Fun at the State Fair of Texas

While I was visiting my sister, I got to attend the State Fair of Texas (aka Fried Everything Under the Sun Festival). The state fair has been going on since 1886 and is held at Fair Park in Dallas.

Big Tex is the symbol of the State Fair. Unfortunately, he burned down in 2012, so this was my first time seeing the new Big Tex. He sure looks spiffy!

Now, this was not my first time to this rodeo. I have attended the State Fair several times before: during my childhood when I lived in Fort Worth and after my sister moved back to Texas, so I know the main attraction for me is sampling some of the glorious fair foods on offer. 

First up is the must-eat: Fletcher's corny dog. 

We usually share the items we sample during the fair, but we each had to have our own corny dog or else it just wouldn't feel right. All of the other items consumed over the course of the day were shared between the three of us.

In my bid to eat something non-fried, I got a Mexican-style corn on the cob. Silly me. 

This was followed by some fried s'mores.

We took a break from eating to visit some of the pavilions. Yes, there are other goings on at the fair besides getting your arteries clogged. There is shopping.

You can check out the submissions to the Creative Arts Competitions. The variety of categories is astounding. They run from pickling to needlework to photography.

Don't forget to check out the Butter Sculpture. What is a butter sculpture you ask? Well, it is simply a sculpture carved out of butter. Every year the theme changes. This year's was wild mustangs. Impressive, no?

There is also a huge Auto Show that occupies two entire buildings. This little Fiat was being hand-painted for charity while we were there. So amazing.



There are also livestock viewings, dog shows and pig races. We checked out the bunny competition. Many of them were giving us looks of disapproval.

Bunnies gave looks of disapproval, were ready for take-off, or hid in hay

Besides that, there is also live music, a midway with games and rides and much more. We went back to our original mission and that was to eat. One of the last things we had that day was chicken fried bacon. I had this the last time I visited the fair, which was also the first year this item was introduced, and I remember it being much better last time. 

Fried Sriracha Balls was one of the new items for this year. Each year the new offerings sound stranger and stranger. By the way, we did not sample the Sriracha Balls.

We made it to the late afternoon and were appropriately stuffed to the gills. Now, I plan to avoid fried things for the next six months!