The lights have dimmed and the gates are closed , but for crews on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds the work is far from over.

"No time for rest. You can probably hear my voice. We don't get much sleep. And it's showing," said vendor Nate Kulenkamp.

Teardown begins almost immediately after the fireworks wrap up on Labor Day.

"Fireworks went off, and we all sat down for a second, gave a little high five. We may have had a small barley pop … but then it's pressure washers," Kulenkamp said.

That cleanup means pressure washing, scrubbing and packing away equipment that just served hundreds of thousands of fairgoers.

"Teardown is a totally different pace. It's a lot of degreasing, a lot of bags of garbage, and then making sure everything is put away where we don't have to think about

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