The Johnston Brief
The fair is about fifteen miles down the road from Johnston, roughly a twenty-minute drive, which makes it less a road trip than a long evening out. This is the complete local guide: what it costs and when it is cheapest, what to see and do, the free entertainment, who is playing, what to eat, the rules, and how to get there. Everything below is checked against the fair's own listings.
The 2026 Iowa State Fair runs Aug 13-23 at 3000 E Grand Ave, Des Moines, about 15 miles southeast of Johnston (a 15-to-20-minute drive). Grounds open 8 a.m. to midnight. Advance tickets are $11 adult / $7 child until 11:59 p.m. on Aug 12, then it is $16 / $10 at the gate. Parking on the grounds is $10, or ride in free from the new Southridge park-and-ride.
Advance admission closes at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug 12, the night before the fair opens. Buying ahead is $11 instead of $16 for adults and $7 instead of $10 for kids. For a family of four that is roughly $18 saved for about a minute of work. After that cutoff there is no advance price, only the gate price and the discount days below.
Admission is separate from Grandstand concert tickets, and separate from ride wristbands at the three thrill parks. Gate admission gets you the grounds, every exhibition building, the animals, the butter cow and all the free stages.
The cheapest realistic trip for a Johnston family is a weeknight after work: leave here around 4:30, walk in at 5, pay $12 a head, and you still get seven hours of fair. The catch on weeknights is that no one is admitted after 10 p.m., and on the closing Sunday the cutoff moves up to 7 p.m.
Worth planning around: the buildings close at 8 p.m. even though the grounds stay open to midnight. If you are coming for the Butter Cow, the Agriculture Building or the 4-H exhibits, get there before eight or you will be walking a very lively midway with nothing left to see indoors.
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The must-see stops - the Butter Cow, the Giant Slide, the Sky Glider, Ye Old Mill, and the champion-size animals - are what make it the Iowa State Fair and not just a carnival, and most are free once you are through the gate. If you only have one evening, start here.
The Butter Cow is the one you plan around: about 600 pounds of butter, five and a half feet tall, sculpted fresh each year and kept in a glass cooler in the Agriculture Building. The line looks long but moves fast. This year's companion sculpture is titled "Meet Me at the Pepsi Clock." A few steps away, the Avenue of Breeds lines up nearly every kind of livestock Iowa raises, and the Big Boar and Super Bull pens draw a crowd for the sheer size of the champions.
The Grandstand concerts below are ticketed, but the fair also puts on more than half a million dollars of free entertainment on stages all over the grounds, every night, included with your gate ticket. The two biggest stages:
Susan Knapp Amphitheater, nightly headliners: Josh Baldwin (Aug 13), Montgomery Gentry featuring Eddie Montgomery (Aug 14), Moon Taxi (Aug 15), La Sonora Dinamita (Aug 16), Hairball (Aug 17-18), Asleep at the Wheel (Aug 19), SugarHill Gang (Aug 20), Eli Young Band (Aug 21), Chancey Williams (Aug 22) and Aaron Watson (Aug 23).
Anne and Bill Riley Stage runs two shows most nights, 7 and 9 p.m., and it is home to the Bill Riley Talent Search, the fair's long-running showcase of young Iowa performers. Tonic Sol-fa opens the run (Aug 13-14) and hypnotist Ron Diamond closes it (Aug 21-23). There is more free music and comedy at the MidAmerican Energy Stage and the family-friendly Fun Forest Stage.
After each Grandstand show the fair now runs a Dazzling Drone Show, plus a Fireworks Spectacular. Both are free and visible from much of the grounds, so it is worth timing the end of your night around them.
All shows are 8 p.m. except closing night. Grandstand tickets are separate from fair admission, and a concert ticket includes gate admission for that day.
Rod Stewart is the headline booking of the run - his first Iowa State Fair appearance in more than forty years. Alabama and the closing-night show are the two cheapest tickets on the board.
The midway is split into three parks: Thrill Ville (the big rides, between the Grandstand and Ye Old Mill), Thrill Town (kid-friendly, east of Gate 10) and Thrill Zone. You can pay per ride, but if you are bringing kids for a full evening, the wristband is the move.
An advance one-day ride wristband is $40 and buys unlimited rides until 10 p.m. in Thrill Ville and Thrill Town, but only on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and only if you buy it by Aug 12. After that it is gone for the year. Wristbands do not cover the midway games. For a Johnston family, a wristband weeknight lines up perfectly with the $12 evening gate price.
A surprising amount of the best kid stuff is free, and the standout is Little Hands on the Farm, a free hands-on exhibit for ages 2 to 10: kids grab a basket and work a pretend farm (garden, grain bin, apple orchard, chicken coop, tractor shed, sheep barn, dairy barn), then "sell" their harvest at the little grocery store for a real snack at the end.
Around it: the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center (baby goats, ducklings, and animals being born), the hands-on Cattle Corner, Horse Haven, Pig Place and Sheep Stop, free family shows at the Fun Forest Stage, and the two paid classics every kid remembers, the Giant Slide and the Sky Glider.
There are more than 80 new foods this year, most of them bent around the fair's America 250 theme. Three are finalists for the People's Choice Best New Food, and you can vote for them through Aug 19, with the winner announced Friday, Aug 21:
Destination Grille and Winn & Sara's Kitchen are both on The Lawn, west of the Jacobson Exhibition Center, so two of the three finalists are a few steps apart. Minneapple Pie sits south of the Horner Service Center. Elsewhere on the new-food list: Star Spangled Swine (pork belly, apple chipotle rub, red soda glaze) from Whatcha' Smokin BBQ, Sweet Americana ice cream from Over the Top, and a Loaded Sausage Waffle Stick, because it would not be the fair without something new on a stick.
Do not spend the whole night on the new stuff, though. The fair has more than 200 food stands, and the classics are classics for a reason: the corn dog, the pork chop on a stick, giant turkey legs, funnel cakes, deep-fried everything (Twinkies, cheese curds, the works), and the hot beef sundae, which is mashed potatoes and roast beef and gravy under a "cherry" of tomato and is better than it sounds. Save room for a bucket of warm cookies at Barksdale's. If it can go on a stick here, it has. Want a real table off the grounds instead? See where to eat near the fair.
Beyond the 80-plus new foods and the nightly drone shows, 2026 adds the free Mobility Assistance Carts (below), more shade and picnic tables including a new shaded area by the Barksdale cookie building, new baby nursing and changing stations, and four new vendors and five new food stands. The whole fair is themed around America's 250th under the "Fair Spirit" banner.
Bags, purses and soft-sided coolers are fine and get searched at the gate (and again going into the Grandstand), so pack light and skip the glass. Strollers and wagons are welcome. Most stands take cards now, but a little cash still speeds the lines. Leave the dog at home, since pets are not allowed on the grounds during the fair, service animals aside.
Mobility scooters can be rented at Gates 8, 10, 11, 13 and 15, or reserved ahead through HomeTown Mobility (htmia.com, or 712-938-2029, at least 24 hours ahead). New for 2026: free Mobility Assistance Cart rides, volunteer-driven six-seat golf carts running daily 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from five information booths (Gate 11, Gate 10, the Cattle Barn at Rock Island and Logan, Grand Avenue by the Bud Tent, and near Gate 4 by the Fire Station). There are first-aid stations, a lost-and-found, and new baby nursing and changing stations between the Grandstand and the cookie building.
Yes, though from Johnston you hardly need to: you are about twenty minutes away. But if family is coming from farther out, the fair's campground has more than 2,300 sites (many with full hookups) at $32 a night, with three bathhouses. It books up early every year. Would rather have a bed than a tent? Johnston hotels are about 20 minutes northwest and usually cheaper and easier to book than the east-side gates during fair week: see where to stay for the fair.
The fairgrounds sit at East 30th Street and East University Avenue, about fifteen miles southeast of us. From Johnston it is a straightforward run: I-35/80 east to I-235 eastbound, then follow the fair's signs to Exit 10A and head east on E University Avenue to the gates. One local warning from the fair itself - if you approach from the east, left turns are not allowed at E 33rd, so use E 36th or E 38th instead.
The fair's free park-and-ride runs out of Southridge Mall, which is on the far south side of Des Moines. Coming from Johnston, that is well out of your way on the opposite side of the metro. The park-and-ride that actually makes sense is the DART lot at the State Capitol - it is right off I-235 on your way in. Full breakdown of every lot, price and shuttle is on our Iowa State Fair parking page.
The 2026 Iowa State Fair runs Thursday, August 13 through Sunday, August 23, 2026 - eleven days. The grounds are open 8 a.m. to midnight daily, with buildings open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The final day, August 23, the grounds close at 9 p.m.
Advance admission is $11 for ages 12 and up and $7 for ages 6-11, on sale until 11:59 p.m. on August 12. At the gate it is $16 for adults and $10 for children. Children 5 and under get in free. Monday through Thursday evenings from 5 to 10 p.m., admission drops to $12 adult and $8 child.
Yes. Monday-Thursday evenings 5-10 p.m. are $12 adult and $8 child. Veterans Day is August 17, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., $12 for active or former military plus one companion with proof of service. Older Iowans' Day is August 19, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., $12 for ages 60 and up with ID. Sunday Funday on August 23 is $12 adult and $8 child all day, or $9 adult between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. if you bring three cans of non-perishable food.
The Iowa State Fairgrounds are at 3000 E Grand Ave in Des Moines, about 15 miles southeast of Johnston at the corner of East 30th Street and East University Avenue, roughly a 15-to-20-minute drive. From Johnston, take I-35/80 east to I-235 eastbound, then follow the fair's signs to Exit 10A and head east on E University Avenue.
The 2026 Grandstand lineup is HARDY (Aug 13), Rod Stewart (Aug 14), The Red Clay Strays (Aug 15), Lainey Wilson (Aug 16, sold out), Staind (Aug 17), TLC and Salt-N-Pepa (Aug 18), AJR (Aug 19), Riley Green (Aug 20), Alabama (Aug 21), BigXthaPlug (Aug 22) and Josiah Queen (Aug 23). All shows start at 8 p.m. except the August 23 closing night, which starts at 6 p.m.
A lot, and most of it is free with admission. See the Butter Cow and the companion butter sculpture in the Agriculture Building, ride the Sky Glider or the Giant Slide, catch a free nightly show at the Susan Knapp Amphitheater or the Anne and Bill Riley Stage, walk the animal barns and the Avenue of Breeds, find the Big Boar and the champion bulls, and stay for the new nightly drone show and fireworks. There are more than 3,000 events across the eleven days.
Yes. The fair puts on more than half a million dollars of free entertainment included with gate admission. The Susan Knapp Amphitheater has a nightly headliner (Josh Baldwin, Montgomery Gentry, Moon Taxi, Hairball, Asleep at the Wheel, SugarHill Gang, Eli Young Band and more across the run), the Anne and Bill Riley Stage runs two shows most nights plus the Bill Riley Talent Search, and there is free music at the MidAmerican Energy and Fun Forest stages. Only the Grandstand concerts are ticketed separately.
An advance one-day ride wristband is $40 and covers unlimited rides until 10 p.m. in Thrill Ville and Thrill Town, but only on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and only if bought by August 12. Wristbands do not cover the midway games. After August 12 you pay per ride.
Very. Little Hands on the Farm is a free hands-on exhibit for ages 2 to 10, the Paul R. Knapp Animal Learning Center has baby animals, Thrill Town is the kid-friendly ride park, and the Giant Slide and Sky Glider are easy wins. Strollers and wagons are allowed, and new for 2026 there are baby nursing and changing stations and free Mobility Assistance Cart rides around the grounds.
Bags, purses and soft-sided coolers are allowed but are subject to search at the gate and again at the Grandstand. Metal and glass containers are not allowed in the Grandstand or Elwell Family Park. Strollers and wagons are fine. Pets are not allowed during the fair, with service animals excepted. Food stands take both cash and cards.
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