Des Moinesmidwest appeal

One of the country’s biggest celebrations of agriculture and industry, the Iowa State Fair has been a regional event since 1854. These days, the 10-day festival draws in more than 1 million attendees to eat any and everything on a stick, then try to keep it down while hitting every spinning ride on the Midway. Milk a cow, sculpt something out of butter, enter the annual mullet contest—it’s fun for the whole family. If you can’t make it in August, the fairgrounds host big events such as auto shows, flea markets and concerts the other 355 days of the year.