There were power outages in several areas of the Minnesota State Fair on Friday afternoon.
Adventure Park, the Dairy Building and other areas along Judson Avenue and Liggett Street were without power, according to an emergency text alert. Xcel Energy spokesman Kevin Coss said power was fully restored shortly before 6 p.m.
“We are working to determine the cause of the outage, which was not immediately clear,” Coss said.
Brittney Arnold, who has worked at the Dairy Building for five years, said the power outage temporarily closed the Dairy Goodness Bar – and its delicious ice cream.
“All of a sudden, all of our lights went out and I immediately thought, ‘Uh oh, that’s not a good sign,'” Arnold recalls. “I immediately ran over and we realized that unfortunately all of our machines had broken down and therefore we were unable to serve any products.”
The power went out around 4 p.m., but power was restored to the Dairy Building at 5:40 p.m. The good news is that milk and ice cream can still be served safely once operations resume.
“But you know what? The first thing we did was request replacement refrigerators and replacement refrigerated trucks because, as I said, food safety is our top priority,” Arnold said.
The outage also affected the KSTP building near Chamber Street and Carnes Avenue and interrupted an on-site broadcast of Twin Cities Live.
