Annie and Molly

About Us

We are a couple of trans Minnesota State Fair nerds. Like, a literal couple...

In 2021, we got married at the Fair. The ceremony was only 71 seconds long because:

A) weddings are gross, and

B) we didn't officially reserve any space at the Fair for our “event.”

Our completely bootleg trans wedding took place in the Agriculture Horticulture Bee Building just outside the crop art display making it simultaneously the most and least punk rock thing ever.

We each loved the Fair independently for years before we met each other. On our first date when Annie (they/them) disclosed their love for the Fair, they initially couldn’t tell if Molly’s (she/her) reaction was one of horror or delight. Thankfully it turned out to be the latter.

Annie had gone to and enjoyed the fair a few times as a child, but what really solidified their love for the fair was when they were tasked as a teenager with showing a bunch of German exchange students around the Fair in 1999. Trying to explain to them - half in German, half in English - the strange delights of the Fair solidified Annie’s own love for the Fair.

a picture of Annie standing next to Fairchild (one of the two MN State Fair mascots). Annie is wearing a shirt with Farichild's image.

Molly, wearing a state fair hat and tshirt, is standing next to a picture of the dairy building's malt of the year (in 2023). Molly is pointing at the malt and has her mouth open in surprise. (she recommended the selected flavor)

You may know that in Minnesota we glue seeds to stuff to make art (see Seed Queen: The Story of Crop Art and the Amazing Lillian Colton, MN Historical Society Press, 2007). The Crop Art room was key to Molly’s understanding of what makes the State Fair great and hilarious and strange. When Molly was around 14, she was (snottily, according to her) complaining to her mom and stepmom about all the reasons the Fair was bad - the rides are dumb and expensive, it smells like manure, it's boring, etc. Molly’s stepmother said "You don’t know the Fair. I'm going to take you to the Fair." When Molly saw the crop art, her teen brain started to piece together just how ridiculous and earnest and endearing this folk art, and the entire Fair was, and is. About three years later, Molly’s step mother died, about 30 years later Annie and Molly got married outside of that crop art room, and two years after that we both submitted crop art to the Fair for the first time.

This year, Molly’s ribbon-winning piece, which she describes as “a butt-ugly thrown-together MN State Fair take on Damien Hirst's famous shark,” is currently (bizarrely) part of a crop art display at MSP Int'l Airport, and next year Annie's piece, (which Molly describes as) “a lovely, meticulously crafted celebration of trans love and our wedding” may be part of a temporary exhibit on state fair crafts at a super fancy museum in Washington DC.

image of annie and molly each holding their crop art submissions for 2023. annie's says "celebrate trans love and joy" and has an image of the agriculture horticulture bee building. molly's is of a pronto pup with a shark's mouth, within a white cage, similar to conceptual artist damien hirst's famous piece. Annie and Molly are standing in front of the ag hort bee building.

In addition to furiously working on not one but TWO crop art submissions this summer, Annie spontaneously decided to tackle the project of creating this unofficial guide to the Fair. Here’s the thing though: they have never once made a website before. And, they cannot afford to hire someone with actual skills and they refuse to ask others for free labor (at least not on the level this project would require). So, after many hours watching free youtube tutorials and googling newly learned terms such as “conditional logic outcome quiz” and “what is web hosting” we present to you this very rudimentary website. There is a feedback survey, but be gentle. We are well aware the website is janky AF.

Thank you for letting us share our love for the Minnesota State Fair with you!