View Comments Let the countdown begin: Tuesday marked 100 days until the Iowa State Fair returns after its first cancellation since World War II. The fair, which often draws more than 1 million visitors to the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, is scheduled for Aug. 12-22. Gary Slater, fair CEO, said earlier this year that, barring a huge and unexpected resurgence of the coronavirus, there will be a fair. “In terms of whether the fair will go ahead or not, if we continue to get better and better and the virus rate keeps going down and down, I don’t think that’s an issue on whether the fair will go forward or not," Slater told the Des Moines Register in a February interview.