TheBanyanTree: Fair & Partly Cloudy a Sennight Ago

[B Drummond]

Went to the Iowa State Fair again this year.  Last Saturday, which was the 
next to the last day of this week long fair,  there were around 103,000 people 
in attendance.  

My business associate and I were two of that number.

The weather was perfect for it.  It was not hot, with the sun hidden 
frequently by kind clouds casting slow moving shadows over the fairgrounds 
found on the east side of Des Moines, the state's capital.  

This fair is internationally acclaimed.  It was attended by over 1 million 
people again this year.  That's not bad for a state where the entire 
population is only 3 million people, especially considering that the overall 
trend in state fairs in recent years is toward shrinking attendance.

To put those figures into perspective, that would be equivalent to 10 million 
people attending the California state fair which is taking place right now, 
in fact.  Last year's attendance at the California State Fair was estimated 
to be approximately 920,000 people. 

They love their state fair in Iowa.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Iowa State Fair, don't miss it.  It's 
quite an event.  Which day is the best to attend?  All day.

The opportunities for people watching alone is worth the price of admission 
($10.00 when purchased at the gate this year) but there's much more than 
people to see, of course.

Here's a link if you'd care to discover more:

http://www.iowastatefair.com/

The little girl holding the smoked turkey leg on the website is quite the 
cutie and was akin to the official poster girl for the fair this year.



  bd