Clay County Fair: Iowa's grand finale

The Spencer event runs until September 17

The Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa, bills itself as the best and largest county fair in the nation.

It’s also the last chance this year you may have at eating your weight in fried concessions, riding a giant slide or seeing a livestock or horse show.

Or as I like to put it: Last Corn Dog Standing.

The famous Campbell’s Concessions corn dog. Perhaps no food item represents Iowa’s fair season so famously. (Photo by John Naughton.)

The fair, which ran September 9-17 this year, draws more than 300,000 people. The crowd comes from Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

As you know, I love fairs, and I generally attend the Iowa and Minnesota state fairs every year.

The Clay County Fair, the last gasp of summer, is the parting shot.

The Clay County Fair features livestock and animal shows, including horses, cattle and poultry. (Photo by John Naughton.)

The pace of the county fair is much different than at Iowa and Minnesota. Parking is much easier (and cheaper), admission is $10 for adults and you can find seating and shade more plentiful than at the elbow-bumping packs at the swarming crowds you’ll see at the state fairs.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll get a small experience — either entertainment or calorie-wise.

Let’s call it relaxed.

Barefoot Becky and the Ivanhoe Dutchmen, one of Iowa’s best-known polka bands, played a free show at the Clay County Fair Thursday. (Photo by John Naughton.)

There are free shows as well as grandstand country and rock concerts and auto races.

(It’s here that I acknowledge Iowa county fairs like the Great Jones County Fair in Monticello and the Delaware County Fair in Manchester for traditionally presenting some tremendous grandstand concerts. Kudos to Jones County for bringing hip-hop performer Pitbull to our state this year.)