This is a tradition for us, well, when we live here in Tacoma it is. Usually we arrange for one of our friends to pick up our kids after school and watch them until the next morning (typically on a Friday) and we wander the fair all day then go to a concert that night.
This year we are skipping the concert and just spending about 4 hours at the fair together before coming home and collecting the kids.
We usually arrange to go back to the fair with the kids on a later date, and at that time we know which areas to go with the kids for maximum enjoyment and minimum boredom. Let's face it, I enjoy wandering the agricultural buildings and Hubby enjoys wandering the industrial buildings. The kids dislike both of these, and prefer the buildings with the highest sugar content.