A Big Change is Coming to This Year's Iowa State Fair

It's county fair and state fair season all across the country, and the Iowa State Fair has announced a big policy change just a couple weeks before the fair kicks off.

From every gathering, be it sporting events to county fairs, it's pretty much common knowledge or just general intuition that outside beverages are prohibited from entering the grounds. This is obviously so the venue hosting the event can sell you their offerings instead. However, that isn't the case at the Iowa State Fair this year...

Those visiting the Iowa State Fair can now bring in sealed or unsealed drinks. This includes water, soda, and Gatorade. Bringing alcohol to the fair remains prohibited.

Iowa State Fair CEO Jeremy Parsons stated that this change was made with accessibility and affordability in mind. The thought of paying premium prices for soda and other beverages could be a prohibitive factor in determining whether or not a large family (or any family, really) would attend the fair. Parsons and his team wanted to remove that barrier entirely.

In addition to outside beverages, snacks kept in "soft-sided coolers" are also allowed into the fair this year.

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Here are the other stipulations regarding outside food and drinks at the Iowa State Fair for 2025:

Snacks must be kept in soft-sided coolers
Beverages and snacks cannot be in glass containers
Outside alcohol is strictly prohibited
Outside food and drinks are not permitted at the grandstand; only the exhibit grounds

With the fair permitting outside food and beverages, this should, at least in theory, reduce concession lines, which leads to less wait times and less chance that fair-workers get overwhelmed. In addition, new entry lines (specifically Gate 11 on Grand Avenue) and new gates have been added. A new gate can be found on the northwest side near East 30th and Elwell Family Park.

The Iowa State Fair kicks off on August 7th, 2025 and runs through August 17th in Des Moines. Read more about the Iowa State Fair's new change on KCCI's website.