Tulsa State Fair vs. Oklahoma State Fair
This last weekend, I spent much of the day Saturday at the Tulsa State Fair. Due to lack of time in my schedule, I missed our state fair, so I thought I'd head up to Tulsa and check out their's, since I had never been before.
Overall, I was impressed with the Tulsa State Fair. The facilities are much nicer than the Oklahoma State Fair. Comparing the barns at the Tulsa State Fair to those at our fair is like comparing night to day! Their barns actually have architecture and class, much like the rest of Tulsa! The Expo Building, by far, is nicer than any exhibit building we have at our State Fair Park.
The grounds at the Tulsa State Fair are just beautiful. They're all nicely landscaped, edged, etc. Everything just appeared so nice and new.
In comparison, the grounds at our fair look run down and poorly maintained. Light fixtures were put in in the 60's.....they need to be replaced. The facades on our exhibit buildings are old and weathered. Grass is full of weeds in many places and non-existent in others.
As far as facilities go, I give Tulsa an A+! I give OKC a C-. We can do better, and I hope by passing the increase in hotel/motel tax in November, we start some improvements.
While the facilities were much nicer than those at the OKlahoma State Fair, the overall fair itself was much smaller and their were fewer exhibit booths! The car show, arts and crafts, garden show, Midway, etc. were all smaller than those at the Oklahoma State Fair. There were only three makes of cars (Ford, Dodge and Chevy) at the Tulsa State Fair, compared to many at the Oklahoma State Fair.
I do rate the Made in Oklahoma Building better than ours though. Their's actually had "Made in Oklahoma" booths. Our Made in Oklahoma Building is filled mostly with the Ag exhibit on one end and FFA exhibits on the other end.
The arts and crafts section as well as the garden section was very tiny at the Tulsa State Fair. In contrast, at our fair, we have separate larger building dedicated to arts and crafts. We used to have a separate garden building, and in my opinion we need to bring it back. One thing Tulsa did have which our air no longer has is an RV show. It was awfully cool checking out the RV's at the Tulsa State Fair.
Overall, in regards to exhibits and rides/attractions, I give the Oklahoma State Fair a B, and the Tulsa State Fair a C.
The livestock shows at both events appeared to be about the same in size and quality.
The only real area I give Tulsa low marks on concerns parking. There just isn't a lot of parking at the Tulsa State Fair. I wasn't aware of the parking shuttle system from parking lots in outlying areas of the city, but had I known about it Iprobably would've used it. I circled arund for about 45 minutes looking for a parking place on the grounds of the Tulsa State Fair. After getting frustrated and fed up, I finally parked in a strip mall (Lowes) just east of the Tulsa Fair Grounds. I walked over to the fair. If I had it to do over again, I would've done that from the beginning. I rate fair parking an D-, but might've rated it a little higher had I known about the outlying parking.
I give Tulsa an A for public support. It seemed like everyone around town was giving special fair deals, and the public was very interested in the fair. In contrast, it seems like over the years, much of the public around here has lost interest in our fair. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem like it's all that big of a deal anymore.
Overall, I rate both fairs about the same: a B! Tulsa has nicer facilities (much nicer) but OKC has a larger fair itself.
When redesigning our fairgrounds, our city leaders ought to look at Tulsa as an example. Their facilities are first class! Especially their new livestock barns!
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