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Indiana State Fair
Rating Details »
Category: Amusement Parks
Neighborhood: Indy Metro1202 E 38th St
Indianapolis, IN 46205
(317) 927-7500
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
6 reviews for Indiana State Fair
I'm not sure if I overhyped my expectations for the fair, but I wasn't all that impressed.
The wife and I went to the fair on the last day. We were sad to have missed out on a number of the musical acts that had rolled through (Journey, Heart, MC Hammer- he did a FREE show people), but were determined to go. The last day happened to be Orange Crush day, so everyone got free cans for the day (btw, orange crush and fried sugary goodness is a lethal combination).
At any rate, like any other seasoned veteran, the wife and I made our way around the fair, before we committed to buying anything to eat. I was hoping to find something new and crazy to try, in addition to stand by favorites (elephant ears, funnel cakes, etc...).
The fair set up was a bit unusual. It basically was set up on the outside of the track, with buildings scattered throughout, hosting differenent functions (shopping, cooking demonstrations, pageants, live stock). There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how things were done, but here were a few of the highlights:
-Saw the world's largest Boar (thing was over 1100 pounds!)
-Watched a cooking demonstration where the chef made lumpia (I damn near fell out of my chair when I heard him say it)
-There was one stand that was selling Filipino bbq (that was probably the most unique, and unexpected thing we saw)
-Deep fried goodness (oreos, twinkies, pork tenderloins, etc...)
I guess my biggest disappointment was the lack of variety in terms of food. Evidently the wild and crazy things to try this year were deep fried pizza (deep fried dough with pizza sauce and cheese on top) and chocolate covered bacon. Call me crazy, but I think I can do that one myself. At least the weather was nice, and who doesn't love people watching?
OVERALL- not bad, not great, it was certainly an experience to be had, just not as great as I was hoping. If you don't have much going on, it's not a bad use of a couple of hours. And it's nice that you get a chance to walk off all the unhealthy food you eat during the day.
Celebrity Rating- Bea Arthur (RIP)
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So, this was my first time going to the Indiana State Fair. One word..entertaining. I enjoyed all of the food..the corn was AWESOME!! I loved people watching and I even sorta like the animals..well not as much as others but they were okay.
Where else can you see chocolate covered bacon?? No seriously where?
Corn dogs, corn, funnel cakes, salt water taffy..oh my!
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Seriously, where else on earth, but in the center of Indiana at the State Fair can you get so many varieties of fried dough and sugar and fried everything. I'm not kidding: elephant ears, funnel cakes, corn dogs, fried Pepsi, fried cheese and the list goes on.
Plus! Every kind of meat in every form imaginable: turkey legs, pork chops, pork sausage, pork BBQ, beef tips, lamb kabobs, chicken EVERYTHING, rib eye sandwich...and the list goes on. All this and pigs and cows walking down the sidewalk. And a 1000lb pumpkin! And a 1000lb plus size boar and an entire room full of rabbits - 100s of them, all different - and cute as hell.
And for the best thing of all - no where - and I mean NO WHERE is the people watching more fascinating than at the Indiana State Fair. The quotable quote from a visiting friend from France, who speaks only a small amount of English: "There are a lot of very large and not very gorgeous people at the fair."
Yeah yeah yeah...it may not be Luxembourg Gardens, or Crissy Field, or even the River Walk in San Antonio, but its a cultural event of great magnitude and pitch if ever there was one. It's definitely geared toward kids and the kid in all of us - EXCELLENT! I'm a big fan...and by big I mean big.
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The best state fair I've visited, and I've been to a few.
Elephant ears (why haven't these caught on in other parts of the country?), educational stuff, crafts, photography, animals, pioneer village, and a dairy barn...what else do you need?
I've been to three state fairs in my life: the Arizona, California, and Indiana ones. The Arizona one is the worst out of the three; super crowded, and not much fun except for the concerts (which are free with admission, btw. I saw Nirvana there, along with a lot of other great acts). The CA fair is my favorite, with a good mix of agriculture, animals, rides, and surprisingly manageable crowd sizes. The Indiana fair is way better than the Arizona, but not *quite* as good as the California fair. I like that the IN fair isn't as schmaltzy as the AZ one, and had a lot of cool exhibits, etc, but no beer!?!?!?!?!? We went on a hot humid night in August and a frosty beer was starting to sound really good. I searched and searched, only to hear from a worker that alcohol is not served. I was able to have plenty of fun without it, but the principle bothers me.
I have mixed feelings about the state fair. The food is pricey, and everything seems geared towards kids, from the rides to the educational shows they have in the buildings. My boyfriend and I went to one show called "Let's Cook Some Bugs!" Sophomoric title, granted. But we were seriously the only two people in the audience without kids. I tried a mealworm. Not bad. Better: It was free!
Don't bother buying tickets for food (other than mealworms). You must use cash--say, $7 for a carton of mozzarella sticks or cheddar nuggets from the Hot Wisconsin Cheese stand, some of the better vittles I had at the event. Oh, and if you're going to get a pork tenderloin sandwich, do NOT get it grilled. The fair gods will frown on you, and you'll be stuck with a piece of cardboard between two pieces of bread. Get it fried.
And if you must have one fried dessert--and you must here--eschew the fried Pepsi balls (this isn't El Bulli, it's just soda flavored dough) for the fried bananas foster cheesecake on a stick. Yum.
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