Iowa County Fair promises 5 days of fun, entertainment

By Kristen May, 

     Iowa County Fair 

Your 2023 Iowa County Fair is a Labor Day Celebration for the whole family that you will not want to miss.  Planning for the fair has been in full swing for the past year and now we approach just a few days until the best five days of Summer.  

The 2023 Fair kicks off August 31st with the return of the CC Bucking Bulls & Barrels Rodeo Event.  If you attended last year’s Bull Riding Event, I’m sure you will be guaranteed to return for this action-packed show.  You have probably heard from your friends and other fairgoers the excitement of the return of this huge Grandstand event.  We will be welcoming Bull riders from all over the country.  We will be hosting Miss Wisconsin Lila Szyryj at the Fair August 31st from 5-7:30 p.m.  Lila is from Madison Wisconsin.   

Friday evening, we will be welcoming back Country Music to the Fair!  It has been a long few years without music and we could not be more excited to get Nashville Entertainment back to fair 2023. The show will start at 7:30 p.m. and Feature Chad Brock, Ashley Barron and Jarrod Turner.  Chad had several number one hits in the early 2000’s with Yes, Lightning does the work, Ordinary life just to name a few.  You will want to get here early to get a good seat for this show!   

The livestock auction will start at 3 p.m. on Saturday.  You will have a chance to see and place bids on animals that the local youth have worked so hard on over the past year.  Stay for the tractor pulls that will start at 5:30 p.m.  Local area pullers will lead the event and the Tri State Truck and Tractor pullers will begin their show immediately following the local pull.   

Sunday, we feature our crowed favorite Hard Hit Promotions Demotion Derby at 6 p.m.  Come early for the best seats.  It’s not too late to enter a car!   

We will finish off our grandstand shows on Monday with our iconic Harness Racing.  Post time is 1 p.m.  Harness racing has been a part of the fair since the very beginning back in 1856.  This year we will also feature a Corgi Race at intermission.  Mineral Point is currently home of the fastest track in Wisconsin!  

We have a new and exciting line up of music and events in our entertainment garden this year. Saturday night we will welcome the live music of Tessa.  Sunday night we bring the music of The Blue Steel Band and also Hard Hats Band on Monday.  We will also feature a couple of new events in the entertainment garden this year.  Meat paddles will begin at noon on Saturday. Prizes will include meat bundles, cheese wheels, cash raffles and more.  We have a couple of events for card players as well with Texas Hold’em 9/1 at 7 p.m. and Euchre at 11 p.m. on Labor Day.  Bean bag tournament by Hootin Hill Saturday 9/2 at noon.   

Our fair schedule is also full of awesome activities for the kids.  We welcome back the Wheels of Agriculture show on the grounds.  Gizmo D Robot will be traveling the grounds as well entertaining.  We have numerous activities with our fairest of the Fair Mia, and our Junior Fairest Lily as well.  Badgerland Midway Carnival will be back with rides, games and their delicious fair foods.  Everyone loves cotton candy and corn dogs!   

The exhibit building and barns are truly were the heart of the fair resides.  These buildings will all be full of arts, crafts, projects, animals, and more.  We are home to some exceptional talent.  We can’t forget about our open class exhibitors as well.  Many county residents show animals, bring produce and projects.  We want to welcome you to stroll through the barns and exhibit building to see all that is featured.  The exhibitors put in countless numbers of hours on their projects and will be proud to show them off.   

When you think about the fair I think the first thing that comes to mind is the FOOD!  We can’t wait for you to see our line up for food vendors for the fair 2023. We have all the classics that you love and have added some awesome food vendors! We pride ourselves in searching for as many local vendors as possible for our fair and we are proud to host them.  You will have no shortage of sampling fair food with our big selection.  From specialty coffee, to cotton candy, corn dogs, pizza, gyros, soft pretzels, funnel cakes, cheese curds, BBQ and more you will be sure to find something the whole family can enjoy.   

We are proud to say that we were able to keep our 2023 gate prices the same without increases.  This is largely in part due to our amazing fair sponsors as well as our fair board and community volunteers.  We could not have the large-scale fair that we have without the support of the community and our sponsors.  It is also important for us to point out that our admission to the fair includes all our grandstand shows at no additional costs.  You can enjoy the CC Bucking bulls, Nashville Entertainer Chad Brock, Tractor pulls, Demo Derby and Harness racing all for one cost at the gate.  We have partnered with the Pointer Prowlers ATV/UTV group to help us provide parking assistance for our fair attendees.  If you require assistance, please let the gate know when you enter.  They will help to assist you to get you to the grandstand, barns, midway or exhibits.  We truly want everyone to be able to experience our fair and are thankful to the Pointer Prowlers for their efforts.   

You can find a full schedule of events on our website Iowacountyfair.com or follow us on facebook at Iowa County Fair-Wisconsin.  We also have dabble on Instagram and new this year TikTok.  We recommend following facebook for complete “infairmation”  

Whether you have plans to come to one day of the fair or wouldn’t miss a day we want to welcome you to Iowa County Fair 2023!  From near and Far we want to see you all come through our gates for the fair experience.  We truly have built a fair that has something for everyone! 

See you at the fair!