Fairs and Carnivals

Big Tex Gets a Hand -- Just Not a Very Big One

Every week, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz. Good news for those of you heartbroken when Big Tex, the 52-foot tall, 60-year-old icon of the State Fair of Texas, burned in a s ... More >>

The State Fair Says Big Tex is Recuperating at a Spa, Which is Clearly Not the Case

Yesterday, it would have been hard to imagine the Big Tex saga becoming even more absurd. Just think about it: a 50-foot-tall mechanical cowboy spontaneously bursts into flames and becomes the subject of weepy-eyed morning as if he were a Beatle. Yet today brings evidence that the story actually ca ... More >>

The Overserved's Last Night At the State Fair of Texas

Last week, I was in line for some coupons at the fair. A gentleman, along with two ladies, all of whom I can only kindly describe as seeming like they were on a lot of meth, approached the window screaming at the attendant. "Where is Big Tex?" Because nothing breaks the stance of a bouffant-ed li ... More >>

Big Tex is Gone. There's a Hole in Our Hearts.

On this day, we lost a fried hero. This morning, Big Tex caught on fire at the State Fair of Texas. Twitter lit up with jokes about as quickly as Tex did. I guess we all grieve differently. See also: Big Tex Burned Down Today at the State Fair Alice Laussade's exclusive interview with Big Tex We'd ... More >>

Sustainable Living Ferments in Fair Park

Isaac Rousso, Pork Wings Creator, Picks His Favorite Food at the State Fair Of Texas

Last year I milled around the State Fair looking for food that wasn't fried. This year I found some of the people responsible for my favorite foods (as well as some other interesting characters) and asked them about the fair through their eyes. First up is Isaac Rousso, who's well known for his part ... More >>

Where To Party During This Weekend's State Fair Classic

It is upon us: Fair season. Thirty days of fried food, weird crafts, blue-ribbon jams and petting zoos. The people watching, square dancing and pig racing are in full bloom in Fair Park, but as we hit October, Dallas will also prep for two of the biggest college football weekends our little village ... More >>

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Big Tex

Monday was the Big Tex erection at the State Fair of Texas. The erection lasted about three hours, so it's safe to say that this 60-year old Texan is most definitely on Cialis. A ton of photographers were there, taking pictures of the event. I took a moment to ask Big Tex some probing questions abou ... More >>

Uncle Tex, We Missed You!

Where to Find the Big Tex Choice Award Food Finalists at the State Fair of Texas

It's here! Fried Christmas!!! That delicious waft of funnel cake corny dog world's biggest Frito pie horse-ish ladyman stank you'll get when you walk through the turnstiles at the fair is gonna hit you like a Lisa Frank double food rainbow. And you will love it. See also: Fried Jambalaya, Fri ... More >>

FRIED BREAKING NEWS: Fried Jambalaya, Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll Win Big at State Fair of Texas

See also: The Fried Food Finalists Coming to the State Fair of Texas 2012 Last Wednesday, the eight finalists of the Big Tex Choice Awards were announced. Today, they gathered for an epic fried battle. Three judges (1310 The Ticket's Donovan Lewis, Representative Eric Johnson from the Texas House o ... More >>

The Odd Country Fair Brings Snow Cones and a Drum Line to Bishop Arts Tomorrow

Oddfellows restaurant and Dallas Odd Fellows Lodge #44 are hosting an Odd County Fair on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. at 7th and Madison streets in the Bishop Arts District. The aim of the fair is to raise money for the Sunset High School marching band to make the trip to national band competition i ... More >>

City, State Fair to Replace Fair Park Livestock Arena With Fancy "Mini-Convention Center"

Click here to see more of Good, Fulton & Farrell's renderings for the new Fair Park Livestock Center.​The reason I called Park and Rec's second-in-command Willis Winters the other day wasn't about downtown parks. Rather, I was curious about an $869,465 item on the Park Board's agenda for today ... More >>

The Day Sonny and Cher Visited Fair Park

Photo by Skip Shoffner, courtesy Philip ShoffnerSonny and Cher in front of the Fair Park Coliseum​It's quite likely that many Friends of Unfair Park recall O. V. "Skip" Shoffner, who, his son Philip reminds, was a longtime mail carrier in Lakewood -- for more than 30 years. Skip was also a regular ... More >>

Oh, Bacon Snap: The 2011 State Fair of Texas Bacon and Eggs Contest

Alice Laussade2011 Bacon and Eggs contest at the State Fair of Texas. Idea: Let's put all that stuff in my face.​Yesterday I had the honor of judging at the 2011 State Fair of Texas Bacon and Eggs contest. Yeah, be so jealous. There were six categories for competition: bacon appetizer, bacon e ... More >>

PETA Asked the State Fair of Texas For a Booth. Wanna Guess How Big Tex Responded?

Just got off the phone with a lovely young lass from PETA, America's favorite activist group turned performance troupe. They're always really nice to talk to, those PETA folks, right until they start trying to reincarnate your lunch. Apparently they had applied for a booth at the State Fair of Texa ... More >>

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Jerk Your Sausage to Island Spot's Fried Bread Pudding

Island Spot is a new vendor at the State Fair of Texas this year and along with this open-flame-grilled jerk chicken, jerk sausage (note: it's on the menu as "jerk sausage," not "the hand job" or "the hanje") and jerk tofu (for all you vegetarians), they're serving up -- wait for it -- fried bread ... More >>

Fried Brownies at the State (Fried) Fair of Texas -- I'm in Heaven

Denise GarzaFried brownies will make you fried happy.​This year, Denise Garza (with her sister Norma and her niece Roxanne) made it to the second round of the Big Tex Choice Awards with Heavenly Deep-Fried Brownies. While the concept of frying a brownie isn't completely new to this fair (las ... More >>

How Were Fried Praline Sweet Potato Poppers, AKA Fried Thanksgiving, Not Big Tex Finalists?

Kyle WallHiding inside these donut-hole-lookin' things is a sweet-potato-praline mind-blow.​ Oh, these fried praline sweet potato poppers weren't finalists in this year's Big Tex Choice Awards? That makes total sense. TO NOBODY!!!!!! Kyle Wall, inventor of these fried lovelies, said that fair off ... More >>

Un-Fried at the Fair: Brain Freeze, Frogurt and Sweet Tea Pickles

Frozen yogurt, why have you not fried yourself?​We've talked a lot about the fried food coma the State Fair of Texas will be offering up this year, and we figure it's time we mention a couple of new vendors who are stepping up the unfried fair fare. (If only to ask them why they have yet to fr ... More >>

Falling for Big Tex's Line

State Fair of Texas' big dude seems vaguely presidential these days.

Vegans Rejoice: Texas State Veggie Fair Fried Food Competition

Sylvia ElzafonFried vegan Bob Armstrong queso won Texas State Veggie Fair's Most Creative title in 2010.​The State Fair of Texas offers a millionty delicious fried food options, but if you're vegan, food-wise you're pretty much limited to sniffing second-hand funnel cake fumes.Well, fuck all that. ... More >>

Fried Chicken Skin and Fried Cake Balls?!? Thanks, Eat Crispies.

Eat CrispiesFried chicken skin from Eat Crispies. Mmm. Skin.​Meet fried chicken skin, brought to your State Fair of Texas by Eat Crispies. It's just chicken skin, battered and fried for your face. Eat Crispies owner Phuong Le says, "The fried chicken skin was what caught the attention of ... More >>

Tower of Power: Fair Park Crawls Closer to Becoming Year-Round Destination

Photos by Leslie MinoraThe Observation Tower Ride will fill this 30-foot hole behind the Cotton Bowl. Don't worry, they're covering it up for the State Fair.​There is a big hole in Fair Park. Finally. Eventually the crater will be filled with a 500-foot pole surrounded by a doughnut-shaped slowly ... More >>

The Tacos of the State Fair of Texas

Hello there, crispy taco​Novel and atrocious fried foods aren't the only foodstuffs available at the State Fair of Texas. Among the alternatives are tacos, one of which threw me for a loop. To begin my hunt, I searched the State Fair's Food Finder web page for tacos. With the search results in han ... More >>

A State Fair Summation From a Food-Loving Arkansawyer

Editor's Note: Of the gazillion people who yearly visit the State Fair of Texas, a good number of them are outlanders. One of those visitors this year offered to share her fair reflections with City of Ate. Kat Robinson, who blogs about food back in Arkansas, reveals here which fried dish she liked ... More >>

Five State Fair Foods You Can't Find in Texas

Ok, maybe we don't want this.​It's the rare visitor who leaves the State Fair of Texas wishing there had been more deep-fried delicacies available, but there are a few fried and stick-impaled snacks missing from the fair's line-up. Here, a look at five popular sweet and savory items sold at state ... More >>

The State Fair Eighty-Sixes Its Corny Dog Contest, But the Pros Are Coming for a Sandwich Race on Sunday

Patrick MichelsThird-ranked Pat Bertoletti claimed the world waffle eating title at the State Fair of Texas back in 2007. He's back eating sandwiches this Sunday afternoon.​It's tough to know just how to feel about this year's competitive eating lineup at the State Fair of Texas. On one hand, on t ... More >>

Those Wisconsin Folk are Lightweights
When it Comes to Fair Eating

Sauerkraut balls: Wasn't that a nickname for Hitler?​A Milwaukee filmmaker who chronicled one man's annual quest to eat every deep-fried and "on a stick" food served at the Wisconsin State Fair has a few tips for fair-goers contemplating similar missions. Mark Irving, whose 13-minute "documen ... More >>

Dr Pepper Jumps Aboard the Fair's Deep-fried Bandwagon

​State Fair of Texas Fry King Abel Gonzales, who ventured into pastry territory this year with his deep-fried chocolate, will continue messing with confections at a Dr Pepper cake contest. According to a press release, Gonzales will serve as judge for the fair competition, which is open to an ... More >>

Cool Aid Pickles a Refreshing Alternative
To Fried Food at State Fair

​As Dallas Observer's Cheap Bastard, Alice Laussade, so eloquently put it in this week's cover story, fried food at the State Fair of Texas might have jumped the shark, thanks to Mark Zable's fried beer. Zable's creation won this year's Big Tex Choice Awards' Most Creative prize. The annual fried- ... More >>

Huzzah! Renaissance Festival Recommends Healthier Fare

This dude definitely needs to lay off the fried foods.​An event designed to celebrate tightly corseted wenches and bloodthirsty jousters isn't exactly synonymous with restraint, but organizers of this year's Texas Renaissance Festival are promoting the fair's healthy snacks. The festival, bil ... More >>

Pie in the Sky: Is Fried Frito Pie Ready
To Hit the Top of the Greasy Charts?

​Not satisfied with winning "best taste" honors at yesterday's Big Tex Choice Awards, fried Frito pie inventor Michael Thomas has implied he'd like his concoction to become a concession stand staple. "The deep-fried Frito pie is a game changer for fair food," Thomas told The Dallas Morning Ne ... More >>

Park and Rec Assistant Director Willis Winters Talks About His Fair Park History

Old Dallas Stuff​Willis Winters, assistant director of the city's Park and Recreation Department, says, with a laugh, that it took him all of 30 days to write his forthcoming Fair Park history. He signed the contract with Arcadia Publishing in March, under the assumption that it wanted the book in ... More >>

Mmm, Fried Soy Products; Who Needs Funnel Cake?

Chicken-fried bacon or fried imitation cheese...hmm, which to choose, which to choose?​Figuring omnivores shouldn't have all the greasy fun, DallasVegan.com is hosting its own fried food contest at The Phoenix Project, 406 S. Haskell Ave. "I would expect some of the same, off-the-wall type of ... More >>

No App Yet for Your Fried-Food Appetite at Fair

The fried Cokes are that way, folks.​Visitors to the State Fair of Texas will have to wait at least a year before they can use their iPhones to instantly locate the closest fried cookie dough stand. State fairs in Ohio and Indiana this week announced plans to roll out iPhone apps that will al ... More >>

Howdy, Folks, and Welcome to the "Super-Sized" State Fair of Texas?

​What you see up top is the artwork unveiled today for this year's State Fair of Texas, where the theme is "Super Sized Fun." Which is in reference to ...? Let's go to The Official Announcement: "Super is the word heard all around North Texas this year and Fair officials are working closely with t ... More >>

City Hall Files Suit to Get Railroad Museum to Chugga-Chugga On Out of Fair Park Pronto

​OK, back to Fair Park, but only to ask: Why didn't the Museum of the American Railroad ever leave Fair Park for Frisco? That's what the city wants to know almost two years after the museum "entered into a formal letter of agreement with the City of Frisco to relocate to that city," per its long-a ... More >>

Errol McKoy, State Fair President, Talks About Why Fair Park Needs That Big Green House

This, per the State Fair's plans sent to Landmark last week, is more or less what the green house will look like. And where it'll go. Sorry for the quality; best we could do with what we got.​Finally spoke with Errol McKoy about that green house he's wanting to plant at Fair Park; our Q&A foll ... More >>

State Fair of Texas Files Application to Build Giant Greenhouse, Growing Area at Fair Park

Something like this Rough Brothers-designed greenhouse is what the State Fair of Texas has in mind.​Earlier this afternoon, I noticed on the Landmark Committee's Fair Park Task Force meeting agenda for Wednesday a most intriguing note: Someone has applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness to bu ... More >>

Top 10 Foods To Fry For Next Year's State Fair

Patrick MichelsBecause even with garlic sauce on one side and grape topping on the other, this fried butter love affair can only last so long.​Every year, vendors on the state fair circuit push the limits of fried excess: chicken fried bacon, deep fried peanut butter cups and, of course, this year ... More >>

Kickin' Cotton

Fair Play

Soul Bowl

The State Fair Classic kicks off

See You at the Fair

Papa Was A Rodeo

The Fort Worth Stock Show Winds Down