Vendors tear down as 2025 Minnesota State Fair ends: "It's a lot of degreasing."
The lights have dimmed and the gates are closed, but the work is far from over for crews on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
"No time for rest. You can probably hear my voice. We don't get much sleep, and it's showing," said vendor Nate Kulenkamp.
Teardown begins almost immediately after the fireworks wrap up on Labor Day.
"Fireworks went off, and we all sat down for a second, gave a little high five. We may have had a small barley pop ... but then it's pressure washers," Kulenkamp said.
That cleanup means pressure washing, scrubbing and packing away equipment that just served hundreds of thousands of fairgoers.
"Teardown is a totally different pace. It's a lot of degreasing, a lot of bags of garbage, and then making sure everything is put away where we don't have to think about it in a month or two," said Samuel Parotti of Old English Fish and Chips.
Vendors say it's also about community.
"Whether it's the folks from the Giant Slide, whether it's Butcher Boys, whether it's mini donuts, Sweet Martha's, we're really a small family. We all know each other. If they run out of a cup of sugar and we've got sugar, we're gonna give it to them," Kulenkamp said.
Fair CEO Renee Alexander reflected on the fair's purpose, even in a year marked by tragedy in Minnesota.
"We proved once again why the Great Minnesota Get-Together is more than a fair — it's a reflection of who we are and what we can be, together," Alexander said in a statement.
The 2025 fair drew 1,940,869 visitors — the fifth-highest attendance ever recorded — and continued a three-year trend of growth. With teardown underway, the countdown is already on. The 2026 Minnesota State Fair opens Aug. 27.