Perhaps even more synonymous with the end of summer than Labor Day is the Evergreen State Fair. The annual event in Monroe offers carnival rides, mouthwatering food, an “Evergreen Idols” talent competition, and daily concerts featuring the likes of Los Lobos and 38 Special. (Also still working: Howie Mandel.) Visitors can enter pie-eating contests, text-messaging competitions, and chili cook-offs. Or, let your baby crawl in the so-called “Diaper Derby.” If Facebook’s FarmVille is the closest you’ve come to real livestock, than the fair’s interactive activities will offer a refreshing alternative—a chance for future locovores to collect eggs, milk cows, and pick apples. Kids will also have a chance to pet horses, pigs and…dinos? Days of the Dinosaurs is a 10,000 square-foot exhibit that features 15 motorized replicas of the primordial beasts, including a life-like Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus. For a more traditional fair experience, visitors can also brave the amusement park rides or watch the expert horsemen (and women) compete at the rodeo. CELINA KAREIVA

Aug. 26-Sept. 6, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., 2010