The Best State Fair Itineraries are (Mostly) Classics.

This piece was published in 2025 and has been updated for the 2026 year.

Recently, a friend from up north told me she was going to the State Fair for the first time. While I was really excited for her, I was also a bit worried.

Often, though, the “best new” foods are nowhere near as good as classic bites. The push to try the most viral and newest thing around means that most people are having a worse fair experience than they otherwise might if they stuck with new foods. This might seem like a weird thing to say as I’m going around eating all the new foods at the fair for the first time this year, but I’m doing it because I want to help you eat the best 2-3 new foods, instead of combing through a bunch of pass or smash style lists that tell you to try 15 new foods. I’m doing it precisely because I want you to eat as many classics as you can and only veer from that trail if it’s really, really, really worth it.

This isn’t to say we should never try new foods, but entire itineraries made of them means that you are eating worse food than if you just stuck with the classics (most of the time).

So, to my friend Katie, and to all the people looking for a guide to the fair from a girl who has been going there since she was under one year old, this is my day of (mostly) classic foods at the State Fair (I’m defining that as over 20 years old).

Why is this piece behind a paywall?

I don’t have a company credit card or full-time writer’s salary. I just have people like you powering my work. State fair content is expensive to make! I have to take off work at my day job to write pieces like this (yes!! I have a day job). And while most of my work is outside of the paywall, paywalling pieces like this literally pays for my groceries, my cell phone bill, and my cats’ dentals.