Posted: Jul 7, 2021 10:22 AM

Posted By: Madelyne Watkins

ROCHESTER, Minn. – You’ll be able to get the smells of fried food and the sounds of animals this month as the Olmsted County Free Fair is in less than three weeks. This will be the first year back on the fairgrounds since 2019, so you can expect to see some things to look a little different.

Fair board member, Brandon Helgeson, said there have been several hours of work put in by volunteers to get the fair ready to go come July 26th. With the week-long event not happening last year, all the changes they made to the grounds weren’t able to be seen by the public.

While they might be little changes, Helgeson is hopeful guests will appreciate them. “All the parking kind of remains on the outskirts of the grounds now,” he explained. “So, we’re excited about it. This one building has been remodeled in the past couple of years and it’s going to be our new beer garden. A few changes from 2019, but I think they’re all positive ones.”

Helgeson said the fair board has around 30 or 40 paid employees they hire to make everything that week is possible. He explained it’s been a little tricky to find enough help. They’re currently looking for staff to cover a variety of areas. “We hire some office staff that will help field phone calls, help with all the paperwork that goes on in the office,” said Helgeson. “So we’re scrambling trying to find some of those. a big thing that we need to hire is we need to hire parking staff.”

The Olmsted County Free Fair begins on July 26th and runs through August 1st.

Link: Preparations for the Olmsted County Free Fair are well underway (kimt.com)