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60 free Iowa State Fair trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Iowa State Fair draws more than a million people to Des Moines every August, which makes it the biggest event in the state and one of the most famous fairs in America. This quiz covers the whole thing: the 1854 beginnings in Fairfield and the wandering years before the fair settled on East 30th Street, the Butter Cow and the five sculptors who have built it since 1911, the Grandstand and its concert records, the Bill Riley Talent Search, the Des Moines Register soapbox where presidential hopefuls get their 20 minutes, and the deep-fried, on-a-stick food that the fair is known for. It also covers the fair on page, screen and stage — Phil Stong's 1932 novel about the Frake family and Blue Boy the boar, the Will Rogers film, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and the Broadway run whose tour opened at the real fair. Easy questions ask which city hosts it and what the Butter Cow is made of; hard ones ask which locomotives were crashed in front of the Grandstand in 1932 and which sculptor held the job for 36 years. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the Iowa State Fair, its fairgrounds, the butter sculptures, Norma Lyon, Phil Stong and the State Fair films and musical, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which month is the Iowa State Fair held each year?
August
It runs for 11 days in Des Moines near the state capital and, with over a million visitors, is the largest event in Iowa.
Q 02The fair's famous Butter Cow is displayed in a refrigerated case inside which fairgrounds structure?
The Agricultural Building
Hundreds of pounds of butter are layered onto a wood-and-wire frame in a case kept between 35 and 40 °F.
Q 03How many days does the Iowa State Fair run?
11
The fair has been held on the same Des Moines grounds since the 1880s, and a parade the evening before opening day kicks it off.
Q 04In which year did the fair draw a then-record 1,182,682 visitors?
2024
The 10th of that month also set a single-day record at 128,732 people; 2019 and 2025 were the next-biggest years at the time.
Q 05The first Iowa State Fair, in October 1854, was staged in which town?
Fairfield
It ran on a $323 budget across just six acres, and for the next quarter-century the fair moved from town to town across eastern Iowa.
Q 06In which year did the fair move to its permanent home at East 30th and East Grand in Des Moines?
1886
The land had been Calvin Thornton's farmstead, and his original house and barn still stand on the fairgrounds.
Q 07Why was there no Iowa State Fair in 1898?
An exposition in nearby Omaha
The Trans-Mississippi Exposition and the Spanish–American War were the reasons; the fair was also skipped from 1942 to 1945 when the grounds became a military supply depot.
Q 08During World War II the fairgrounds were used by the military as what?
A supply depot
The Army leased the grounds in 1942 as a storage depot for the Air Corps, and no fair was held until 1946.
Q 09What did the fair do in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement?
Went virtual online
It ran online on the original dates, the first time the event had been missed since the war years.
Q 10Which Iowa daily set up a wireless station at the 1917 state fair, the first in the state to receive a wireless message?
The Des Moines Register
Six years earlier a five-acre exhibition hall had opened at a cost of $75,000 to show farm families the wares of Iowa companies.
Q 11Broadcaster Bill Riley created the fair's Talent Search in which year?
1959
Riley retired after 50 fairs in 1996, when the Plaza Stage was renamed for him and his wife Anne; his son has hosted since 1997.
Q 12The Bill Riley Talent Search is open to Iowans in what age range?
2 to 21
Younger 'Sprouts' aged 2–12 and 'Seniors' aged 13–21 compete after nearly 100 local qualifying shows across the state.
Q 13In 1973 the fair board voted 4-3 to let performers from which Native nation perform after they protested for the right?
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki Settlement near Tama is the only Native American settlement in Iowa, bought with tribal funds in the 1850s.
Q 21In 1987 the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under what name?
Iowa State Fair and Exposition Grounds
The grounds cover around 450 acres including 160 acres of campsites, and are a 10-minute drive east of downtown.
Q 22What is the Elwell Family Food Center's annual baking contest for entries shaped like spilled trash cans called?
Ugly Cakes
Past entries have included human hearts and couches topped with fingernail clippings.
Q 23In 2015 the fair offered more than 70 different foods served in what signature way?
On a stick
Q 14When the Grandstand was built in 1909, what was it made of?
Timber
It seated 10,000; the 1927 rebuild in steel and brick added 5,000 seats and made it, at the time, the largest building in Iowa.
Q 15Which act drew the largest Grandstand crowd for a single performance, 25,402 people in 1975?
The Beach Boys
Sonny and Cher's 1972 crowd of 26,200 is the biggest overall, and Johnny Cash sold 23,500 tickets across two shows in 1970.
Q 16In 2025 the Grandstand drew a then-record total of concertgoers of roughly how many?
132,000
The 131,755 total beat the 128,504 set in 2019; the Grandstand had been renovated again in 1997 and 2018.
Q 17Joseph Connolly crashed two locomotives head-on at the 1932 Iowa State Fair. What had he named them?
Hoover and Roosevelt
The names honoured that year's presidential candidates, and the engines hit at about 50 miles per hour in a fiery spectacle.
Q 18In 1954 which two men became the first US presidents to visit the fair?
Eisenhower and Hoover
Hoover was Iowa-born; Ford, Carter, George W. Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden have visited since.
Q 19The fair's soapbox draws presidential hopefuls because it precedes which first-in-the-nation contest?
The Iowa caucuses
Candidates get 20 minutes on the Des Moines Register's soapbox and can take questions from the crowd.
Q 20The Iowa State Fair Police, formed in 2018, wear blue uniforms with what headgear?
A white cowboy hat
The state-certified force replaced a patchwork of private guards and local agencies; six full-time officers work the grounds year-round.
Options have included pork chops, footlong corn dogs and deep-fried butter, and boba drinks made their debut in 2025.
Q 24The 2023 People's Choice Best New Food, a fried bacon brisket mac-n-cheese grilled cheese, came from which stand?
What's Your Cheez
It was one of more than 200 food stands on the grounds, where boba drinks made their debut in 2025.
Q 25Which of these is a real Iowa State Fair contest?
Outhouse racing
It shares the bill with rooster crowing, hog calling, wood chopping, cow chip throwing and 'monster arm wrestling'.
Q 26Who sculpted the very first Iowa State Fair Butter Cow in 1911?
J.K. Daniels
The Beatrice Creamery Company sponsored the exhibit to promote dairy, and it was such a hit that it has returned every year since.
Q 27How many sculptors have made the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow in its more than 110-year history?
5
Daniels, Wallace, Dutt, Lyon and Pratt — and Norma Lyon's 45-year run is by far the longest.
Q 28J.E. Wallace, who sculpted the Butter Cow for 36 years until his death in 1956, also worked in what other trade?
Taxidermy
He also made butter sculptures for the Florida, New York and Texas fairs, and started the tradition of a second companion sculpture each year.
Q 29Norma 'Duffy' Lyon took over the Butter Cow in which year, becoming the first woman to sculpt it?
1960
She had told the fair director she could do better than the previous sculptor's work, and kept the job until she retired in 2006.
Q 30Where did Norma Lyon get the nickname 'Duffy'?
Her maiden name, Duffield
She was born Norma Duffield Stong, and the author of the novel State Fair was her uncle.