This year's Great Minnesota Get-Together will dish up 30 gut-busting "official" new foods, along with gravity-defying rides and a slate of first-time vendors and exhibits.

• Other recent upgrades are meant to improve the flow at entry gates, create more gathering spaces and make the fair more accessible.

Yes, but: Most Minnesotans know that it's often the tried-and-true favorites and traditions that make the 12-day fair so special.

What you're saying: We asked readers to share their tips, hacks and hidden gems for fairgoers.

🍎 Shannon L. praises the cider pops at the apple booth in the Horticulture building as the best deal.

• She called the treats, which she can buy for the change from a $5 bill, "refreshing, hydrating, inexpensive ... and a great palate cleanser between fried goodies on sticks."

🍪 Abbe C. has a money-saving hack for satisfying a Sweet Martha's craving without buying a whole cone or bucket:

• "Every single time I've asked a stranger if I could have one, they've said yes," she writes.

☔️ While gorgeous weather often draws the biggest crowds, Julie B. thinks real fair lovers should "never miss a rainy day."

• "Much shorter lines, you get to wear a rain poncho, and the clouds weed out the posers," she wrote.
• And if you get overstimulated, the Lee and Rose Warner Coliseum is a "cool and quiet" place to recharge, she added.

🧊 Courtney H. freezes water bottles and keeps them in a cooler with ziplock bags that can double as a to-go container for extra food. Putting one in her back pocket as it melts keeps her cool.

🌮 Ryan H., a self-described "State Fair freak," says the flour tacos at El Sol are "next level — and so many people don't know about them."

• Still on his fair bucket list is a sit-down meal at the Peg, the only full-service restaurant on site.

🛒 Steichen's Grocery, which Luke H. notes is well-known to 4-Hers and others who stay on site, sells everything from diapers to sunscreen to tobacco products to breakfast at hard-to-beat prices.

If you go: Gates are open from 7am-9pm, and the grounds are open until 11pm, until Labor Day, when both close two hours earlier.

• 🎟️ Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for seniors and kids 5-12 — a $2 increase from last year. Children under 5 are free.

More tips, including where to find "nirvana on a bun"

Sweet Martha's sold more than $400,000 worth of chocolate chip cookies per day at the State Fair last year, holding a tight grip on the crown for highest grossing vendor at the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

The big picture: The fair is big bucks for many entrepreneurs, and eight pulled in more than $1 million last year.

How it works: The State Fair takes a 15% cut of revenue as rent, which means it collects nearly $750,000 a year from Sweet Martha's alone.

Zoom in: Que Viet has been a fast riser as its jumbo egg rolls have become a staple for many a fair-goer. It eclipsed $1 million for the first time last year.

🎡 Fairgoers hoping to snag free parking might be out of luck: Falcon Heights will charge a day rate of $25 for spots on surrounding streets this year.

🎯 Investors aren't thrilled with Target's internal pick for a new CEO as the retailer's share price fell 6% following the announcement of Michael Fiddelke. (Wall Street Journal)

🏀 New Timberwolves owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore have laid off nearly 10% of the team's staff of 500. (Sports Business Journal)

🚨 The Department of Public Safety has hired The Axtell Group, run by former St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell, to conduct a third-party assessment of State Capitol security, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios following yesterday's advisory meeting. (Background via Axios)

• The final report should be finished in November or December.

🔎 A state-run housing support program set to shut down over fraud concerns issued payments to a provider that claimed to be helping people who were already dead, records show. (KARE 11)

• An attorney for the provider in question told the station that the company "immediately identified" what it described as inadvertent billing errors and refunded the amount, though Hennepin County says it has not received repayment.

Minneapolis officials unveiled a rendering this week showing how a proposed pedestrian mall at George Floyd Square might look.

Why it matters: Competing plans for long-overdue street repairs around the spot where Floyd was murdered five years ago have become deeply divisive.

• The debate is less about street design and more about who gets to shape the future of George Floyd Square.

What's next: The City Council is expected to take it up again after the November election.

Dig into the debate

"I heard my voice — but certainly not me — spewing a vulgar and absurd critique of an ad campaign for jeans featuring Sydney Sweeney. The A.I. deepfake featured me using the phrase 'perfect titties' and lamenting that Democrats were 'too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.' Though I could immediately tell that someone used footage from [a congressional] hearing to make a deepfake, there was no getting around the fact that it looked and sounded very real."

The Minnesota Democrat is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill that aims to hold individuals and companies liable for producing AI-generated content featuring the voice and visual likeness of someone without permission.

• Some content would be exempted based on First Amendment protections, as our Axios Pro: Tech Policy colleagues have reported.