Mark your calendar, grab your stretchy pants: the Minnesota State Fair returns Thursday, Aug. 27 through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. Twelve days of cheese curds, butter sculptures, Grandstand concerts, and roughly two million of your closest friends. If you’re coming in from out of town, here’s the local playbook — including why staying in Minneapolis and treating the fairgrounds as a day trip is the thing to do in Minneapolis in late August.
The 2026 dates, hours, and ticket prices
The fair runs Aug. 27 – Sept. 7, with gates open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily (the grounds themselves stay open until 11 p.m., so nobody rushes your last Pronto Pup). Labor Day wraps earlier, with admission ending at 6 p.m. Gate admission is $20 for adults, $18 for seniors (65+) and kids 5–12, and free for littles 4 and under. Here’s the money-saver: pre-fair discount tickets are just $17 through Aug. 26 — buy them online before you arrive and you’ve already covered your first bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies. Full hours for every building and barn are on the official hours page.
The 2026 Grandstand lineup is a good one
The Grandstand Concert Series leans delightfully Minnesotan this year. Bonnie Raitt opens things up Aug. 27, “Weird Al” Yankovic gets bigger and weirder Aug. 28, and on Aug. 29 hometown legends Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis host a homecoming celebration of the Minneapolis Sound — about as on-brand as a Grandstand show gets. The run continues with Sierra Ferrell with special guest Tanya Tucker (Aug. 30, The Current’s Music On-A-Stick), Tommy James & The Shondells with Herman’s Hermits (Aug. 31), Rod Stewart with Richard Marx (Sept. 1), AJR (Sept. 2), Brad Paisley (Sept. 3), HARDY (Sept. 4), and TLC and Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue (Sept. 5). The Amateur Talent Contest Finals on Sept. 6 are free, and CeCe Winans closes the fair Sept. 7. Shows start at 7 p.m. (CeCe at 3 p.m.), and there’s a fireworks spectacular over the fairgrounds nightly.
Getting to the fair without losing your mind (or a parking spot)
Locals will tell you the same thing every year: don’t drive to the fairgrounds. On-site parking is limited and fills early, but the fair runs a genuinely great system of about 30 free Park & Ride lots around the Twin Cities — park free, ride free, walk in like a pro. Metro Transit and suburban providers also run express buses with free parking and direct rides for a small fee, and if you’re on two wheels there are free bike corrals at the gates. From downtown Minneapolis, the fairgrounds in Falcon Heights are only about 15–20 minutes away, which is exactly why the smart move is to sleep in Minneapolis and commute to the corn dogs.
Make Minneapolis your fair basecamp
Twelve days of fair means every hotel near the fairgrounds books up fast — but Minneapolis has the better end of the deal anyway: you get the fair by day and an actual city by night. For a romantic, only-in-Minneapolis stay, the historic Carpenter Mansion at 300 Clifton pairs Gilded Age grandeur (and a garden hot tub for post-fair foot recovery) with its own State Fair stay guide. Traveling as a family or staying several days? The furnished studios at Oakland’s on 9th downtown come with full kitchens — their fair home-base guide makes the park-once-and-ride case nicely.
Save some energy for the city
Here’s our honest advice after years of hauling fairgoers around this city: the fair is a half-day-to-full-day event, and your evenings deserve a plan too. Start a fair day with the best breakfast in Minneapolis, then when you roll back into town, hop aboard one of our Minneapolis Trolley Tours — the scenic, ghost, and true-crime rides all run through late summer, and sitting down while someone else does the storytelling is exactly what your feet want after 20,000 fairground steps. Night owls can keep the theme going at the haunted Pillsbury Club, where the speakeasy bar and spooky drinks make a very different kind of “grandstand show,” or wind down at one of the best rooftops in Minneapolis. Beer folks: the fair’s specialty sips are fun, but the best breweries in Minneapolis are the real deal, and there’s a whole list of Minneapolis date ideas if you’re making a weekend of it.
Planning further out? Our roundup of everything happening in Minneapolis in August 2026 covers the whole month, and if a rain cloud crashes your fair day, our guide to Minneapolis mansion tours you can actually go inside has you covered.
The Great Minnesota Get-Together only comes once a year — grab those $17 pre-fair tickets, book your Minneapolis basecamp, and reserve a seat on the trolley while summer evenings last. We’ll save you a spot.
Keep reading: the State Fair caps the month, but the weekend before it is stacked too — here’s what to do in Minneapolis August 14–16, 2026, from Ed Sheeran to the Fringe finale.