A line had already formed in the John Deere Agriculture Building an hour after the gates opened the first week of the Iowa State Fair.
Dozens of people waited patiently to see the butter cow, shuffling past the cordoned off displays of purple cabbages, peppers and ears of corn that were waiting to be judged. Sculpted with 600 pounds of butter on a wood and mesh frame, the bovine replica is the first stop for many fairgoers, like Amanda Hergert and Brad Blakeman from Omaha, Nebraska.
“It’s tough to describe the butter cow. It’s best to see in [person] far and away because when you tell people there’s a butter cow, they have no idea how large it is or why people want to see it, but it’s super iconic,” Blakeman said.
More than a million people visit the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines every August. It’s the single largest event in the state and one of the oldest agricultural expositions in the country. Along with the livestock shows, rides and countless foods on a stick, the fair is a showcase of creativity and novelty.
This year the fair ran from Aug. 7-17 and marked its 171st year.
After the fair ends, a replica of the butter cow will be on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., as part of a year-long exhibit called State Fairs: Growing American Craft.
Blakeman said he has attended the Iowa State Fair for at least the past 15 years, and Hergert has joined him for the last five years.
Along with the butter cow and the free hard boiled eggs on sticks fairgoers receive in the Agriculture Building, Hergert said they enjoy watching the free performances and riding the Sky Glider, a chair lift offering a scenic view of the fairgrounds from 40 feet in the air.
“It’s always fun to see the artistic creations, whether it be all of the different baked goods, the photography, the quilting, the Lego creations. There’s just such a variety,” Hergert said.
They said they also try at least one of the new fair food finalists each year. Top of their list was a scotcheroo shake.
Wisconsin
The Wisconsin State Fair is hosted in early August each year in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, celebrating the state’s agriculture industry and offering family friendly entertainment.
This year’s fair was cut short due to heavy rain and flooding that forced organizers to cancel the final day of the state fair. But before storms rolled in, attendees enjoyed rides, slides, fried foods and sweet treats.
Exhibitors from across the state also compete in livestock shows to earn awards.
One of those exhibitors is Lacey Langmeier, a 16-year-old from Potosi, Wisconsin. Langmeier attended the fair to showcase her rabbit, Tinkerbell. She said she’s been showing rabbits since she was still in elementary school, and it’s taught her a lot about responsibility.
“You have to get up and feed them every day, water them, and clean them out at least once a week,” she said. “Even though they're a small critter, you have to pose them, brush them and clean them. And it just teaches you that they depend on you.”
One of the big draws of Wisconsin’s fair has been the Original Cream Puff, a puff pastry cut in half with sweet cream in the middle.
Jeff Saxe of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, made sure to stop in the Dairy Building to pick up a cream puff on the first day. Saxe came to the fair with his grandson and wore a shirt that read, “Grandpa and grandson, best friends for life.”
“I thought it'd be neat to bring him here,” Saxe said. “He's just at the age where he can start to really realize what's around him. I think he's enjoying it so far. He liked the big slide.”
Each year, the Wisconsin Association of Fairs crowns someone to serve in a marketing role as the “Fairest of the Fairs.” This year’s fairest was Megan Salentine of Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. She’s spent the summer traveling to local fairs and promoting the fair industry and said she’s been “blessed” to do so.
“My job is so much fun — I get to see the people, passion and purpose behind the Wisconsin fair industry,” Salentine said. “Although fairs are so unique and diverse from fair to fair, every fair has such a beautiful community.”
Illinois
The Illinois State Fair has been held in Springfield since 1894 – when the capital city beat out other neighboring towns for the price of $50,000 and a commitment to provide sewers, streets and free water.
This year, despite sweltering heat for much of its run, hundreds of thousands of visitors spent time at the fairgrounds. It opened Aug. 7 with the unveiling of the butter cow (sculpted by an Iowan) and closed with Family Day on Aug. 17.
As always, the Grandstand entertainment was a big draw with Megan Moroney setting an all-time attendance record at 15,532. Other acts included Sheryl Crow, Def Leppard, Snoop Dogg, Brad Paisley and The Chainsmokers.
But agricultural shows and exhibitions remain a mainstay of the fair.
Leann Hall of Winning Ways Sheep Farm came from Moweaqua, Illinois, to show her Oxford sheep.
"I've been coming to the Illinois State Fair for 38 years now," she said as she put the finishing touches on her sheep, Mike.
Snip, snip, snip, Hall went, using a pair of shears that would be familiar to generations of farmers. She joked that her sheep were “going to the salon today.”
"Basically, I have a picture of the ideal sheep in my head, and I'm trying to get each sheep to look that way with what they have," Hall said. "So emphasize their best characteristics, try and hide their flaws, and get them as close to that ideal as that individual she can get."
For people of a certain age, the fair is all about the rides. Pharoah's Fury, Starship 3000, and Stampede light up the Carnival Midway, while on the sidelines a variety of entrepreneurs compete to entertain kiddos with more unusual attractions.
Among them is Vertical Amusements' Walk on Water, also known as the Human Hamster Balls, which attendant David Turner calls a “fan favorite.”
"[It] consists of getting inside of a six foot vinyl bubble on top of about three feet full of water," he said. "You do not get wet, you do not sink, and it's the Jesus experience — you walk on water."
Turner, who’s from Colorado, said the Illinois humidity could make getting inside the bubbles hot.
“But we do what we can to keep people comfortable.”
Missouri
The Missouri State Fair was hot — the temperature reached the mid-90s multiple times during the 11-day fair, closing rides, exhausting visitors and melting ice creams.
But that didn’t stop folks from all over the Midwest from visiting Sedalia, Missouri, to eat fried food, attend concerts put on by country and hip-hop superstars and pay their respects to the world’s largest rubber duck.
Karla Deaver brought her cattle to the fair — she kept them cool by hosing them off periodically — and competed in what she calls a “beauty contest for cows.”
“We're looking for the prettiest cows,” she said. “We actually give them haircuts, we wash them, give them a shampoo, we trim their feet, we actually will fluff their tails, and we want them to actually look as pretty as we can going into the ring.”
One of her cows, named Panorama, won the award for best cow of her breed and age division. The fair may be less than two weeks in early-to-mid August, but Deaver said the preparation for a livestock show begins well before that.
“If you do it right, it's every day of the year, 365, that you actually are working with them and preparing them for the next show,” she said. “It’s all about your feeding program, your breeding program, your preparation.”
Deaver’s been an exhibitor at the fair since 1982. Besides competing, she said her favorite thing to do at the fair is people-watching, and there are no shortages of places to do that at the Missouri State Fair.
At The Hacienda, outgoing fairgoers take the stage themselves to do Karaoke. Shelley Moore drove up from Dixon, a small town two hours away from the fairgrounds.
“I was singing Proud Mary by Tina Turner. Journey is another favorite, Separate Ways,” she said. “That just brings joy to the people out there in the audience.”
During one of her performances, a few couples in the audience slow-danced together.
“I love to sing,” Moore added. “That is my passion. I just love to sing to make everybody happy.”
She encourages everyone to come out to the state fair to enjoy everything that's here.
Rachel Cramer of Iowa Public Radio; Joe Schulz of Wisconsin Public Radio; Brian Mackey of Illinois Public Media and Harshawn Ratanpal of KBIA contributed to this story. It was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.