Michigan State Fair

A midway at a fair is the location where carnival games, amusement rides, entertainment, dime stores, themed events, exhibitions and trade shows, pleasure gardens, water parks and food booths cluster. The term originated from the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893.

Michigan truly has such a uniquely diverse musical heritage and an incredibly talented music community, and here at home, we tend to take this for granted. Choose any genre. From rock to hip hop, to jazz, to soul, country and techno, Michigan boasts so many powerful artists, it's nearly impossible to name them all. Every Year The State Fair honors and celebrates an array of these legendary artists, and songwriters, through the decades, and also shows off some of the best current artists the state has to offer. These same performers also happen to be widely regarded as some of the most talented in the world in their respective genres.

You and I may have no relatives left in farming, and our memory of the farm, if we have any, may be faint, but the livestock judging is meaningful to us—husbandry is what we do, even if we call it education or health care or management. Sport is a seductive metaphor (life as a game in which we gain victory through hard work, discipline, and visualizing success), but the older metaphor of farming (life as hard labor that is subject to weather and quirks of blind fate and may return no reward whatsoever and don’t be surprised) is still in our blood, especially those of us raised on holy scripture. The young men and women leading sheep around the show ring are relatives of Abraham and Job and the faithful father of the prodigal son. They subscribe to the Love Thy Neighbor doctrine. They know about late-summer hailstorms. You could learn something from these people.