Big Tex gets bigger
Fried beer & Tom Landry dominate: Texas State Fair joins the Houston Rodeo inbreaking records
Big TexPhoto by David R. Tribble
The big wheel
Funnel cake
Welcome to the State Fair of Texas.
Deep-fried Frito pie
Fried beer
Deep-fried Oreo
Between news-worthy fried food creations and gorgeous fall weather, there was no doubt this was a State Fair for the record books.
The Texas State Fair, which ended on Sunday in Dallas, brought in a record $37 million on food and ride coupons during its three-week run. That's more than a 25-percent increase over the previous record of $29.2 million in sales set in 2007.
Final attendance figures are not yet in, but this year also set record for single-day food sales of $3.2 million on Oct. 2 and for single-day Midway ride sales of $1 million on Columbus Day, when Dallas-area schoolchildren get free tickets to the fair for their day off.
The exhibition about former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry also proved a crowd-pleaser. About 120,000 visitors checked out "Remember Tom Landry: The Personal Collection" inside the Hall of State on fair grounds.
"We've just had incredibly beautiful weather," Sue Gooding, a fair spokeswoman, told The Dallas Morning News. "We had great exhibits, and all the interest in the food was just huge."
But does the bump in sales over pre-recession 2007 signal an end to economic woes? It probably helped that the economy seems to have stabilized, but a trip to the State Fair might have taken the place of a full vacation for some families — after all, this year the Houston Rodeo also set attendance records.
Or it could just be the fried beer.
The full ACL Fest lineup for 2026.Graphic courtesy of Austin City Limits Music Festival