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The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its slogan is "The Great Minnesota Get-Together." It is the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher =Minnesota State Fair )〕 It is also the 2nd largest state fair in the United States〔http://www.carnivalwarehouse.com/lists/2010list.pdf〕 by total attendance, trailing only the State Fair of Texas, which generally runs twice as long as the Minnesota State Fair. The state fairgrounds, adjoining the Saint Paul campus of the University of Minnesota, are in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, midway between the state's capital city of St. Paul and its largest city, Minneapolis, near the Como Park and Saint Anthony Park neighborhoods of Saint Paul. Residents of the state and region come to the fair to be entertained, exhibit their best livestock, show off their abilities in a variety of fields including art and cooking, learn about new products and services, and enjoy many different types of food—often on a stick. The fair runs for twelve days from late August into early September, ending on Labor Day. In 2009, total attendance was 1,790,497, equivalent to about 34% of the state's population- up almost 100,000 from the previous year.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://www.mnstatefair.org/pages/attendance.html )〕 The highest daily attendance in the entire history of the fair was set on Saturday, August 30, 2014 when 252,092 people visited the fair.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3547505.shtml )〕 ==History== Minnesota Territory first held a Territorial Fair in 1854, although the first Minnesota State Fair didn't occur until 1859, the year after statehood. Since then, the fair has run annually except for five different years. In 1861 and 1862, the fair was not held because of the Civil War and the Dakota War of 1862. Scheduling issues between the fair and the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois caused the 1893 show to be canceled. The fair again closed because of war in 1945, as fuel was in short supply. It was again closed in 1946 because of an outbreak of polio.〔 〕 In its early years during the 19th century, the fair was held in many different locations. Some were not far from the current site, but others were relatively far-flung, including years where it was held in Rochester, Owatonna, and Winona. For a time in the 1870s, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul held competing fairs. Minneapolis, the younger city of the pair, eventually outdid its neighbor by staging the larger fair with the help of William S. King.〔 〕 In 1884, a committee was put together by the Minnesota State Agricultural Society to select a permanent site. One site that was considered was an area around Minnehaha Falls, but the final site chosen was the Ramsey County Poor Farm, the fair's current site. It was a politically neutral site, being about halfway between Minneapolis and St. Paul. The fair first opened its doors there on September 7, 1885. The site was then 210 acres (0.8 km²), but now stands at 320 acres (1.3 km²). One of the first annual events to occur is the creation of a butter sculpture. Each year, a new Princess Kay of the Milky Way is selected to promote Minnesota's dairy industry. Part of the job involves posing for several hours in a walk-in, glass-walled refrigerator as a 90-pound (41 kg) block of butter is carved into a head with her likeness. Butter makers started sculpting their products at the fair as far back as 1898, although the head-sculpting tradition didn't begin until 1964. The main entrance to the fair from Snelling Avenue heads onto a road named Dan Patch Avenue for a pacer horse who won every race he ran in from 1900 to 1909 when he was retired. One of the most significant dates in the fair's history was September 2, 1901, when then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was visiting and first uttered the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Roosevelt became president just 12 days later after William McKinley was assassinated. In 1925, the Minnesota State Fair was the site of the Norse-American Centennial celebration. During his appearance at the Norse-American Centennial, President Calvin Coolidge gave recognition to the contributions of Scandinavian-Americans and noted Leif Erikson as the discoverer of America.〔(''The 1925 Norse-American Immigration Centennial and Ethnic Identity'' (April Schultz. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume 33: Page 267) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Minnesota State Fair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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