Did you know? State Fair of Texas edition
Almost everyone knows about Big Tex, Fletcher’s corn dogs, and the fair’s concert series, but few know the unique facts of what it’s like behind the scenes of the more than century-old state fair.
Did you know?
- The State Fair of Texas hosts the tallest Ferris wheel in the Southwest. The iconic ride stands at 212 feet.
- There are more than 200 food service locations on the fairgrounds.
- In 2005, the fair organized the first Big Tex Choice Awards, awarding various concessionaries with titles of Most Creative or Best Taste. Last year, chicken-fried cactus bites and fried-bacon cinnamon rolls were among the winners of the seven-year-old awards.
- Also in 2005, days before the fair’s opening, an 800-pound butter sculpture of Elvis Presley collapsed, causing national media attention around the fair and its annual butter sculpture.
- Speaking of butter; deep-fried butter made its debut in 2009, offering four different varieties: original, garlic, cherry, and grape.
- Just two years after the rock ‘n’ roll superstar butter Elvis made headlines; another pop/rock band caused so much commotion that the members had to be helicoptered in. The Jonas Brothers performed to 20,000-plus people that year, and the band has gone on the record as saying that performing at the State Fair of Texas was one of their first moments of realizing they had made it in the business.
Don’t miss out on this year’s State Fair of Texas. Gates open September 27 and close October 20.
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