If you missed the llama-alpaca costume contest at the fair this year, put it on your calendar for 2026. The Minnesota State Fair’s llamarama brings out crowds each year, with outlandish get-ups and skillful animal-handling by 4-H youth.
How can you tell a llama and an alpaca apart? The llama’s in the pirate outfit. Just kidding: Llamas are bigger — they can weigh 300 to 450 pounds and grow as tall as 6 feet from head to hoof — and they have banana-shaped ears.
Keaton Matthews, of McLeod County, 15, and his llama “Cotton” dress in a clown theme Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in the Minnesota State Fairground horse barn in Falcon Heights, Minn. Each year, dozens of kids take part in the popular 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, a creative and comedic endeavor for the kids and their animals before heading into official judging.
] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
In matching wigs, Keaton Matthews and his llama Cotton went with a clown theme for the fair’s annual costume contest. Keaton, 15, is from McLeod County.
Dressed as a fairy, Nevaeh Slowinski, 14, from Mower County, kisses her llama “Hugonot,” dressed as a unicorn, while standing for a portrait Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in the Minnesota State Fairground horse barn in Falcon Heights, Minn. Each year, dozens of kids take part in the popular 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, a creative and comedic endeavor for the kids and their animals before heading into official judging.
] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
A fairy and a unicorn make a magical pair. Nevaeh Slowinski, 14, from Mower County, kisses her llama Hugonot.
Ava Nelson-Kumar, 18, of Carver County, and her llama “Fawn” dressed as “Elphaba” and “Glinda” from “Wicked” Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in the Minnesota State Fairground horse barn in Falcon Heights, Minn. Each year, dozens of kids take part in the popular 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, a creative and comedic endeavor for the kids and their animals before heading into official judging.
] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
In an homage to “Wicked,” Glinda and Elphaba are portrayed by Ava Nelson-Kumar, 18, of Carver County, and her llama Fawn.
Vivienne Bourn, of Anoka County, and her llama “Trainwreck” dressed in a Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar theme Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in the Minnesota State Fairground horse barn in Falcon Heights, Minn. Each year, dozens of kids take part in the popular 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, a creative and comedic endeavor for the kids and their animals before heading into official judging.
] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Don’t drop those cookies! Too late: Trainwreck the llama carries an overflowing bucket of Sweet Martha’s, led by Vivienne Bourn, 12, of Anoka County.
Dressed as Dory from Finding Nemo, Emerson Kragh, of Chippewa County, 18, pulls her llama “Otto” dressed as an anemone Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in the Minnesota State Fairground horse barn in Falcon Heights, Minn. Each year, dozens of kids take part in the popular 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, a creative and comedic endeavor for the kids and their animals before heading into official judging.
] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Apparently Otto the llama is not afraid of balloons. Dressed as Dory from “Finding Nemo,” Emerson Kragh, 18, of Chippewa County, fixed up Otto with an anemone costume.
Sixth grader Jameson Braband, of Carver, dressed his llama, “Odyssey” as space Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in the Minnesota State Fairground horse barn in Falcon Heights, Minn. Each year, dozens of kids take part in the popular 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest, a creative and comedic endeavor for the kids and their animals before heading into official judging.
] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com (Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Sixth-grader Jameson Braband, of Carver, went to the fair as an astronaut, so Odyssey the (perfectly named) llama went as outer space.
