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PHOTOS: Dave Lee shows us the hidden colors of the Minnesota State Fair

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With its ever growing attendance, we tend to associate the Minnesota State Fair with huge crowds stretching out into the distance, a big jumble of noisy humanity that is any people watcher's dream. 

But the fairgrounds that News Talk 830 WCCO host Dave Lee encounters when he goes on early morning walks are different. Lee, an avid photographer, brings his camera with him as he heads toward the station booth for the start of his 6 a.m. broadcast. The gates have yet to open, and without faces to focus on in the empty streets, he turns his lens towards the fair booths and amusement rides he passes on his way. 


In the resulting photos, the darkness and lack of crowds seems to make the Fair's bright dashes of color stand out more, the silliness providing a stark backdrop to the neon orange glow of a Cafe Caribe sign, or the garish yellow paint on a spinning Tornado ride. A cotton candy booth, with its pink block letter front straight out of 90s Word Art, seems almost psychedelic when cast against a purple drawn sky. 

It's the Minnesota State Fair like you've probably never seen it before, captured by someone with a keen eye, a good camera and a very early shift. You can see more here

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