The Minnesota State Fair just kicked off yesterday on “Thrifty Thursday”, bringing in 110,267 Minnesotans this opening day (just slightly under their all-time first-day attendance record of 119,145 in 2010). It was pretty crowded, but not as bad as Saturday, and we didn’t spend too much time standing in line at the food vendors. That’s how we like it.

Advance apologies for the poor photos, they were taken with my Moto E phone because I had forgotten to bring my camera. I’ve previously said that the Moto E had the worst phone camera I’ve ever used… so I think in a few weeks I’m going to just buy a new, improved Moto G. It’s affordable (under $200), and I think I deserved a better mobile photo option the next time I forget my regular camera.

While the two biggest music draw at the MN State Fair are the paid Grandstand shows and the bigger Leinie Lodge Bandshell stage… the truth are over 20 smaller music stages throughout the fair grounds. The 2015 Free Entertainment overview doesn’t even list everything. You’ll have to go to another page called Even More Music to get a more microscopic look.

The first band we stumbled across was The Good Intentions, lead by Chris Silver, at the Schell’s Stage at Schilling Amphitheater. The band played some standard bluegrass/Americana songs. The banjo-picking band proved to be the perfect opener for headliner and local legend Charlie Parr, who was taking the stage at 8pm.

We grab some crab cakes at the Café Caribe and followed the music… which lead to Mark Joseph Project. He played some Caribbean-inspired songs with reggae jams. According to Mark Joseph’s biography, he played over 1,000 shows and is known as one of the hardest working musician in the Midwest.

The final band we checked out was Ecuador Manta, an Andean band playing some traditional tunes and covers, including the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody.” The band has been playing the MN State Fair for the past 16 years… well before the time of the little 10-year-old-boy who was on stage playing the pan pipes with the band.

The Minnesota State Fair will continue until Labor Day, September 7th.