State fairs enliven the spirits of their communities and give farmers a rare showcase for the abstract wool sculptures of their beret-wearing lambs. Admire the aesthetics of sheep art and a great deal more with today's Groupon: for $14, you get two one-day adult admissions, plus a three-pack of cream puffs (a $28.50 value), at the Wisconsin State Fair, taking place at State Fair Park in West Allis. The two tickets can be used for two people, or on two separate days. This Groupon is only good from August 9 to 11, giving you a chance to sample a variety of smaller portions for smaller prices on Crazy Grazin' Day on August 10.

Since 1851, the Wisconsin State Fair has annually showcased the state's finest resources, stuffed fairgoers with an aromatic selection of world-class foods, and entertained guests with live bands and terrifying tractor flyovers. In between hot-stepping to the Steve Meisner Polka Band on August 9 and singing along to "Cracklin' Rosie" with Eric Ebert's Tribute to Neil Diamond on August 11, fair browsers will get their choice of day to frolic manfully among a ton of food stalls, games, thrill rides, outdoor events, interactive activities, and competitions. If your trio of the fair's famous cream puffs—whose airy creaminess is just as legendary in this reality as it is in alternate realities where Wisconsin won the Civil War—doesn't fill you up completely, test your gut's maximum occupancy with August 9's brat-eating contest (4 p.m.), which is best washed down beforehand with the root-beer-float-drinking contest (3 p.m.). Kids, meanwhile, can plummet down the fair's 200-foot giant slide, take splatter-art to messy new places at the Kohl's Color Wheel, or watch the state's fastest pigs race for the coveted frosted oatmeal cookie.

Besides engaging in heated debate about Italian avant-garde cinema with the fair's cavalcade of cattle, sheep, swine, and horses, carousel rodeo-riders can mosey on over to the Jack's Pizza Midway, where amusement rides (between $2 and $6 per ride, not included in Groupon) twinkle and twirl. While there, stout hearts and empty stomachs should test out Jack's Pizza Comet II—a 60-foot-high, 1,800-foot-long monster with four large drops and bragging rights as the largest portable steel rollycoaster in the U.S. Families can also break up an afternoon of flower shows and livestock beauty pageants by roaming the earth between the dozen life-sized animatronic dinosaurs roaming the earth at Days of the Dinosaur ($1, not included in Groupon). Spend a sunny day burning off the excess energy from eating an entire Wisconsin-shaped cheese-curd cake with today's Groupon to the Wisconsin State Fair.

Reviews

Fodor's tells visitors, "Don't miss the cream puffs." Yelpers give the fair an average of 4.5 stars, and Insider Pagers and Judy's Book reviewers give it an average of five:

• This is an excellent State Fair. The cream puffs are superb and there is so much high quality entertainment for the whole family… – Laura M., Insider Pages
• So much to see here. Tons of rides. And of course, you must sample all the local favorite specialty food items. 4-H exhibits, concerts, specialty booths. The kids will love all the action. Lots of animals competing as well. – Joan S., Insider Pages
• I had never been to a state fair. I have some friends in Milwaukee who suggested we make the drive up from Chicago... so we did. I now heart state fairs. – Natalie S., Yelp