Louisiana State Fair Packs In Agriculture, Entertainment And Fried Butter!

This year, the Louisiana State Fair brings in a bevy of entertainment Oct. 24 through Nov. 10 to the Louisiana State Fairgrounds. Entertainment includes a high-diving act, a safari zoo, a Vietnam War exhibit, more than 60 carnival rides, all types of food vendors, a livestock show and much more.

The fair was formed by a group of leading residents in the Northwest Louisiana region so farmers and ranchers would have a place to showcase their products and livestock and learn about the agriculture industry.

“The roots of the fair are in agriculture,” Chris Girodano, fair president and general manager, said. “To this day, we still bring in the largest livestock show and carnival midway in the state. There are 4-H and Future Farmers of America exhibitors that come here each year from just about every parish, and competitors for the open livestock shows travel in from all over the country, as well.”

The fair is recognized by the state Legislature as the official state fair of Louisiana and a nonprofit organization. The mission of the state fair is to promote the industrial and agricultural resources of Louisiana while offering a better quality of life for its residents through the education and entertainment offered by the fair.

“One of our biggest successes has been that we have been able to continue to focus on agriculture and education,” Girodano said.

LSU AgCenter offers its educational AgMagic exhibit in the Agriculture Building. This interactive, hands-on learning experience ran for four years at the fair and allows visitors to link the food and fiber products we use every day to the forests, field crops and livestock produced by Louisiana farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. AgMagic also offers forestry and insect exhibits.

Celebrating its 107th year, the state fair has been in existence since 1906 and grows from a budget of about $10,000 to a budget of about $3 million. According to a LSU Center for Business and Economic Research study the fair brought in about 431,000 people last year.

“Financially, the carnival produces a lot of the funding for the fair, and that allows us to offer so much of the free family attractions that are included in gate admission, and we’ve upped the ante a little bit this year with some more exhibits and entertainment,” Girodano said.

Some of those attractions include the Ultimate Safari Zoo, consisting of a four-acre spread of live giraffes, camels, zebras, horses, tigers and petting zoo animals, as well as events in the zoo such as pig races and the tiger encounter show.

New this year to the zoo is the “Granpa Cratchet Puppet Show,” billed as the longest-running and most successful puppet show in the special events industry.

Visitors can also partake of Circus Hollywood, a full-blown circus under the big top, featuring Penguins of the Arctic, a high-dive show; an aquarium shark show that includes live shark feedings; and “Boots and Britches,” a comedy family show that brings country songs and philosophy to town in the form of Sheriff Britches and Deputy Boots, two old cowboys hoofing it around the prairie in a 1923 Model-T “Dream Camper.”

Also, the Clown of Many Faces is back painting faces and making balloon animals; Dallas the Fire Guy juggles and eats fire; the Extreme Break Dancers do their routines in the streets; and Nick the Escape Artist will get out of chains and a straightjacket.

Another new exhibit is “Through the Eyes,” a traveling collection of memorabilia from both the Vietnam War and the home front, including combat photographs, weapons and ammo and more than 2,000 other items and memorabilia.

The fair has been through some ups and downs over the years, of course – the grounds have changed; there used to be an auto racetrack, but that grandstand was torn down in 1985.

The carnival midway is run by Crabtree Amusements for a second year, and about 50 commercial exhibitors sell products, as well.

“The carnival rides are one of the main reasons a lot of people come to the fair, of course, even though the industry has historically had a little bit of a bad rap,” Girodano said. “They’ve come a long way in the last decades, however, and are working more to emulate amusement parks.”

During the first weekend, the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum offers a Seniors Expo with health screenings, games and services from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 24; Oct. 26, there will be a state fair cheerleading competition by Spirit Cheerleading, one of the fair’s biggest events that brings in more than 1,000 cheerleaders and their families; and Oct. 27 will be baton and dance line championships.

Dirt gets tossed around the coliseum in the second weekend for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-sanctioned pro rodeo, which will pit cowboys against livestock to determine who will move on to the national finals in December in Las Vegas, and Nov. 3 offers a Hispanic rodeo which brings in bull riding and live Hispanic bands.

“These aren’t like American rodeos, where guys ride for eight seconds and then get off,” Girodano said. “Here, they ride until either they fall off or the bull gives up.”

The midway is full of food vendors offering the standards such as gumbo and jambalaya along with adventurous edibles such as fried butter, chocolatecovered bacon, stuffed cucumbers, gatoron-a-stick, fried cookie dough and cricket pizza with real crickets.

The fair offers some incentives such as free fair days Wednesdays through Fridays, when it’s free to attend the fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“We do that partly to allow school field trips to come out and see the show and learn about agriculture, and we also get a lot of seniors groups and just folks who might be on a tight budget otherwise,” Girodano said.

Every Wednesday is half-price, too.

Gate admission and carnival armbands are both half price, meaning the normal prices of $10 and $30, respectively, will be reduced to a total of just $20.

The fair opens at 10 a.m. on weekdays, and the carnival opens at noon; and on weekends, the carnival and fair both open at 10 a.m.

Dollar Thursdays are back for all three Thursdays. At that time it will be just $1 to park, $1 for admission and $1 for each carnival ride.

The Shreveport Classic college football game Oct. 26 features the Prairie View A&M University Panthers versus the Jackson State Tigers at 4 p.m., and a ticket to the game gets one into the fair, as well.

Oct. 27 is Hispanic Heritage Day and features a beauty pageant and lowrider car show, plus mariachis, Latin food vendors, dancers and a headliner band, La Tropa Vallenata.

On the final day, Nov. 10, the fair salutes veterans’ and military and their families, active and retired by giving them free passes to the fair, and at 2 p.m. there will be a parade down the midway featuring high school bands, ROTC groups and more. A veteran’s recognition program will follow at the Shreveport Boys and Girls Club honoring a dozen or so local veterans.

For more information on the fair go to the website www.statefairoflouisiana. com, or call 635-1361. •