Seniors experience state fair from inside the food booths

Fair jobs require fast work and people skills

Submitted Photo: Will Swanson

Senior Will Swanson pushes the Pronto Pup cart to and from the ends of the fair.

Annie Bottern, RubicOnline Editor

Summer schedules can fill up fast, leaving minimal time to get a job. Luckily for Minnesotans, the Minnesota State Fair comes at the perfect time to get a summer job before the school year arrives.

Senior Will Swanson has spent his last 2 summers working at one of the fair’s many Pronto Pup stands.

“My dad knows the owner of Pronto Pup and he asked me if I wanted to work last year so that’s how I got started,” he said.

The state fair brings in people from all over Minnesota and the nation, with the 2018 fair bringing in the new highest attendance record of more than 2 million people in its two week run. The 2018 Minnesota State Fair lasted from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2.

The Pronto Pup stands sell around 34 tons of hot dogs each year at the fair, resulting in lots of social interaction for Swanson.

“My favorite part about working is probably just the hilarious things you see and hear while working at the fair,” Swanson said.

Competing with the Pronto Pup stands in the fair’s highest selling food product is Sweet Martha’s Cookies. This was senior Annie Kristal’s first summer working at the fair.

Like Swanson, Kristal’s favorite part of working at Sweet Martha’s was the social interaction that came with the job.

“I loved working at the front of the booth and selling cookies because I loved interacting with a wide range of people and seeing how excited everyone was for their cookies. People were always filming me scooping their cookies for them,” Kristal said.

Working at the fair differed from Kristal’s other jobs as reffing youth basketball games and babysitting.

“It was very different from my other jobs because I had a ton of fun co-workers, but it was also really tiring because of the long 8 hour shifts. It got really hot overtime since we were all working in front of a bunch of ovens with no AC’s, but I definitely liked it more than my other jobs because of all the people I met inside the booth and out,” Kristal said.

Alongside working at food booths, there are many jobs that come from the State Fair, both seasonal and full time. The 2019 State Fair will run from Aug. 22 to Labor Day.