Stay tuned for details about Choose Iowa at the 2025 Iowa State Fair. All details below are for the 2024 Fair.
Best Choose Iowa Fair Food Contest
Food vendors at the fair are competing for the Best Choose Iowa Fair Food. Vendors were invited to submit a food item made with Iowa ingredients available for sale at the Fair for inclusion in the contest. Entries are featured on a map of Iowa Fair Foods and highlighted in the Iowa State Fair App. Fairgoers can vote for their favorite entry until Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 11:59 p.m. The winning Best Choose Iowa Fair Food will be awarded on Friday, August 16 at 1 p.m. when the ISF's Best New Food is also announced.
The Kitchen: Choose Iowa Presents...
In The Kitchen, Choose Iowa is curating the 1 p.m. presentation every day featuring Iowa ingredients and chefs sharing food presentations and cooking demonstrations highlighting lamb, bison, CSAs, eggs, corn, beef, cider, veggies, honey, cheese and wine. See the complete schedule on either our website calendar or our Facebook page. You can find The Kitchen inside the Maytag Family Theater building between the Barksdale’s State Fair Cookies stand and the DNR Building on Grand Avenue.
Coloring Calendar Awards Ceremony
Some of the most talented student artists in Iowa will be honored for their artwork’s inclusion in the Choose Iowa Coloring Calendar in a ceremony to be held Tuesday, August 13 at 10 a.m. on the stage in the Agriculture Building. If you are looking to pick up your own calendar copy, stop by the Iowa Department of Agriculture’s booth in the Varied Industries building or the Agriculture Building while quantities last.
Craft Beer Tent
Try out the new Yield of Dreams corn lager, a partnership between Iowa Corn, the Iowa Brewers Guild, and Choose Iowa in the Craft Beer Tent.
Farm to Fair Dinner
Have you ever wondered how your food gets from the farm to your dinner table? You can find out on Saturday, August 17, 2024, from 6-8 p.m. at the Iowa State Fair! Join Iowa farmers for conversations about food, family and farming while you enjoy a special four-course meal of local foods grown by Iowa’s farmers and crafted by three notable Iowa chefs. You can enter to win tickets to this event here: https://www.iowastatefair.org/participate/farm-to-fair. Fair Admission is included and 100 lucky winners will be selected at random to win a pair of tickets each.