Tickets to Minnesota State Fair drive-thru food experience sell out in 2.5 hours

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (FOX 9) - Tickets for the Minnesota State Fair's drive-thru experience have sold out just two and a half hours after the tickets went on sale online Friday morning.

"Our website and ticketing service experienced unprecedented volume; in 2½ hours, we reached our capacity of 19,000 vehicle tickets sold for this 13-day historic event," read a statement from the Minnesota State Fair. "The capacity is limited in order to present the event in a safe and enjoyable manner for guests."

Eager Minnesota State Fair fans overwhelmed the fair’s website trying to get tickets to the fair’s drive-thru food experience, which is one of the events being held in lieu of this year’s Great Minnesota Get-Together after it was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The State Fair announced last week it would hold a Food Parade in which guests could drive a one-way, 1.5-mile route through the fairgrounds and purchase fair food favorites from 16 different vendors, including Sweet Martha’s Cookies, Fresh French Fries, Mouth Trap Cheese Curds and Pronto Pups.

Minnesota State Fair announces drive-thru event to get your fair food fix

The Minnesota State Fair may be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but you can still get your fair food fix this summer.

The Food Parade is scheduled to take place over three weekends. Aug. 20-23, 27-30 and Sept. 3-7. Guests can purchase a ticket for a time slot for $20, which is good for up to five people in the vehicle.

Tickets for the Food Parade went on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Within minutes, people were reporting issues with the website.

At 10:26 a.m., the State Fair said it was experiencing an “extremely high volume” of people trying to purchase Food Parade tickets. The fair said tickets were being sold and encouraged people to keep trying the website.

A FOX 9 employee reported it took her 42 minutes to purchase her ticket.

"We understand Minnesotans are missing the Great Minnesota Get-Together this year, and we regret that we cannot accommodate more fair fans," continued the statement from the Minnesota State Fair. "We look forward to bringing the full fair experience back to our 2 million guests in 2021."