Its Almost Fair Time

[Redneck Cabbie]

This may be a letdown already... No nationally known acts other than Foghat or Shooter Jennings? (the latter may be a stretch) Am I missing something?

[OklaCity_75]

Bowling for Soup is going be out there.

Blake Shelton, Jo Dee Messina and Sawyer Brown are playing at rodeo.

[Patrick]

Bowling for Soup is going be out there.

Blake Shelton, Jo Dee Messina and Sawyer Brown are playing at rodeo.

Who?

[OklaCity_75]

Who?

What?

[beatlebutt81]

One thing I do kind of like is the fact that the fair has been trying to have the free outdoor concerts, but they aren't having good acts now. There's no one I'd go watch this year. Last year there was only one that was interesting to me.

[ETL]

Why is the fair so expensive to the customers and the venders. I mean that even that sandwich place was run off by the cost; they had been there for years!!

[Flatlander]

To me the State Fair means rain,thats about it for me.

[OklaCity_75]

Most of the changes everybody hates came about when Skip Wagner was the fair director.

I would hope this year would be much different from others just because of all the construction going on around the park.

I drive by the fairgrounds on a regular basis. From what I can tell, several exhibit halls have cranes erected around them and it looks like a large paving project is underway. I also noticed all the barns have been remodeled or replaced.

I am curious to see if the new projects have improved things at all.

One thing I always thought was out of place was the Dillard’s store out at the fair. If I want to shop Dillard’s I will go to one of the malls. I am not going to pay $8.00 to shop at a department store I can shop.

[Keith]

This year I'll be doing the same thing I did last year....being a volunteer and assisting the Okla. City police Department at their mobile command center. I'll be helping them with booking all of those that are arrested for fighting, intoxication, and indecent exposure. Believe me, the "temporary" jails at the command center fill up fast.

It's amazing to me the number of fair patrons that get in trouble at the fair for doing stupid stuff. Many that get arrested think that they are being held for a little while and then getting released. What they don't know is that if they get arrested for public intoxication, then they are going to be taken to detox. If they are arrested for anything else, they get transported to the county jail.

Other than doing this for the police department, I enjoy the funnel cakes, and the pork chop sandwiches. I also enjoy the exhibits, and all of the freebies. No midway and no rides......too dangerous and too expensive.

[ETL]

What is the midway?

Is there a website for the construction at the fair, or are there any pictures?

[mranderson]

What is the midway?

Is there a website for the construction at the fair, or are there any pictures?

ETL: You really do not know what a midway is?

[ETL]

You mean where the games are?

[OklaCity_75]

Yes.. the midway is where most of the games and rides are located.

[OklaCity_75]

Is there a website for the construction at the fair, or are there any pictures?

http://www.okstatefairpark.com/press...onpictures.htm

[ETL]

http://www.okstatefairpark.com/press...onpictures.htm

Thanks!!!:spin:

[SOONER8693]

I used to work at the Cottonwood Post with a gunfight/re-enactment group at the fair every year. That was about 20 years ago. I believe the Oklahoma state fair was one of the best in the nation. But now, I/my family and I seldom go, it's just a shell of it's former self. Most of the people I associate with don't bother to go anymore, where it used to be a can't miss event. Many people would go numerous times each year. It has definitely changed.

[Keith]

This is where the old monorail went to. It sits right next to the Oklahoman building.




I am assuming that this is an outdoor arena that they just built, but I am not for sure. Does anybody know? This is on the far west side of the fairgrounds.



Construction on the new horse barn



A different view of the barn



The front side of the barn.

There is all kinds of construction going on at the fairgrounds. Things are looking real good.

[ETL]

Are there plans to UPDATE the space needle?

Thanks for the pics! The fair is looking better already!

[Patrick]

Are there plans to UPDATE the space needle?

Thanks for the pics! The fair is looking better already!

Nope. They determined that the space needle was in pretty good shape.

[ETL]

Well, when you ride it, it sure don't sound like it!

[SoonerDave]

What happened to the State Fair?

Skip Wegner happened to the State Fair, who was brought in from Texas to head the thing a few years back. His primary objective was to reinvent the fair as the State Fair of Texas - North. The exhibit halls, everything, even the names of the buildings - all cloned from the Fair in Dallas. He proceeded to decimate the thing; only after it was too late did people realize what he had done to the fair did people get frustrated and irrirated enough to start complaining publicly. Once they did, Wegner quit and went back to Texas.

The fair was an Oklahoma special until Wegner screwed it up. He chased out a bunch of the traditional vendors with rent increases, tore out the cannas and other flowers throughout the grounds, and even though he left, the momentum behind his other plans persisted - most notably the destruction of the monorail. The Made in Oklahoma building was one of my favorite buildings, and Wegner "reconceptualized" it into this idiotic Agricultural-on-LSD exhibit, and now many of those other vendors simply don't come anymore.

The fair truly is a shell of its former self. For me, the fair was always a rite of fall passage, and sometimes we'd even go more than once. You could get discount tickets at virtually every grocery store in town. Now they've just turned it into a money-grab; minimal discounts only at certain venues if you buy well before the fair. It wasn't always this way, folks.

I still go to the fair, but not with the enthusiasm I did when I was younger, and I lament the fact that my kids know the fair only as it is today, not as it was even as recently as a decade ago.

Alas. Rant mode off.

-SoonerDave

[ETL]

Well, what are the plans of the people running the show now?

[metro]

man you get to see all the latest 80's fashion at the fair...gotta go

We do the walk around, eat, drink and get the hells outta there technique

Well if that's the case, I guess that's a good sign. 80's fashion is the in thing for this season

[Easy180]

metro...guess you are right, but lets hope the mullet never gets back in style...who knew the Okla state fairgoers may be on the leading edge of fashion : )

[SoonerDave]

Well, what are the plans of the people running the show now?

That's a darned fine question. At the moment, their primary concern apparently is the horse barn project. I don't know if this "master vision" that had been laid out and partially implemented is still in the offing, or if it is all on hold. The refinishing of what was (and, I guess, is once again) the "International" building was an example of how they planned to redo the rest of the buildings, and to an extent I guess they've extended that theme color/paintwise to the new horse barns. As for what they plan to do with the fair in general in its half-mangled condition, I don't know. Unfortunately, you can't unring many of the bells Wegner trashed during his Reign of Error.

If it were up to me, I'd instantly abolish the pseudo-Disney "Agtropolis" nonsense in what's now termed "The Oklahoma Expo" (gag), formerly "Made in Oklahoma" and get some of the vendors back in there that made the place so attractive and crowded. They've jammed so much junk in the "foyer" area of that building such that you can barely breathe.

I lost count of the number of vendors who told me that they think the fair is kinda dying because of the changes, not that it would necessarily cease to exist literally, but that so much harm had been done to it that it will take a lot of care and planning to bring it back. I used to love to go to the Junior Hospitality booth in the ol' Balloon Building and get submarine sandwiches; but not anymore - Wegner chased them out, too. And the Hobbies, Arts, and Crafts building has *maybe* 30% of the exhibits it once had - and it's no accident, I'm sure, that the layout is strikingly like a similar exhibit hall at the State Fair in Dallas.

The theme from the people I talked to was pretty simple - the "new guy" running the fair was pretty much running roughshod over everyone, and if they didn't like the new booth prices/arrangements, tough, and of course the rental went sky-high and priced many such vendors out - a necessary consequence of having reduced the number of exhibits in so many of the buildings.

I always thought the monorail was a wonderfully distinctive and unique presence at our fair, and that's gone. Heck, the local TV stations don't make as big a push at the fair as they once did. The frustrating part is that it was all so unnecessary - under the umbrella of necessary fixups, such as adding/revamping bathrooms and infrastructure items, they just gutted the rest of the fair in the process.

How would I plan the Fair? First, get back to our roots - change the name back to "State Fair of Oklahoma," not "Oklahoma State Fair." And stop calling the place "Fair Park," (like they do in Dallas), and go back to calling it the "State Fairgrounds." Stop any planned demolition and get the physical plant organized such that it can be relandscaped, and try (if possible) to bring back some of the fountains that Wegner mothballed. Then, start getting discount tickets back in just about every retail outlet in town, and make them available THROUGHOUT the fair. Make people feel *welcome*. Let them know you want their *business*, not just their *money*.

That gives you a baseline from which you can start planning forward. Once you get back to a new baseline, increase the vendor count, drop the rent, and BEG some of those hearty, traditional souls to come back. Unfortunately, you can't undo the damage of trashing the monorail. It's gone forever, and that's an absolute travesty. I'm amazed they didn't try to justify knocking down the space needle.

I'm no fair planning genius, but it seems to me that if you bring back the things that attracted the masses in the first place, they might start coming back. You can energize the fair with a nice fresh mix of new ideas, but you don't blast the whole thing apart from inside out and then wonder why people stop coming...

-SoonerDave