the fair being back to full strength and the return to the physical classroom for the upcoming school year.
"I'm feeling great," said Kristian. "I'm ready for school."
"I feel really good about it because when we did distance learning I didn't feel like I was getting enough supplies and stuff like that and just doing everything on your iPad wasn't a good solution," said Henry.
"I enjoy that more than distance learning," said James. "It was kind of struggling for me."
"I think it's pretty cool getting to go back to school see my friends and do all fun stuff," said Kourtney.
"I'm ecstatic, you know, back to normal," said Nicole. "Everybody's looking ok. You can see people now. You can see the smile."
"Tomorrow is going to be like a holiday getting the kids all back in School and having a normal day," said Matt. "I mean to all the parents out there, yes! It's awesome!
The Free Kids Day Fun Fest happening at the Grandstand at 4 p.m.
Admission to the fair closes at 7 p.m. with the grounds closing 9 p.m. Monday.
Monday's schedule at the WCCO booth
- 9:00 a.m. WCCO-TV Booth opens
- 10:00 a.m. Since We Last Met Showing
- 10:30 a.m. Bag Giveaway
- 11:45 a.m. Since We Last Met Showing
- 12:30 p.m. Since We Last Met Showing
- 1:00 p.m. Nickelodeon Universe Photo-Op
- 3:15 p.m. Since We Last Met Showing
- 3:30 p.m. Bag Giveaway
- 5:30 p.m. Since We Last Met Showing
- 6:30 p.m. Since We Last Met Showing
- 7:00 p.m. Bag Giveaway
- 8:00 p.m. WCCO-TV Booth closes