@forbes

Corn dogs will fry. Pigs will parade. Butter cows will greet visitors from their climate-controlled enclosures. This month is go-time for Ferris wheels, bacon-wrapped beef on a stick and llamas dressed in costumes. For the first time since the pandemic laid waste to the business, state fairs across the U.S. will swing open their gates hoping disease and deficits are behind them. The big question is whether they can overcome higher prices, vendor worker shortages and lingering fear of Covid-19 to regain or surpass their pre-pandemic form. “This whole year, everything about it has felt normal in a new world,” said Jerry Hammer, CEO of the Minnesota State Fair, second only to Texas in size and host to the llama costume contest, which also includes alpacas. “We’re in a much different place than we were three years ago. People are excited about the fair this year. The issues we have are typical, where they haven’t been for the last two years.” State fairs seem like holdovers from a bygone era, when young love could blossom over stuffed bears won on the midway and the family heifer could come home with a surprise blue ribbon. But it’s also a big-dollar business, measured not just by ticket sales but by its impact on the vendors, the seasonal workers and the folks who live down the street and sell parking spots on their front lawns. The Minnesota fair estimates it contributed $268 million to the Twin Cities economy four years ago. Indiana says its fair’s economic impact is $200 million, while Iowa and Oklahoma each report an annual benefit in the range of $100 million. In Texas, where everything is bigger, fairgoers’ impact last year was $400 million even as attendance was down. To read more, click the link in bio.