Wisconsin State Fair will kick off Thursday with longtime attractions and new cream puff flavors

For more than three decades, the “Got Milk” stand at the Wisconsin State Fair has been operated by the Gullicksen family. 

Brian Gullicksen’s parents started Got Milk 34 years ago. Brian took over the business in his 20s. Now 40, Brian’s three sons help him run the stand. 

“It’s like built into my DNA,” Brian Gullicksen said. “We love the fair. It’s a part of the family, and something we do every year, and we’ll continue forever, as long as we can.”

The 11-day fair brings rides and slides and various meats on sticks. 

As vendors, exhibitors and volunteers get ready for Wisconsin’s 174th State Fair kick off Thursday, there are dozens of stories like Gullicksen’s.  

Take Billie’s Baked Potatoes on Grandstand Avenue. The popular vendor has been a mainstay at the State Fair since the early 1980s. 

The traveling stand was originally owned by Ray and Delores Billie, who lived in Connecticut and took their stuffed baked potatoes to a half-dozen fairs in the Midwest. 

The Billies stored their stand with George Martin in Massachusetts. When the couple retired in 2007, they sold the business to Martin, who continues to operate it today. 

“I love it, once you get set up,” Martin said. “As you can tell, in the heat and setting up and cleaning and all that, it’s a lot of work. But once you get going, that’s when all the fun begins. Everybody starts coming to the fair, and we get rolling.” 

The 2024 Wisconsin State Fair had 1.1 million visitors. Spokesperson Tim McCormick hopes to break that number this year.

“Nature seems to be smiling on us with this forecast,” McCormick said. “Hopefully, we can break another record for how many people are coming through our turnstiles.”

Along with all the old favorites, the state fair will add a few new things to its menu this year. 

Since 1924, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Wisconsin Bakers Association have operated the Original Cream Puff Bakery.

Approximately 200 employees serve an average of 30,000 cream puffs per day during the run of the fair, making it the signature sweet treat of the event. 

This year, a chocolate cream puff and a “celebration strawberry cream puff” will be on the menu. They’ll be available in a newly renovated dairy building, McCormick said.

“Our bakers are very excited for the new capabilities here,” McCormick said. “Hopefully, we’re cranking them out even faster than those 400,000-plus cream puffs that we go through during our 11-day run. Maybe we can start topping that mark. Maybe get to half a million.”