U of I student is your official hostess at this year’s Illinois State Fair

Posted on August 9, 2021
Kelsi Kessler, 20, of Carmi in southern Illinois, will be a junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Your hostess at the 2021 Illinois State Fair, Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Kelsi (cq) Kessler, is actually a newcomer to pageants.

“Funny story – my county pageant is the very first pageant I went out for. I was going to college the very next month, and I wanted to have something that kept me close to home and give me an excuse to come back,” Kessler said in an interview on the state fair’s media preview day. “I ended up winning, which was such a blessing, and I went to the state fair pageant – never thought it was possible, but it was a whole lot of fun.”

Kessler, 20, of Carmi in southern Illinois, will be a junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in accountancy and minoring in food and agribusiness management. She plans to return to southern Illinois to combine those skills.

She actually is serving two years as queen, seeing as how 2020 was the year without a fair. The Illinois State Fair is Aug. 12-22.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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