Country music’s most famous son playing Minnesota State Fair with all-star opener

With only one country music act so far on this year’s schedule, the Minnesota State Fair has upped the twang factor for 2025 in a big way with one of the genre’s most famous names: Hank Williams.

Junior, that is.

Fresh off tour dates with Kid Rock and a recent album produced by the Black Keys’ frontman Dan Auerbach, Hank Jr. will return to the State Fair grandstand on Aug. 27. He’ll have one of country music’s most versatile and well-respected players with him, Marty Stuart, who’ll open the show with His Fabulous Superlatives.

Tickets for the Wednesday night concert go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. via etix.com or by calling 800-514-3849. Prices range from $56-$91 for reserved seats or $112-$126 for entry into what should be an extra-rowdy Party Deck.

Williams, 75, has appeared at the Minnesota State Fair grandstand only twice before, most recently in 1993 and way back in 1968. The latter concert came four years after he made his coming-out in country music at age 15 with his debut album, “Hank Williams Jr. Sings the Songs of Hank Williams,” which came 11 years after his iconic father’s death.

Since then, Bocephus — as his dad famously called him — has racked up his own playlist of country classics, including “Family Tradition,” “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound” and “There’s a Tear in My Beer.” Williams will perform with Kid Rock again this summer prior to his Minnesota gig on the 10-city Rock the Country Tour, also featuring Nickelback and probably a fleet of Coors Light trucks.

The Williams/Stuart gig will follow this year’s other State Fair country headliner, Old Dominion, who performs on opening day, Aug. 21. Here’s how the full 2025 grandstand series looks now, with two more headliners yet to be announced.