Texas State Fair Will Be Drive-Thru Event Due To Coronavirus

Those who were hoping to attend the Texas State Fair this year will need to change their plans a bit, as the event won’t be going on the way people may be accustomed to due to the Coronavirus.

According to WFAA, an ABC affiliate station, the fair has been rescheduled after the annual 24-day exhibition event was canceled in July, but is rebranding at a “Big Tex Fair Food Drive-Thru.”

The new event, which begins on Sept. 19, will see different drive-thru experiences featuring the food that makes the fair famous, as well as opportunities to take a photo with the iconic “Big Tex,” who, in accordance with the pandemic, will be wearing a face mask. Those wishing to attend the event can start buying tickets at 10 a.m. on Sept. 2.

In order to comply with social distancing regulations, only a limited number of tickets will be sold, with entry windows between 10 a.m.- 1 p.m., 1 p.m.-5 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. Two food and photo packages will be sold for prices ranging from $65-$99, and tickets for a photo-only drive-through experience on Sept. 19 and 20 will be $25. The other packages are available for Sept. 25-27, Oct. 2-4, Oct. 9-12 and Oct. 15-18. Add-ons including corny dogs and turkey legs will also cost between $10 and $24.

The Texas State Fair wasn’t the only one affected by the ongoing pandemic. In July, the organizers of the North Carolina State Fair announced that the event, which usually runs in October, was not going to be run this year because it was impossible to do so while also following safety guidelines.

Other canceled events included the New York State Fair, Iowa State Fair and Wisconsin State Fair, as well as The Big E, a Massachusetts based event which brings together all six New England states.

Meanwhile, Minnesota, which is doing a drive-thru fair as well, experienced issues with their website when it came time to sell tickets for the event, as traffic to the site came at an unexpected volume, preventing some people from being able to access the site.