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Good Questions: State Fair Edition

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Every year this time, you start filling our inbox with your State Fair questions -- on everything from the finances to fish.

Let's start with this one: How much money do they make at the fair?

Last year, it brought in almost $40 million.

Where does that money go?

The big costs are plant operations and entertainment (14 percent each). That's followed by administrative costs (12 percent). Police, sanitation and transportation come next (11 percent). Then the Midway (9 percent) and maintenance (8 percent). And there are many, many other costs.

How do they determine the acts at the Grandstand?

The fair looks for a mix -- rock, country, stuff for young people. Then there are finances, artist availability and whether or not the act will do an outside show.

Who's sold the most Grandstand tickets ever?

Christina Aguilera, in the year 2000.

After the fair, where do all the fish in the DNR fish pond go?

They have their own special pond. It's about the size of an acre on state property in St. Paul.

It would be illegal to put the fish back into lakes and rivers. Doing so might introduce diseases and problems into those ecosystems.

How long has the fair been going on?

Since before Minnesota was even a state. The first get-together was held in 1855.

And four years later, it became an official "State Fair."

The fair didn't move to Falcon Heights until 1885, when Ramsey County donated it's poor farm.

And it wasn't until 1975 that it became a 12-day event.

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