The Great New York State Fair starts today! Did you know it was the very first state fair in the country? It started in 1841 in Syracuse, and that first year had an estimated attendance of 10,000-15,000. The success of the New York State Fair inspired other states to follow suit and it wasn’t long before state fairs started popping up all over the country.
The first butter sculpture at a state fair was displayed at the Ohio State Fair in 1903. Butter sculpting’s heyday was from about 1890 to 1930. During this time, refrigeration became widely available and the dairy industry started promoting butter sculptures as a way to compete against synthetic butter substitutes. Originally, these sculptures were made from up to 880 pounds of butter, but today sculptors often start with a frame made from wood and wire instead of solid butter.
Each state fair showcases the unique agriculture and cultural traditions of the region. And some are a little more unique than others! Alaska’s state fair is famous for its record-setting giant vegetables. In 2012, a grower entered a 138-pound cabbage, which not only took first place in the Giant Cabbage Weigh-Off, but also set a new world record!
The Minnesota State Fair has the largest daily attendance, averaging just under 200,000 people per day. County Dairy Princesses from around the state compete for the title Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and the winner is immortalized with a statue of her face carved in butter.
The largest attendance is the State Fair of Texas, which attracts over 2.5 million visitors every year, Big Tex, a 55-foot tall cowboy has been the fair’s symbol since 1952. Every year, the “Big Tex” awards are given out to the most creative fair foods. This year’s finalists include Texas Sugar Rush Pickles (cotton candy flavored pickle slices coated in Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, and Cap’n Crunch, layered in cotton candy, cotton candy sugar crystals, and powdered sugar, then topped with strawberry sundae syrup), Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick (exactly what it sounds like), and Strawberry Pop-Tarts Beignettfle (a combo of beignets, waffles, and strawberry pop-tarts, on a stick of course).
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