As we look back on 15 years of The Current, we're recalling a pivotal year for The Current at the Minnesota State Fair: 2006. The Current was certainly present at the State Fair during its first year on air, but in 2006, Minnesota Public Radio expanded its booth at the Minnesota State Fair, essentially doubling in size. Although MPR has been at the State Fair since 1991, when former next-door neighbors KARE 11 moved around the corner to Nelson street in '06, MPR was allowed to expand, adding a stage and larger broadcast booth.

With the new facilities in place, The Current broadcast live from the Fair every day in 2006, with Mary Lucia and Mark Wheat hosting four- and three-hour shifts, respectively, for seven of the 12 days of the State Fair, while Jill Riley and Bill DeVille, along with former staffers Steve Seel (now with Classical MPR), Tony Lopez and Danny Sigelman, covered the weekends and Labor Day. The 2006 State Fair saw Mark Wheat begin his tradition of interacting with fans outside the broadcast booth when he's not on air.

There were live guests and sessions, too. On the first day of the 2006 Fair, a torrential rain nearly upstaged Mary Lucia's interview with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne; when the rain ceased, Coyne himself joined MPR staff in mopping and wiping dry the MPR booth stage before the interview ran. On the Wednesday of the 2006 Fair, Lucia welcomed a fired-up Penn Jillette for an interview. Live performances at the booth in 2006 came courtesy Martin Dosh, Mark Mallman, Keston and Westdal (with drummer JT Bates), the [Gosh Darn] Doo Wop Band, and Haley (who was known professionally as Haley Bonar at that time).

During that first year of the expanded booth, the MPR stage had more of a "front porch" footprint; the extended concrete apron on the stage that fairgoers now know was added ahead of the 2007 State Fair. Along similar lines, seating at the MPR booth in 2006 came in the form of plastic molded patio chairs — which had a tendency to disappear as fairgoers carried them up and down Judson Avenue. Those chairs were replaced in 2007 by the sturdy benches manufactured by Loll Designs of Duluth, Minn., and remain in place today.

And if it seemed there was a little more elbow room at the State Fair back in 2006, the numbers bear that out: Total attendance for the Minnesota State Fair in 2006 was 1,680,579 compared to 2,126,551 in 2019.

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