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Wisconsin State Fair officials released numbers for the storm-shortened 174th Wisconsin State Fair on Friday and, as expected, the loss of a full day of fair fun led to a drop in overall attendance over last year.
This year the fair had 892,968 visits in 10 days as compared to last year's record-breaking 1,136,805 across 11 days.
Alas, rain also put a halt to the fair's three-year consecutive stretch of more than 1 million visits.
Still, with the opening of the renovated Dairy Building and other highlights, the 2025 was a Wisconsin State Fair to remember.
“Our team, vendors, exhibitors, and of course, our Fairgoers look forward to the 11 days of State Fair all year long, and to have that cut short by a 1,000-year rain event is heartbreaking,” said Shari Black, Chief Executive Officer of Wisconsin State Fair Park.
“While the end of this State Fair is not what we had hoped for, the 10 days that we came together to celebrate Wisconsin was truly unforgettable.
"We are so grateful for the support from around the state of Wisconsin over the last few days and look forward to continuing hosting events that benefit the local economy and community as we recover together.”
Other fair highlights include:
- 10,676 competitive exhibits were judged with thousands of these exhibits showcased in Grand Champion Hall, including a record number of quilt entries proudly displayed in the rafters of the over 100-year-old building.
- 2,100 Agriculture Exhibitors participated in the many shows, and our behind-the-scenes crew delivered over 4,300 bags of shavings to exhibitors.
- The Governor’s Blue Ribbon Livestock Auction raised $381,350 and the Blue Ribbon Dairy Products Auction raising a record-breaking $81,000. A significant portion of funds raised at these auctions provide scholarships and benefit Wisconsin’s youth agriculture programs.
- There were more than 81,659 slides down the Giant Slide
- 31,855 potatoes were sold from the Wisconsin Products Pavilion
- More than 330,000 Original Cream Puffs were served this year
- The first-place Golden Spork Sporkies Award went to Lumpia City from Waterford, and the team at the Filipino-American fusion vendor served 15,700 orders of Ube Butter Banana French Toast Lumpia.
- Drinkies winner from the new Rock & Roll Beer Garden served 8,672 Purple Rain Refreshers, adorned with glitter and topped with cracking Pop Rocks.
To make up for the lost Sunday at the fair, an Original Cream Puffs Drive-In will be held Friday, Aug. 22, 7 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Dairy Building’s north pickup windows. Fairgoers can use their unused 2025 Cream Puffs vouchers at this special event or pre-order here.
There will also be a to-go cream puffs location on Grandstand Avenue during the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 INDYCAR Race Weekend.
Next year's, 175th Wisconsin State Fair will be held Thursday, Aug. 6-Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
