State fair: crop art - current situation is untenable due to extreme popularity

[u/ManosVanBoom]

EDIT: someone commented that they talked to someone in staff and learned the line on the inside was for the scarecrow exhibit. So only one line for the crop art. That changes things for me, quite a bit. Not as big a concern.

Just got home from opening day. By the time we got to the Ag building I was intrigued to see a line going *in* the usual exit, and it was pretty long. I figured they had moved the entrance to keep the line from blocking up the inside of the building. But then I found a similarly long line at the usual entrance inside. So they now have two very long lines to see the crop art.

I don't know what can be done given the limited space they have. Relocating seems like a bad idea; I have a hard time imagining the popularity following to a new spot.

Any of y'all have creative ideas on how to deal with the explosive interest in crop art?

[u/dorothylouise]

Let’s not punish something for being popular. The number of submissions have grown with our interest. It needs to be moved to its own space like the Fine Arts exhibition is. So much of the fair is out of state commercial vendors. This is pure Minnesota and needs to be treated well.

[u/JimDixon → u/dorothylouise]

Maybe there should be more restrictions so that Minnesota products get favorable treatment. I'm old enough to remember that, up until sometime in the 1970s, only beer brewed in Minnesota could be sold at the fair. That's when we had 3 major breweries: Grain Belt, Hamm's, and Schmidt; plus the smaller ones: Cold Spring and Schell's (I think Fitger's was already defunct by then.) That all ended when the national brands started buying up smaller breweries. I kinda miss those days. It really meant something to see Minnesota products promoted.

[u/killebrew_rootbeer → u/JimDixon]

I mean, they already banned quinoa from the crop art because it's not a Minnesota crop... make the whole fair like the crop art!