MN State Fair

Most of us around the office have now admitted that our first “Stadium Rock” concert experience took place at the State Fairgrounds. Not as cool as seeing Prince in the Main Room, or the Hüskers at Duffy’s to be sure. But hardly worth being embarrassed about anymore. In fact, the more we think about it the more we realize just how impressive the State Fair lineup is each year, perhaps more by accident than by design. Sure, there’s plenty of behind-the-music roadkill like REO Speedwagon (August 30) or Poison (August 31). But for every KQRS refugee, there’s an MTV superhipster like Alicia Keyes. (August 23. No kidding!) Others on the lineup for 2002 include Bonnie Raitt (August 27), Lyle Lovett (August 27), and Trisha Yearwood (August 24). There’s something reassuring about knowing that nobody is too cool for the State Fair. It’s the great equalizer, innit?