The Minnesota State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair is billed as "Twelve Days of Fun Ending Labor Day". The last day of the Fair has $7 tickets for children aged 5-12, and special deals on food and attractions. The fair closes early, at 10 p.m. on Labor Day, and some attractions also close slightly earlier on the last day.
The animal barns will all close early, at 3 p.m., on the last day of the fair, so bring the kids early.
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival, held on weekends in September, is open all Labor Day weekend. It's a great escape from the usual twenty-first century Twin Cities.
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival
ValleyFair's Labor Day Weekend
There's free corn-on-the-cob for ValleyFair amusement park guests on Labor Day weekend, for the theme park's annual corn feast. Because, gorging on corn then going on thrill rides, or to the water park is a fantastic idea...
Valley Fair has done a corn feast annually for over thirty years now, so presumably it's not such a bad idea after all.
ValleyFair Labor Day Weekend Corn Feast
Como Zoo and Como Town End of Season
The Como Town amusement park is open daily until Labor Day, then only weekends until the end of September. And in Como Zoo, Sparky the Sealion performs shows daily all through the summer, with the last show of the summer on Labor Day.Shafer Corn Maze Opens
Labor Day is the symbolic end of the summer, and start of fall. And appropriately, fall events like the Shafer Corn Maze opens this weekend, until Halloween. A huge corn maze, children's events, haunted maze, petting zoo, and more. Open Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays from September 3, until Halloween.
Minnetonka Orchards, and other Apple Orchards Opening
The beautiful apple orchard in the western Metro opened for the season in late August, and holds their annual Open House on September 1, 2 and 3, with free admission, free hayrides, live music, as well as apple picking and fall foods for sale. And here's more apple orchards in the Twin Cities metro area.
Staying Home
With all the State Fair traffic, holiday traffic, and plenty of local road work, perhaps the best thing to do is to stay at home, gather with friends and family, and enjoy some good food.As summer draws to a close, make the most of Minnesota-grown seasonal produce from our farmer's markets, like raspberries, green beans, sweet corn and tomatoes.
Here's Labor Day recipes from About.com cooking guides.
