Category Archives: Real-Time Fair Sightings Reports

Local County Fair I had to laugh as I set foot in the front gate of my local county fair on opening night (Tuesday, August 1). I had been predicting disaster for weeks, but I’d only spent five seconds inside … Continue reading →

My official fairgrounds fetishing career comes to a close just as I expected it would…..with another lackluster day of sightings. I didn’t exactly need any further reminders that there are no new smokers picking up the habit, but yesterday was … Continue reading →

I certainly wasn’t expecting that my first day of Minnesota State Fair fetishing on August 26, 2022, would rate favorably compared to the days of 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, but just as was … Continue reading →

I went to hell and back since last Saturday. What was hell like? Actually, as is the common trope of those who spend the rest of eternity with the prince of darkness, hell turned out to be a place that … Continue reading →

Early Thursday afternoon, I made my second venture to the Iowa State Fair and even though my sightings count of 42 was unimpressive, I had a pretty decent selection of extra-base hits among them and would generally consider this a … Continue reading →

The good news is that my opening Saturday at the 2022 Iowa State Fair was an improvement over my opening Saturday at the 2021 ISF. Unfortunately, that was a pretty low bar, as last year’s opening Saturday was right down … Continue reading →

For some pretext, last winter I made the executive decision to dramatically trim down my time at the local county fair in 2022. In the abstract, it was a tough choice given my decades of tradition of attending this fair … Continue reading →

Uff da! That’s the term that seems most fitting after a truly dreadful day of sightings at the Minnesota State Fair on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Now there’s important pretext here that 2021 is an off year all … Continue reading →

I’m glad I had the high of the August 21st visit to the Missouri State Fair to coast on because the days leading up to my first visit to the 2021 Minnesota State Fair were dreadful.  I visited my parents’ … Continue reading →

After taking an unplanned year off from fairgrounds fetishing in 2020, I made my triumphant return in 2021 to discover a frightening new world of rapidly diminishing female tobacco use. I anticipated it coming but through my first few fairgrounds … Continue reading →

My third and final visit to the 2021 Iowa State Fair on Thursday was another mostly disappointing affair. There was a juncture mid-evening where things were getting downright exciting but I was at a crossroads and made the wrong choice, … Continue reading →

I set a new precedent on August 16, 2021, by going to the Iowa State Fair for the first time ever on a Monday. Specifically, I rode the shuttle bus to the fairgrounds Monday after work for reduced-price tickets after … Continue reading →

All the ingredients were in place for as good of a Saturday at the Iowa State Fair as one could expect as I boarded my shuttle bus around 10:45 a.m. en route to the fairgrounds. Blue skies, highs in the … Continue reading →

Tuesday Night I technically started the 2021 fair season at the Appanoose County Fair in southern Iowa a week and a half ago but the official 2021 fair season got underway at my hometown county fair the first Tuesday night … Continue reading →

I tried to outsmart a Labor Day weekend weather forecast that was changing radically every few hours and got kicked in the nuts for it, delaying at the last minute my scheduled Saturday visit to the Minnesota State Fair until … Continue reading →

In recent years I’ve tried to downplay expectations some at the Minnesota State Fair because of the hostile smoking culture and ridiculously high prices of Minnesota cigarettes.  Yet just about every year those expectations get exceeded.  Part of it is … Continue reading →

In 2015, 2016, and 2018, I scheduled in a trip to the Missouri State Fair as part of a broader vacation plan that took me to other areas.  Missouri is such a geographic center that one can be vacationing south, … Continue reading →

Most years I only head to the Iowa State Fair twice but since I wanted to go to that bandshell concert on Wednesday night, I decided to go a third night this year on Friday evening.  Country singer Luke Bryan … Continue reading →

I went into an abbreviated Wednesday visit to the Iowa State Fair with low expectations as my intention was always to spend the core of the evening at a concert.  My real “second day at the 2019 Iowa State Fair” … Continue reading →

By every objective measure, I had an exceptional day of fetishing at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, August 10, 2019.  It was the kind of day I would have considered pretty impressive even 10 years ago.  Especially in the … Continue reading →