FALCON HEIGHTS, Minnesota — The Great Minnesota Get-Together is full of traditions and familiar faces.
"Growing up in the neighborhood, there's a whole lot of us who started working here as kids. A lot of them still do. Some of them play a game coming in the gate: See how far you can get before you find somebody you know and usually it's not more than a block," said Jerry Hammer, general manager of the Minnesota State Fair.
Hammer started working at the fair's greenhouse when he was 15 years old, eventually joining the full-time staff.
"When you add it all up, this is my 53rd year," Hammer said.
Fair officials estimate 12-day attendance to reach 1.7 million; 2019 saw a record 2.1 million.
How did the Minnesota State Fair become such a homecoming for so many?
"It's been here... big and influential, and this big entity really starting in 1885 when the fair found its permanent home here. The fair actually was a territorial fair first... goes back to the 1850s. Minnesota didn't become a state until 1858; so the organization is actually older than the state itself and it's the same organization," Hammer said.
Having a permanent home allowed it the space it needed to grow.
"The fair has always been known as one of the big fairs going back to 1885 when it found its current home. You can see a lot of reference to that in those earlier writings from the 1880s, 1890s, into the early 1900s. But the fair — our fair here — we can all be very proud of. This has always had a real lofty place in the rank of festivals and fairs, not only here but around the world," Hammer said.
Some major events and moments early on helped. Dan Patch made horse-racing history here when he set a new world record with his 1 minute, 55 second mile in 1906. Teddy Roosevelt gave his famous "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick" speech at the fair in 1901. The first airplane flight in Minnesota happened on the fairgrounds in 1910.
But Hammer said it's really about the people and the sense of ownership they feel for the Great Minnesota Get-Together.
"I was reading a history book on the fair published in 1910. So back then it sounded very similar to today in how people feel about the fair. This is where we all celebrate each other. They did then, as well. Same thing. A lot of time has changed, generations have come and gone, but throughout that time the fair has really been like a holiday season in Minnesota," Hammer said.
Hammer added that while everyone's experience is different, it's also fundamentally the same.
"We're getting back together. We're sharing positive experiences. We know what 2020 did to everybody across the board. We know how challenging '21 was. So to be where we are now, moving out, I can't think of a better place to do that," Hammer said. "Nothing exemplifies that, nothing demonstrates that any better than this."
Watch more from the Minnesota State Fair
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