Well, we told you we loved the Wisconsin State Fair. Clearly, we are not alone.
It was a banner year for the festival of cows, creampuffs and corn!
2024: A record breaking year for the Wisconsin State Fair | Wisconsin State Fair
After 11 incredible days of feeling good fun at the 173 rd Wisconsin State Fair, presented by UScellular, Wisconsin State Fair officials are ecstatic to announce a record-breaking 1,136,805 Fairgoers visited the annual event, beating the previous record of 1,130,572 from 2019.
“I am so proud of the State Fair Park staff, and thankful for our sponsors, vendors, exhibitors, and Fairgoers who helped make the 2024 Wisconsin State Fair so successful,” said Shari Black, Chief Executive Officer of State Fair Park. “The past few years we have focused on enhancing the State Fair Park experience and brand, as well as bringing additional value to our consumers. This year’s attendance and revenue are a testament to the hard work of everyone I mentioned, and I am truly grateful to work with such an amazing team.”
Chairman of the Board John Yingling added, “While the Wisconsin State Fair is often recognized as one of the top fairs in North America, breaking our own attendance record proves that we truly deserve this recognition. I believe we are the BEST State Fair in the country, and I’d like to thank the Fairgoers who joined us for the best 11 days of summer and congratulate the State Fair Park Board and staff. It is their passion and dedication that made this a record-breaking year.”
Well over 10,000 competitive exhibits were judged with 9,800 exhibits showcased in Grand Champion Hall alone. With an abundance of history to celebrate including 100 years of Cream Puffs, the inaugural History Walk was so popular, over 1,000 ribbons were handed out to Fairgoers as they dove into the rich history of the State Fair.
This year saw extremely successful auctions once again, with the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Livestock Auction raising $426,750. and the Blue Ribbon Dairy Products Auction raising a record-breaking $65,080. A significant portion of funds raised at these auctions benefit Wisconsin’s youth agriculture programs and provide scholarships.
The Original Cream Puff Team served up 352,000 Original Cream Puffs this year. An additional 21,000 Specialty Flavored Cream Puffs were dished out to Fairgoers looking for a delightful new twist on State Fair’s favorite dessert. The Sporkies and Drinkies, Wisconsin State Fair’s food and non-alcoholic beverage competition, saw many innovative savory and sweet dishes with the first place award going to Saz’s BBQ. Saz’s served over 28,000 orders of Deep-Fried Lemonade Bites and the now two-time Drinkies winner, Old Fashioned Sipper Club, served nearly 9,000 Fairway Fusions.
Eleven families were crowned the UScellular Fairgoers of the Day in a brand-new program to surprise and delight Fairgoers who embody the Fair spirit. As the presenting sponsor of the State Fair, UScellular continues to put Fairgoers first with exciting and interactive activations throughout the 11 days. New this year as well, the Cream Puff Lovin’ Celebration, presented by UW Credit Union, highlighted every aspect of Cream Puff fun from eating contests and dance parties as well as honoring the Kremer family and Wisconsin Bakers Association for bringing the Cream Puff to the Wisconsin State Fair.
Fairgoers were truly feeling good at the 2024 Wisconsin State Fair. From amusement fun to good Wisconsin eats, Fairgoers enjoyed over 90,000 trips over the State Fair on the SkyGlider and over 35,000 potatoes served from the Wisconsin Products Pavilion. The Wisconsin State Fair team is already busy preparing for the 2025 event, which will take place Thursday, July 31 – Sunday, August 10, 2025.
Wisconsin Capitol Police decline to investigate leak of state Supreme Court abortion order | The Associated Press
Wisconsin Capitol Police have declined to investigate the leak of a state Supreme Court abortion order in June citing a conflict of interest, but the court’s chief justice told The Associated Press she is pursuing other options.
Chief Justice Annette Ziegler told AP via email on Thursday that she continues “to pursue other means in an effort to get to the bottom of this leak.”
…Ziegler called for the investigation on June 26 after the leak of a draft order that showed the court would take a case brought by Planned Parenthood that seeks to declare access to abortion a right protected by the state constitution.
As a reminder, today is Election Day. Polls are open until 8pm.
Absentee ballots, dropbox rules in Wisconsin clarified pre-election day | The Center Square
With Wisconsin’s partisan primary election Tuesday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission discussed in a media call Monday what voters should know before filling out their ballots.
All state polling places open Tuesday at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Wisconsin voters can cast their ballot in person or absentee. Absentee ballots must be delivered to the municipality counting facility, whether in person or via mail, before the polls close. In person voters must have joined the line at their polling place by 8 p.m. in order to vote.
“The bottom line is that your ballots do have to be to the polls by 8 p.m. on election day in order to be counted,” WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said.
Ballot dropbox availability will depend on which municipalities decide to utilize them. Voters can check what district they are in because the state district maps have changed, which candidates are on their ballot, and whether their municipality is utilizing dropboxes on myvote.wi.gov
“We don’t know exactly what turnout will be for tomorrow’s partisan primary,” Wolfe said. “To give you a couple of examples, in 2022 the partisan primary had about 27% of eligible voters that participated.”
Regarding the safety of polling places, Wolfe said officials do not expect any conduct issues to arise, but local election officials are trained to deal with such cases if they do occur.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has provided materials explaining the two constitutional amendments on the primary ballot, which each polling place will display for voters.
Wisconsin officials do not expect any challenges to election results but are prepared for recounts if necessary.
“We certainly don’t expect or anticipate that there’s going to be any unusual or frivolous challenges to the process,” Wolfe said. “But if somebody does attempt to make unlawful challenges, or challenges that don’t have any merit or personal knowledge associated with it, the clerks and the chief inspectors are also trained on how to handle those.”
As of Monday morning, municipal clerks across the state have received 288,021 absentee ballots total, according to WEC data.
The UW Football season is right around the corner.
Wisconsin, Luke Fickell playing the long game after offensive growing pains in Year 1 | ESPN
Luke Fickell isn’t big on social media, so he has managed to avoid the worst of the criticism that followed his inauspicious debut season at Wisconsin.
Still, it didn’t take an assault from the message board army for Fickell to understand the frustrations being expressed at the fish fries and supper clubs around Madison.
For as long as anyone can remember, Wisconsin football was about running the football. It’s a place where “3 yards and a cloud of dust” might as well be a Bible verse — the Book of Barry Alvarez, Chapter 1, Verse 1. But when Fickell took the job last year, he set out to do something different.
“I wanted to be innovative,” Fickell said. “If you really want to win on a continued basis, you have to grow and change.”
Thing is, the Big Ten has not always embraced innovation.
…Overhauling a system that has worked for so long, however, isn’t exactly a seamless process, as Fickell found out in 2023.
He’d hired Phil Longo from North Carolina, an Air Raid playcaller with no ties to the Big Ten. This wouldn’t just be different. It would be martians landing a spaceship on the 50-yard line at Camp Randall. But the result in Year 1 looked less like a professional makeover and more like New Coke.
…”It won’t be the same as we grow, but it’s certainly different than what they’ve had here,” Fickell said. “You have to believe in what you’re doing and what you’re growing into and know there’s going to be some bumps in the road.”
Bumps are to be expected. The old guard doesn’t collapse under the weight of one or two new ideas. But keep chipping away, and eventually, the facade looks brand new.
With Wisconsin’s Partisan Primary occurring in the heart of Summer, the lower turnout amplifies the importance of every vote that is cast. Returns should start trickling in immediately after 8pm and by 11 almost all the results will be known. We’ll have a recap in tomorrow’s Key Reads, including coverage of races for the legislature and the two statewide referenda.
