WEST ALLIS, Wis. — The Wisconsin State Fair brings in a big audience. Last year’s attendance was over one million.

That gives Wisconsin businesses and producers a big audience to promote Wisconsin products during the fair.

Starla Batzko is the owner of Starla’s Seasonings, Dips and Mixes. She’s based out of Belgium, Wis.

She’s been selling her famous dips and seasonings at the fair since 2018.

“I love the fair because there’s so many different things to try,” Batzko said.

Batzko has 21 different flavors of her seasonings and dips, as well as freeze-dried candy.

She said her business does well at the fair, and she’s got several fans who always come back year after year.

“You can definitely tell the regulars because they walk right up, they know what they like and they just grab them as they go,” Batzko said. “But if they don’t know, they can sample them too.”

Batzko’s business is one of several at the State Fair’s Products Pavilion, where anything grown or made in Wisconsin is on display.

There’s also a little bit of education involved, including at the Wisconsin Honey Producers Association’s booth. That’s where 2024 Wisconsin Honey Queen Sadie Goettl showed off a hive of bees.

“I am hoping that I am able to reach a variety of people as they come through the fair, and that I’m able to educate others about our important, powerful pollinators, the honeybees,” she said.

In addition to the varieties of honey, nectar and pollen on display, Goettl said she wants to make sure fair-goers understand how important bees are to agriculture as a whole in the state.

“Here in Wisconsin, a lot of our number one top commodities are pollinated by our honeybees, including our cranberries, our snap beans,” she said.

Batzko said this symbiotic relationship among Wisconsin producers keeps business going.

“You want to stimulate the Wisconsin economy,” she said. “So, we make all of our seasonings with the Prairie Farm sour cream and cream cheese and it’s just great to buy Wisconsin.”