MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There’s officially no Minnesota State Fair this summer, so the food parade event has become a hot ticket, and on Friday morning they proved pretty hard to get.
Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m., but the website frequently didn’t appear to work.
State Fair officials said they experienced an extremely high volume of people trying to get tickets. Shortly before 1 p.m., tickets were sold out.
“Our website and ticketing service experience unprecedented volume; in 2 1/2 hours, we reached our capacity of 19,000 vehicle tickets sold for this 13-day historic event,” fair officials said, in a statement. “The capacity is limited in order to present the event in a safe and enjoyable manner…and we regret that we cannot accommodate more fair fans.”
Many people posted on social media Friday, saying they weren’t ever able to access the fair’s website. Several urged the fair to add more dates to the food parade. Some were concerned about ticket scalpers. Indeed, a search of Craigslist shortly after 1 p.m. showed several people selling food parade tickets for more than $120 — six times the initial cost.
This is sad. https://t.co/h75hXlOWg8
— Jason DeRusha (@DeRushaJ) July 31, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Fair officials first announced the food parade last week. The event is slated to take place at the fairgrounds and feature sixteen vendors, including favorites such as Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar, Mouth Trap Cheese Curds and Tom Thumb donuts. Officials said it would be a “multi-hour” experience.
Tickets for the parade went at $20 a car. Vendor food costs extra.
The Minnesota State Fair was canceled in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Friday’s statement, fair officials said they look forward to bringing the full fair experience back next summer.
Source: CBS Minnesota
Be First to Comment