Fair 2025 – Monday, August 11

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Fair 2025. I’m Bill Riley. The great Iowa State Fair is in full swing, and we’re thrilled you’re joining us because there’s so much to see this year.

More than a million people travel from across the country to be part of this iconic Iowa tradition — a celebration of agriculture, creativity, and community that captures the essence of summer.

Tonight kicks off an entire week of state fair highlights here on Iowa PBS — from unforgettable competitions to incredible food, big personalities, and plenty of fun. For the next six nights, we’ll bring you a full hour of the very best moments from the 2025 Iowa State Fair.

Tonight we’ll find out where this year’s largest livestock tipped the scales.

Families face off in a fast paced chopped-style showdown and we celebrate the haircut that refuses to go out of style at the Mullet Contest.

So let’s get started with the event that kicks off our coverage every year in grand tradition. It's the Iowa State Fair Parade.

[Paul Yeager] It is a beautiful night here in downtown Des Moines on the steps of the Capitol. And excitement. It's in the air. So tell me about this tradition, Lloyd, with the pizza, because I'm hungry now. Why the pizza to the parade?

[Lloyd Reed] Dad buys it and he eats it.

[Kenton Reed] We used to come here with, like I say, my mom and dad, my sister and I, her kids and my kids, and we'd get three or four pizzas, and he could do that for five bucks a pop.

[Lloyd] Five bucks a pop has turned into 7.99.

[Paul] Well, Angela Bellagante is the superintendent of the Fiddlers Competition and part of the Grand Marshals this year. So I guess this is a pretty big year, 100th anniversary of the contest. This is quite the ordeal. What's it mean for you to be here?

[Angela] Means everything for us to be here and celebrate this milestone. And so many people before us have come along and just paved the way. This contest has been strong and steady since 1925, and we've got history of it, and we're celebrating it big this first weekend of the Iowa State Fair up at Pioneer Hall.

[Paul] Elli Blackford is the 2024 Iowa State Fair Queen and Elli, you're only queen for just a couple more days. So how would you sum up this whole experience?

[Elli] It's just been absolutely breathtaking. Everywhere you go, everywhere you travel, you always see something new. Each community is so different, and all of the county fairs really encapsulate that. These queens, they come from pride in their communities, and they are just so proud of where they come from, and they're willing to share that with everybody around them.

♪ ♪

[Kenton] I grew up here in East Des Moines. A lot of what's in the parade are companies that I know or East High School Band might come by. They're just a lot of familiar things. And having been to the parade a lot, we see companies here that we'll later see at the fair when we go.

[Joe Hammen] My granddaughter is going to be in the parade. And, you know, I don't miss anything that she's in. This one is just cool because it starts things off. You know that the state fair starts tomorrow, and it just. It's a great way to kind of get you ready and get you excited to go there and see all the events.

[Paul] Clearly here in the shade. You knew to be here early. So how early do you get to the parade?

[Valerie Jones] How early do I come? Sometimes 3:00, sometimes 4:00, 4:30. I just love coming early to get a spot.

♪ ♪

[Kenton] I had to bring a charger thing for my phone because I always take a ton of pictures here, so I knew it would be running down.

[Jeff Barlett] They said you have to come to the state fair to see the state fair. But first of all, you gotta come to the parade, the kickoff parade. So we're here tonight for the first time to watch it.

♪ ♪

[Contest Emcee] All right, who's ready to see some mullets?

(Crowd cheering)

♪ ♪

[Dana Lain] So, Wyatt, you won the mullet contest. How are you feeling?

[Wyatt Gardner] Good.

[Dana] Good. What does it take to have a mullet?

[Wyatt] I don't know.

[Dana] What do you think, Mom? Pretty awesome.

[Wyatt’s mom] We got second last year, so we were going for first this year. What do you think is your favorite part about having a mullet?

Definitely has an attitude with it. Not sure it's my favorite, but he has one.

There are three different age groups in this contest. Six year old and younger, 7 to 12 year olds and 13 years old and up. Judges are looking for creativity and design originality.

[Emcee] For the 7 to 12 age group for the mullet competition, Harley.

(Crowd cheering)

[Harley Rice] I got it because I had some friends in my school that had them and my cousins, so I just thought it would be a good idea to have it until I figured out of the Mullet Contest.

[Dana] What do you think a mullet would say if it could talk?

[Harley] I don't know. Probably, it's very hot out here. He's gonna have to say bye bye tomorrow.

[Dana] You're gonna have to say goodbye to it tomorrow?

[Harley’s mom] Daddy did a lot of the coaching when it came to his moves and just really kind of working the crowd, and he was cheering from the top. We told our local community that he was gonna be doing this, and they really showed up for us. We're really proud.

[Dana] Oh, that's awesome.

♪ ♪

[Dana] So, wow, you won the Mullet Contest. Tell us, how are you feeling right now?

[Rai Tokuhisa] I am feeling ecstatic and elated about this mullet competition because I believe I've been daydreaming about this for a hot minute.

[Dana] What made you decide to have a mullet?

So you know how the last few years post pandemic, everyone's got to, like, get back into the grind and have a really good life goal? I just needed something that felt fun, that I was going to feel good no matter what happens. And being out, like, finding your people in a line full of mullet wearers is a very good feeling.

10 out of 10 encourage anyone to enter next year's competition.

♪ Keep on rocking. ♪

What a hoot. Up next ... They’re massive, majestic and the true bosses of the barnyard. Let’s head to the big animals contests to meet the stars of the show and the people who care for them in the fair’s biggest competition.

[Contest Emcee] So we've got quite a list. We've got a list of people that have been here before and people that are new and we're going to see if we can beat about 500 pounds.

Nona's ram weighs 456 pounds.

All right, our next ram up is Fisher Farms from Mercer, Missouri. It's a three year old Suffolk ram named Big Bad Joe.

Big Bad Joe weighs 501 pounds and a half.

Our next ram comes from Abby Willson of Shell Rock. It's a Columbia Ram, seven years old. His name is Judah.

505 and a half.

So my challenge at the beginning of this contest was to come up with a ram that weighed at least 500 pounds. We're going to start with our reserve champion, Big Bad Joe, who weighs 501.5 pounds. And our champion for this year at 505 pounds, Judah, Abby Willson from Shell Rock, Iowa.

We've got some unique creatures for you. We appreciate you being here.

Our first boar, Travis Jeske with Red Ranger. He's from Eldora, Iowa. He weighs 788.

Our next entry is consigned by Kyle Cole. His name is Big Mav and Big Mav weighs a thousand…settle down. 1,010. 1,010 pounds.

Bandit weighs 942 pounds. 942 pounds.

This entry is Al Francious. The boar's name is George. He's a Yorkshire borer that's never sired any pigs. He loves eating apple pies and hog feed. And thus far he's the heaviest one we've had. 1,134 pounds.

Okay, we're beginning to have a little competition here. 1,236 pounds. 1,236 pounds.

The next entry coming into the ring is Brian Britt with Duke. 1,268 pounds. This is your champion big boar at the 2025 Iowa State Fair. Congratulations.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the 2025 Super Bull Contest at the Iowa State Fair.

All right. Well, hey, we just saw Rampage come across the scale at 2,760 pounds.

Now our second goal of the night tonight again, Albert II. He came in at 2,690 pounds. So let's have a hand for Albert II tonight.

Well, folks, we've got our only charolais of the night. He's on the scale right now. His name is Big Beaver. He comes to Templeton, Iowa up in Carroll County.

Get Big Beaver’s weight here. We'll see what he scales in at. 2,720 pounds.

We're going to see another Black Angus. This is a Black Angus composite. His name is Bud. Your 2025 Super Bull contestant winner comes from Clinton County. Bud, weighing 3,110 pounds.

Behind the Blue Ribbon, a new Iowa PBS documentary, takes you behind the scenes of the Iowa State Fair, including the story of 11-year-old Jack Theobald from Muscatine.

(turkey gobbling)

(goat bleating)

[Jack Theobald] This is Bunny. I just started working with her and walking her and they're just fun to do stuff with and play with.

[Jake Theobald] We live in Muscatine, Iowa, been here our whole lives. We work at a pig farm. It's a farrow-to-finish unit, so we've got sows and we've got finishing pigs. Then we also have a little bit of a goat herd on the side and then some oddball animals too.

[Jack] Jump!

(goat bleating)

(crank turning)

Hank is two years old, two or three years old. He likes to try to nip at you and eat your shirt.
[Chelsea Theobald] This year we will be exhibiting what we hope is the biggest boar of Iowa. And then we will have two 4-H market hogs out there also.

[Jack] Hey, piggies!

[Chelsea] This will be Jack's first year showing at the state fair.

(Boy climbs into a pig pen.)

[Jack] Come on, guys! Out! I'm going to give them a bath.

[Chelsea] You know, in our line of work we've been able to bring our kids with us since they were old enough to walk, maybe before they could walk, they've been coming to work with us at times.

[Jack] You gotta wake up early. It's a dirty job. I walk them, feed them.

[Chelsea] The kids have been lucky enough to be able to go in and help wean pigs, breed sows, farrow pigs. I don't think there's a task on the farm that either one of them haven't really done.

[Jack] This one is Tammy. He's a Tamworth.

[Jake] Jack was breeding pigs as soon as he could walk, even going to kindergarten explaining to the teacher and all the kids how you AI sows.

[Jack] Come on.

[Bill Riley] You can watch the full Behind the Blue Ribbon documentary anytime at IowaPBS.org.

[Bob Hill, aka "Hillbilly Bob"] I've had this machine on the road about 15 years where I've been going to fairs all over. Would you like to take a little tour around the tractor here?

We'll just kind of show it off. Right here we got the teapot. We can warm the coffee pot up, you know. This is my hot dog cooker here. I can cook hot dogs right on the muffler. And I forgot to put those on here today.

You know, we got some interesting curios we've picked up along the trail. This right here, well, you can use it for a club or you can use it for a back scratcher. It works pretty good, you know. And give massages there like that with it, you know, whatever. You know, nothing runs like a deer, they say, right?

So we got our deer antlers on there. It kind of helps chew the way through crowds, you know, it's a little bit intimidating when you got a big crowd. Kind of gets people through.

Now here. Here's one of the favorite things right here. Like I said, I'm getting old, you know, I sit down here in this cast iron John Deere seat and my Cookie Monster here blows up the balloons, you know. Now usually when I do this, there's a crowd of kids around and we end up with kids about 25 deep.

Here you go.

[Woman] Thank you so much.

[Bob] Kids of all ages enjoy that.

I think with the rain, my golf club swelled up. That's a homemade one there. That's one of the woods, you know. I use walnuts for golf balls usually.

Well, there's Earl the squirrel. He's riding shotgun with me.

There's my bullhorn for chasing the cows.

(Horn honking)

You go out in the pasture with that and the cows just come running.

That's as close as I got to air conditioning right there. My John Deere umbrella.

There's a little memento from a festival that's going on right now. Britt, Iowa, Hobo Days. That's a walking stick with a duck call built right into it there. That's pretty nice.

I gotta have some modern conveniences. I do. I do have a CD player on it, you know. It kind of helps set the mood. I play mainly polka music.

I find that a lot of people just. I'll be driving along and all of a sudden they start polka dancing ... it just makes people happy, you know, and the world needs more happiness.

♪ ♪

[Charity Nebbe] There are a lot of competitions at the Iowa State Fair, and there's a whole lot of food. We found an event that combines both of those elements and sprinkles in just a little bit of family drama. It's the first ever family Chopped at The Kitchen at the Iowa State Fair.

[Emily Wynn] We are going to select two families, so hopefully a parent and a child. You two. We wanted to do more competitions here in the kitchen. All right, come on down.

So we thought, what would be more fun than to kind of take our take here at the Iowa State Fair on the ever popular Chopped TV show? So this is our take on Iowa State Fair Chopped.

You can use all four ingredients. You can use three of the ingredients. You just have to use three of the four. Okay. And then you'll get 30 minutes when we tell you to go.

So today they will be using cotton candy, pineapple, puff pastry, and microwave bacon.

[Charity] Wow, that sounds tough.

[Emily] Yeah, it should be. That's the fun part of it.

[Charity] Can you describe what you're making?

[Stacy Frazer] We're making bacon wrapped pineapple in puff pastry with a pineapple drizzle on top.

[Charity] You feel like you have a good half hour plan.

[Stacy] Sure.

[Charity] You guys cook together a lot?

[Stacy] She helps me in the kitchen a lot. Yeah, she's like my sous chef, you know?

[Charity] Nice. So you have some rapport already?

[Stacy] Yes, and we like each other, so that's helpful.

[Charity] Can you describe what you're making?

[Raffaele Cariglino] We're going to kind of candy the bacon, mix it in with the pineapple, make it a sweet treat.

[Charity] What did you think of the ingredients when they were.

[Raffaele] The cotton candy threw me off a little bit, so we kind of discarded that. But everything else looks like it can be worked with. I mean, it is Iowa. So we are solid with the bacon. We're confident in the bacon.

[Charity] And this is a father son team.

[Raffaele] Yeah.

[Charity] All right. Do you guys cook together?

[Raffaele] We do. He's. He's my guy.

[Woman] All right, contestants, you have used 10 minutes. 20 minutes remain. FYI, the puff pastry does take 15 minutes to bake, so if you're using that, you should probably get it in the oven.

Okay, contestants, five minutes remain. Five minutes remain.

[Raffaele] All righty. Should we just do like that?

Okay, that's good. 30 seconds. Come on, man.

Hey, give me a... give me a spoon. Give me a spoon.

[Woman] 20.

[Raffaele] Oh, are you kidding me? Oh no.

[Woman] 10 seconds.

[Raffaele] All right, doctor it up.

[Woman] 5, 4, 3.

[Charity] How do you decide who wins this cutthroat competition?

[Emily] Yeah, so there's some criteria. So there's like, presentation, taste, and creativity. And the audience gets to help us judge.

[Charity] All right, on a scale of 1 to 10, what's the adrenaline level?

[Michael Cariglino] Done a lot of sports activities, had a lot of adrenaline. Didn't realize how high the adrenaline was going to be here, especially when that time limit hit.

[Raffaele] But when that time came down, we...

[Michael]...were stressed those last couple seconds.

[Charity] Yeah.

[Michael] So just grateful we got it on the plate in time.

[Charity] Right?

[Michael] Yeah.

[Man] What do you think? Thumbs up. Pretty tasty.

[Emily] And drum roll. Winning Chopped today is team one from Montana.

[Charity] Presentation seems to be pretty important to you. Are you happy with how it looked?

[Biz Frazer] Yes, I think it looks pretty good.

[Stacy] She's very artsy, so I knew she'd make it look pretty.

[Charity] And are you happy with how it tasted?

[Biz] I didn't really get to try it.

[Charity] Oh, my gosh. I think you should try it right now.

Have you ever entered a contest at the Iowa State Fair? From baking to big pumpkins, there’s something for everyone! Here are some of today’s winners.

♪ ♪

Iowa State Fair Parade — Horses

• First Place - Most Creative: Escaramuza Quetzalli
• Second Place - Most Creative: Escaramuza Amazonas Del Bajio

Iowa State Fair Parade — Performing

• First Place - Most Creative: School of Rock
• Second Place - Most Creative: Danza Folclórica Del Oeste

Iowa State Fair Parade — General

• First Place - Best Use of Fair Theme: Iowa Honey Producers
• Second Place - Best Use of Fair Theme: Bankers Trust - Junior Savers
• First Place - Most Creative: Iowa Sikh Association
• Second Place - Most Creative: Mobile Super Service

Iowa State Fair Parade — Youth Dance/Tumbling

• First Place - DMI dance force
• Second Place -The Dance Avenue
• Third Place - True Talent Dance

Biggest Pumpkin Contest

• 1st - Pete and Alba Caspers, Peosta - 1,409 lbs New State Fair record!
• 2nd - Martin Schnicker, Mt. Pleasant - 552 lbs
• 3rd - Rusty Caspers, Anamosa - 465 lbs

Decorated Cakes Contest
Adult Open: Single Cake

• 1st - Karen Hardisty, Waukee
• 2nd - Claire Tigges, Waukee
• 3rd - Brooke Mickelson, Clive  

Adult Open: Tiered Cake

• 1st - Tanya Jackson, Scranton
• 2nd - Nathan Hardisty, Waukee
• 3rd -  Brooke Mickelson, Clive

Adult Open: Wedding Cake

• 1st - Lynn Kumagai, West Des Moines
• 2nd - Claire Tigges, Waukee
• 3rd - Brooke Mickelson, Clive and Monica Walz, Marion

Youth Decorated Cakes

Sculpted Cake

• 1st - Elise Parsons, Cedar Falls
• 2nd - Charlotte Watnem, Fort Dodge
• 3rd - Ruby Grosc, Bondurant

Single Cake

• 1st - Hannah Hardisty, Waukee
• 2nd - Brooklyn Walz, Marion
• 3rd - Charlotte Watnem, Fort Dodge

Tiered Cake

• 1st - Chandler Watnem, Fort Dodge
• 2nd - Emmaline Walz
• 3rd - Charlotte Watnem, Fort Dodge

♪ ♪

Well it’s already time for us to take a short break. But stay with us because we’ve got a lot more for you tonight. When we come back we’ll meet a student who has shown nearly every animal possible at the fair. We’ll learn more about an annual reunion for folks who grew up on the East Side and our own Paul Yeager will talk with fairgoers about the new foods at this year’s state fair.

So don’t go far. We’ll be right back with all that and more from the great Iowa State Fair. Right here on Iowa PBS.

♪ ♪

[Dana Lain] All right, so tell us, how do you guys survive the fair?

[Woman 1] I think definitely staying hydrated is the most important thing. So we've had a root beer, a lemonade, and a water so far.

[Girl 1] I think, just gotta get good sleep.

[Man 1] And comfy shoes.

[Dana] Comfy shoes.

[Woman 2] Comfy shoes.

[Dana] How do you survive the fair?

[Woman 3] Survive? Yeah, it's wonderful. There's no difficulty.

[Dana] What's your strategy to get through the crowds?

[Man 2] We like to call it shoot the gap. Whenever you see a gap, you gotta go for it.

[Girl 2] Gotta walk around slow people.

[Girl 3] You go through the cracks.

[Girl 4] And try to stay together.

[Man 3] Honestly, I just zigzag through them.

[Dana] So if you only had two hours at the fair, what is your list of things you've gotta do?

[Teen 1] Try to break into the butter cow.

[Girl 1] Sky Glider.

[Woman 4] Turkey leg.

[Man 1] Turkey leg.

[Boy 1] I'd probably get some pizza.

[Girl 4] I want to see the bunnies because I want a bunny.

[Dana] What is one hack that you would give to somebody who's never been to the fair before?

[Woman 3] Best advice, come hungry.

[Dana] It gets hot. How do you guys stay out of the heat?

[Man 3] Try to get yourself some shade, you know what I mean?

[Woman 5] So, yeah, definitely in and out of buildings. Water. Also a good lemonade here.

[Woman 3] I've been coming to the fair since there was no air conditioning anywhere. So it's pretty wonderful now.

[Dana] When it's raining. It was raining earlier today. How do you get out of the rain?

[Teen 1] You don't. You just don't.

[Dana] Any last minute advice for new fairgoers?

[Woman 6] Oh, be prepared to have the time of your life. You get out of it what you put into it. Be kind, be gracious and have fun.

Welcome back, everyone, to our first night of Fair 2025 coverage. It’s always an honor to be part of such a long-standing tradition.

For many 4-H and FFA kids, the road to the Iowa State Fair starts at their local county fair — and that’s certainly true for Garrett Von Stein. Garrett takes an incredible variety of projects and animals to the Polk County Fair, a place where kids can get hands-on experience and explore everything from livestock to creative arts before stepping onto the bigger stage of the state fair.

♪ ♪

[Garrett Von Stein] So I'm a third generation for 4-H. So my dad did 4-H when he was in middle school and throughout high school. And then my grandma was actually a county youth coordinator here in Polk County for many years. So my grandma did it, my dad did it, and then I did it.

So this is where we keep the majority of our animals. We got a kind of a big hodgepodge of different things. I've shown cattle, so I've had a bunch of different dairy goats. I've raised my own dairy goats as well as meat goats. I've had a couple different bottle babies the last couple years. I had pigs when I was younger. Tons of different breeds of chickens.

I've probably showed over 30, 30-40 different breeds of chickens in the past couple years at my county fair. As well as pigeons, turkeys. I've shown my barn cat, Carlos. He attacked the judge, but he won the oldest cat award.

Yeah, my brother's more focused on his pigs versus me. I'm just the buffet. I'm taking everything out the buffet and he's just taking the pork.

And then all the static projects I've done. So I've done woodworking, home improvement. Photography has been one of my bigger ones in the last couple years. So I usually try to submit as many pieces as I can for that. Everything that's been offered at my county fair I've been able to show.

[Livestock Judge] I have never picked dairy weather, but I'm going to tell you, young man. That's the best neighborhood that I've ever put my hands on.

[Garrett] It's a lot different fair from most county fairs. So most people, when they think of county fair, they think of the carnival rides, the different foods to eat, kind of like the state fair. But our county fair is a little different because we don't have our own county fairgrounds. We actually stay at the state fairgrounds.

[Caitlin Remington] I always joke when you come to the state fair, like, hey, "Welcome to Polk County Fairgrounds." Just because we are so urban and so in the middle of Des Moines. In 1988 is when they changed from Future Farmers of America to the National FFA Organization. And it's an organization all student led.

It's the largest student organization in the nation. Bondurant didn't have ag until seven years ago. To be involved in FFA, you have to be in an ag class. And so that's kind of where some schools are a little hindered because they don't have an ag teacher like me to be a part of their program.

[Marci Vinsand] Polk County 4-H. We serve youth in Polk County that are kindergarten through 12th grade. 4-H has its history in agriculture, so that is how it started. However, there is so much more to it. The way I like to consider the Polk County Fair is it's our celebration of learning. It's the celebration of everything that our kids have worked for all year long.

Normally we have about 2,000 exhibits in our 4-H exhibit building. And then the other half of our county fair is our livestock. And I remember Garrett when he first started as a clover kid. And I've watched him grown up and I couldn't be more proud to have worked with him.

[Garrett] Throughout 4-H, I've been club president a handful of times along with, currently I'm the vice president of my club. Another group I've been through is 4-H reporters as well. So that's at the state fair level actually. I get to work with organizations like Iowa PBS and I've also been lucky to work with WHO Radio.

But another big thing I'm doing this year, which I've done the past three years, was be a garden manager for our FFA chapter. So at the state fair level, we take care of a garden there. It's just right by Little Hands on the Farm. It's right behind there. We start taking care of this garden right when school gets out. We plant everything and then whatever produce we don't sell, we will give to the Food bank of Iowa.

So I just graduated from Bondurant this year. I've been in 4-H since it started in 4th grade. As well as FFA, I started my freshman year. We have really fluffy ones. So this is a silky actually.

I would say it's probably the biggest thing in my life because that's what I wake up and do every morning and evening. I don't take it for granted and it's just not one person. It takes a big group.

[Brad Weston] Showtime in one minute.

I'm Abby Brown at the Fun Forest Stage with Brad Weston of the Brad Weston Experience. Tell us about yourself, where you're from. How long you been doing this?

[Brad] I'm from Chicago. I grew up there. But I did spend 10 years as an Iowa resident when I worked at Adventureland Amusement Park.

♪ ♪

[Abby] You do lots of balancing acts. How did you learn how to do all that?

[Brad] I started, you know, as a child with mime and soft shoe, you know, And I always knew that I was gonna be an entertainer. And so I picked up one thing after another. I was a magician for a while. Tightrope walker. I've done lots of circus stuff, and everything I'm doing now is kind of the most favorite stuff that just kind of stuck.

Hold up, phone. I got an idea.

Oh, sorry, Abby. Should have seen the look on her sweet little face.

Let me ask you something. You guys want to see me go crazy?

Yeah.

Get ready. Here we go.

Oh, yeah. Cheers.

It's tea. I have to say that it's a family show, but ladies and gentlemen, right now, it's tea time.

One of the things that makes my show unique is the golf act, where I bounce a series of golf balls on the face of a club. It's kind of reminiscent of the Tiger Woods Nike commercial way back in the day.

I saw that as a kid, and I thought, ooh, I want to do that. You know?

[Abby] Yeah.

[Brad] Now, folks, I'm going to try to get both balls off the same club face. Cross your fingers. This one's hard.

I know what you're probably wondering. You're wondering, can he do three balls? No, he cannot. But thanks for wondering.

Oh, all right. I'll take a whack at it. All those cute, sweet little faces. I have three balls, one club face. Cross your fingers.

[Abby] You're just getting started. You're going to be here every day, right?

[Brad] Every day. And my shows are 11:30, 1:30 and 3:30. And every day through the whole run of the fair. So till the 17th.

Pull your ears.

Oh, yeah. Thank you. High 5. I know you're good for one.

Most terrifying part is when I walk barefoot on the edge of a single sword blade as if it were a tightrope.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Brad Weston, and you are awesome. Thank you so much for coming out to see me at the Iowa State Fair.

♪ ♪

[Paul Yeager] These are some of the new fair foods at the Iowa State Fair. I've had a chance to try them already in a special event, and now that it is the actual fair, they are all just gonna taste different. There are some classics. We all have our all time favorites, and we have some new standbys, of course.

But what's gonna be the possible palate pleasers this year that went out at the Iowa State Fair?

[Cashier] Hi, how can I help you today?

[Woman] Three little pigs to go.

[Paul] What is key, do you think, for a new fair to make it work?

[Paul Babberl] I think just having fun, having fun with the team, building things and creating and seeing what everybody loves.

[Calvin Wolfe] Ham balls are pretty good. If I had to pick one, I would probably go for the maraschino cherries. It was pretty sweet, but I think it was a good flavor.

[Paul] Take a bite. Let's find out.

[Jennafer Rozendaal] Yeah, it turned out good. Nothing not to like about it. Chicken, bacon ranch.

[Paul] I'm not gonna ask you to compare to last year's, but compared to last year's...

[Jennafer] Probably better. Big fan.

[Tessa Faris] This is new. Tell them about this potato half and half Korean corn dog.

[Paul] What do you think so far?

[Tessa] All right. Yes. We have mozzarella at the top and beef at the bottom wrapped in potatoes with the special sweet chili sauce. It's awesome.

[Diane Faris] Does it have a kick to it?

[Tessa] Not too bad. A little, but not really. Not much. I don't do spice.

[Diane] Yeah, I'm not much on the spicy side either.

[Paul] What does being the lobster princess mean?

[Mea Fehrer] It means I have to try all of the lobster, make sure it's perfect. And I get to talk to so many people. I get to take pictures. It's just. It's super fun.

[Paul] I get asked a lot about the lobster. Why lobster at the Iowa State Fair? Is it all about being different or it just wasn't an area that was covered before?

[Brooks Reynolds] Well, you know, here at the fair, there's, you know, Campbell's Corn Dogs has the corn dog market cornered. You know, there's turkey legs, there's Brad and Harry's Cheese Curds. You know, we have to bring new flavors. Yes, we want to be different, but we also, we bring kind of a culinary aspect to the Iowa State Fair. And it's just been fun. That's the fun part, is coming up with the new flavor profiles and things that are different, weird, and wonderful.

[Paul] Brooks, we are at a special table. This is a big deal this year. What is this?

[Brooks] This is our high roller combo table. So our signature lobster roll this year is the High Roller Roll.

[Paul] We got Great timing.

[Sarah Strong-Tuttle] This is our High Roller Roll. We wanted to do a little up level this year, like we do every year for the fair. For the bun we take duck fat and we add a bunch of gold shimmer. Then it's our fresh Maine lobster tossed with some clarified butter. And then it gets creme fraiche. And then three nice large dollops of our hackleback caviar.

And then of course, it wouldn't be a High Roller Roll without some 24 karat gold flake on top. And some dill.

[Paul] You have to walk off all that food. At least I do anyway. But you do have to save room for one more thing. And that's a sweet treat. We are going to try the Scotcheroo Shake. One last sweet treat here at the state fair. You can't try them all, but man, it has been fun trying.

This has been tough eating all this food by myself. If only there was someone to help me.

[Kenny] Oh, I volunteer.

[Paul] Thank you, Kenny. We're gonna try it. Enjoy yourself at the Iowa State Fair. It's time to eat.

[Kenny] Oh, man, that's really good.

What an exciting start to the week on the Riley Stage. These young performers gave it their all, and here’s who’s advancing from today’s competition.

Sprouts Semifinalists

• Tap Dance Duet — Sophia Rasmussen, 9, Denison and Ellie Eggers, 9, Denison
• Lyrical Dance Solo — Olivia Carlson, 10, Des Moines
• Baton Solo — Julianne Kline, 12, Clive
• Musical Theater Vocal Duet — Gemma Lahner, 11, Oskaloosa and Delia Lahner, 9, Oskaloosa
• Lyrical Dance Solo — Evyn Davis, 11, Urbandale

Senior Semifinalists

• Piano Solo — Gwen Franczyk, 15, Urbandale
• Vocal Solo — Jocelyn Davis, 16, Ottumwa
• Lyrical Dance Solo — Makayla Beisel, 18, Clarion
• Vocal Solo — Peyton Stensstrud, 17, Grinnell
• Jazz Dance Solo — Bailey Wright, 18, Davenport

Catch the Talent Championships this Sunday, August 17 at 8pm on Iowa PBS.

Once you spot one of the concrete statues of the Iowa State Fair, you start seeing them everywhere.

Each summer, artists of all skill levels compete in the Concrete Statues Contest, and this year they could choose to paint a cow or a pig.

Earlier this summer, we caught up with one of those artists as she worked on her design.

[Abbygayle Garner] My cow's name is Claudette Monet. It is because she is inspired by Claude Monet's water lily painting. My mother in law, she camps at the state fairgrounds and she had pointed out a few of the different statues that people paint. And a lot of people who participate previously will bring their statues when they're camping and put them by their campsites to find them easier at night.

And she kept commenting how much she loved them. I went, you know what? I bet I could paint those. That looks super fun. So I entered in the 2022 year. I ended up painting a barn and I got honorable mention in the novice category. And then I competed again in the 2023 year and I ended up winning in the tractor one.

Right now my daughter's obsessed with cows, so she loves looking at cows and just going, "moo." I just was really inspired by being able to make a fun pun out of the cow one.

So this is Claude Monet's water lily painting "Bridge Over Water Lilies." So right now I'm working on the background area. Eventually there will be the bridge part that goes right over the background and will be on both sides, which will have her name on it on one side and my name on the other.

So you have all of the water going in and then after that the water lilies and then going into the top, you also see me start adding grasses and stuff to have that flow where it's not just water and then green, but it really does function going all the way up as you go up the cow.

And then you have more dark willow tree trunks going down to kind of show that progression as it's different functions of light kind of hitting the cow throughout it.

A lot of mine are just basic painting brushes that you're going to use with acrylic paint when you're using on an actual canvas that you would be buying, Michael,s, Hobby Lobby, places like that.

But some of mine are also eyeshadow brushes that I have that are old ones that I don't use anymore. They provide sometimes a better texture because it's concrete and it's a three dimensional object. You have the issue where it absorbs a lot of the paint. So a lot of the reason I do that first blue and green color blocking is to get a layer of paint down so it's not just soaking up all of the acrylic paint because it really likes to eat the paint.

The other part of it is because it's three dimensional, it's very easy to miss little crooks and crannies. Especially with the calf, like between the legs, the inside, right underneath where you have everything. So sometimes behind the tail, it's just really difficult to see everything. You gotta constantly be moving around in different ways.

You also have to really imagine, like, how would this go on the face or how would this move if it's going underneath? And you have to be very aware of your direction.

[Bill Riley] This year marks the end of the concrete statue contest. Now complete, the statues are scattered throughout the fairgrounds.

[Abbygayle] It's a very time consuming process, so I understand why it may not be returning, so I'm hoping they replace it with something different, but exciting.

[Hayley Schaefer] On the first Friday night of the fair, there is an unofficial tradition that you may or may not know about. East Side Night. And I only have one question. What's the East Side?

♪ ♪

So I have one question to start. What is the East Side?

[Luann Halter] The East Side is a great group of people that, when you grow up with them, you will be friends with them forever.

[Hayley] What makes someone a true East Sider?

[Kent Balduchi] Well, you have to have a zip code that ends in 17 or a phone number that starts in 26. That's a requirement.

[Chris Schmitz] Everybody's real. They're not fake.

[Jeremy Jones] Honestly, like, we're a diverse group. What makes an East Sider? You grew up on the East Side.

[Hayley] How East Side are you?

[Jason Lampman] I mean, my dad lives a couple blocks away from the fair. I mean, I went to the elementary school that's right outside the fair. So I'd like to think I'm a little bit East Side, you know?

[Hayley] Okay. So this is my first time at the fair on a Friday. So what can you tell me about East Side Night?

[Candace Kitzmann] It's big. Really big. Every year that ever graduated from East High shows up.

[Hayley] All right, so tell me, what is East Side Night?

[Michelle McGriff] It's all about the East Side.

[Lisa Hopkins] Tradition.

[Michelle] Yes. 100% tradition. See?

[Lisa] Seeing old friends.

[Michelle] Yep. It is a class reunion for everybody that went to East High School.

[Kent] It's East Side Christmas. I look forward to this all year long.

[Hayley] So what is East Side Christmas?

[Kent] East Side Christmas is. It is an all class reunion for people that grew up on the East Side, went to school at East. This is the one time that they show up, and it is truly a big reunion.

[Hayley] What have you done on East Side Nights past?

[Heather Seward] So I kind of have a routine. Go to Main Gate or Toads always, because they're the closest bars, and I always see my friends there. And then we always hit up the Bud Tent because you can always count on seeing East Siders there.

[Hayley] Can you tell me a little bit of the history of East Side Night?

[Luann] The Bud Tent started from what I remember the guy that owned it came back from the service and he opened the bud tent, and he was from around this area. It just started as kind of an informal thing. Like a few people decided to come and meet, you know, at the fair and go to the Bud Tent, and it just grew from there.

And now you have generation after generation, and it just keeps going and hopefully we'll live on forever.

[Hayley] What does it mean to have a special night at the fair?

[Michelle] It feels great because we were born and raised on the East Side, and fair's on the East Side, so why not have East Side Night?

[Kenna Dixson] We used to meet at the Bud Tent. Now it's the Depot. Every time you turn, you see someone you know.

[Jason] Everybody, like, they have pride from where they're from. You like to kind of claim it, and, I don't know, just... it's nice to be able to claim something.

[Hayley] So it is the first Friday night of the fair. It is East Side Night, but most importantly, it's all about just getting out, having fun with your friends, your family, and enjoying a beautiful night together.

Now, to close the show, we’re looking up. After the Grandstand goes dark, the sky lights up with the Iowa State Fair Drone Show.

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[Don "Wiz" Wisnieski] It's more fun than it should be. There should be a log in having this much fun.

So we brought a crew of four. Everything gets set out on a one meter grid. We get our tape measures out, find the corners. So we hook up all of our equipment and we get four drones out, and we get them about where we think they need to be, and we do a little hover test.

So the drones will go up about 3 or 4 meters, hover, and come right back down exactly where they're supposed to be.

Everything's off of GPS, but we'll probably, you know, on a typical show, we're logging on to 38 to 44 satellites in the sky. So it's all GPS. We got about a 1.5 centimeter accuracy to these drones when they're in the air. That software is what drives everything. And as long as our designer did his job right, they're going to fly right in the sky.

And then we lay the grid out from those four corners, set that all out, and there's a number of checks that have to be done. Wind wise, we can take up about 20 to 22 miles an hour wind during a show and then sit back and watch that show. Ideally, when you do multiple shows three nights in a row, you typically want to do the same show.

Now, if we were going to do it this weekend, next weekend, we might tweak that a little bit just to change the show up just a little bit. Maybe change the music track or something like that.

First thing we do is come up with a storyboard. It's their story we're going to tell in the sky, not ours. So we come up with a storyboard, and it's typically 18 to 22 scenes. Let's go 1 through 20. We put that storyboard together.

Every show is unique. We have a lot of designs that we can do a cut and paste type deal. But we really pride ourselves on customizing every single show that there is. You've got different logos up there for sponsors or this or that, and whatever is significant to the community or to the event you're going to.

Imagination is your only limitation. In order to do a drone show, we literally can put up about anything that there is.

What our thank you is, other than the paycheck, is when we hear that reaction from the crowd, the crowd goes completely nuts. That's our thank you. That means we've designed something really cool with some good animation and some cool colors and things like that.

The butter cow comes up in the sky. Believe me. And we have about, I think, 600,000 different colors we can use. We match the color of the butter cow to the tee. That's important to us is making sure that we do the right thing.

What a way to kick off Fair 2025! Our first hour of highlights is in the books - but trust me, this is just the beginning. We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s happening on the fairgrounds this week, and we can’t wait to bring you more of the contests, characters, and traditions that make the Fair so unforgettable.

And if you want to relive the magic or see something you missed, there are plenty of ways to watch — we’ve got you covered.

Want more fair fun? Stop by our website, our YouTube channel, and the PBS App, plus our Facebook and Instagram pages. No matter where you are, we’ve got the state fair magic ready for you anytime.

Now, for tomorrow night’s show ...

A battle of letters, nerves and quick thinking, one of the most adorable stops at the Iowa State Fair and we’ll find out which young woman will be crowned the 2025 Iowa State Fair Queen.

Thanks for spending this first night of Fair 2025 with us. It’s always a joy to be back, sharing the stories, traditions, and surprises that make the Iowa State Fair something we look forward to every year. Be sure to join us tomorrow night for even more highlights from our great Iowa State Fair.
Until then, I’m Bill Riley, have fun at the fair!

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[Announcer] Funding for fair 2025 is provided by —

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