Our First Fair: The Tulsa State Fair in Tulsa, Oklahoma

“Oh no! I forgot to ask for a ribbon!”

Yes, I’m 37.

No, I didn’t “need” a ribbon. But did I want one? Heck Yeah!! I saw a little boy with a “My First Fair” ribbon and it was so beautiful and purple. Sigh… oh well. I’ll just have to save this blog post for posterity of “My First Fair” experience.

The Tulsa State Fair started during the second half of our nine days in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our plan was to visit on a Sunday afternoon. We’d made a friend at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa, so we asked Katie to join us for the fair. And she did! One member of the family that was not excited about the fair was Truffles, as there is a “no (non-service) dogs allowed” rule. She was barely speaking to us all morning.

With Truffles snug in her den at the Aloft Downtown Tulsa, we grabbed Katie and headed to the Tulsa State Fair. The fair’s tagline is “It’s Go Time!” which is so true for everything but the parking line.

We were in line for nearly an hour by the time we were able to park. We’d decided it was better to just pay $10 and park closer, but that meant there was a bit of a wait. I’m not sure in the end if we made the right choice by paying to park closer, but I did appreciate it when it was time to leave (after eating all the fair food) and we only had a 200 ft walk to the car from the fair entrance/exit.

Our main excitement, upon arriving at the fair, was the thought of amazing fair food and baby animals. Everything else was secondary. So we got a map and headed through the rides towards the livestock areas.

We started in a large livestock area that looked promising because it was filled with cows. Sadly, there was only one nose to pet in there. Most of the cattle in that area were participating in the show competitions. They were being judged by breed and then for best in show later in the day.

I stopped and chatted with a lovely woman who was there supporting her son-in-law as he had cattle entered in the fair. She explained the competition that was going on and honestly, if you’ve ever watched a dog show it sounds very similar. The cattle are divided according to heifers (girl cows) and bulls (boy cows). They are also divided by breed… milk, ice cream, cheese, butter, steak, burgers… just kidding! The breeding rules are very intricate and each cow is judged based on the expectations of its breed. Then the best from each breed will go up against each other for ‘Best in Show’.

I was really on the hunt for baby animals by this point. I was promised a petting zoo and a birthing center at the Tulsa State Fair and so far the only babies I’d seen were the children variety heading into Disney on Ice. We came across guest services and requested “please point me to the baby animals!” and she did.

As we entered the livestock area that was housing the petting zoo and birthing center, we found ourselves in the poultry area… arena? There were hens (girl chickens) and cocks (boy chickens) who had been judged. There were other birds further along, but we mainly chicked out the checkins… I mean checked out the chickens.

At this point we planned to make our way to the baby animals but hunger had set in. You can’t be near all the fair food well after lunchtime and not expect to feel something. So we made the choice to return to view the baby animals after spending some quality time with some tasty animals… (In case you hadn’t noticed, today’s post might not be for our vegan friends).

Stephen and Katie went for the bacon-wrapped turkey leg while I indulged in the donut-burger and sweet corn. Shout-out to Hailey from Andolini’s who recommended the donut burger – it was amazing! I’d had one before at Sassy Bass Donuts in Alabama but I’ve apparently developed a bit of a taste for them and was happy to enjoy another at the Tulsa State Fair.

We decided to wait on dessert after such a luscious lunch. Back to the livestock area for baby animals! (Finally!)

I spent a fair (ha!) amount of time in the petting zoo. Stephen got some great pictures of the animals and I attempted as many animal selfies as I could get. Animal selfies are becoming a thing with me. While these aren’t necessarily as good as my previous ones in Australia, Indianapolis and Illinois, they are pretty fun. And if nothing else, they’re fun to get because you get to gently cuddle furry creatures.

The petting zoo at the Tulsa State Fair:

Near the petting zoo was the birthing center. This was by far one of the coolest things I saw at the fair. There were sheep, goats and pigs that were due to have their litters during the fair and they were set up with mirrors so the public could watch. There were veterinarians on hand throughout the fair checking on the expectant moms and newly be-mothered animals.

There was also the hatchery which had baby chicks hatching from their eggs.

There were also rabbits near the birthing area. They were near a lot of information about veterinary programs at Oklahoma colleges and universities. I met one veterinarian, Dr. Hartfield, who is writing children’s books about veterinary medicine. 

And there were really interesting facts (i.e. pro-farm propaganda) about wheat, corn, cattle and chickens. That being said, I’m all for interesting, pro-farm propaganda facts, so I enjoyed learning a few new things.

There was so much to see at the Tulsa State Fair that the rest of the afternoon started to blur.

In the midst of all of this amazingness was the other exhibit I was excited about – the sugar sculpture competition. I didn’t know what to expect but I was blown away. There were cakes, cookies and other sugar art all throughout the River Spirit Expo Center. Here’s a *small* sampling of what we saw.

Once we’d seen all the cakes and creations as well as the vendors in the River Spirit Expo Center, it was time to focus our attention once more to the reason you come to a fair… the food. I started my dessert course with a “face cookie”. So called by me because it was… as big as my face!!!

Then we found the deep-fried goodness that we were really seeking. Stephen went with a deep-fried, bacon wrapped, salted caramel pecan pie.

While I went with deep-fried Fruity Pebbles. You can see from our choices that we have a similar interest in food but with a different taste on what makes something delicious. For the record, I’m sure mine was better.

But that’s not all. You can’t come to the fair and not play games and ride rides, right!? Stephen started off the fun with a dart game and he won me a Pikachu! Be still my stuffie loving heart.

Then we decided to all “ride” something together. The fun house looked… well fun… so we thought let’s do that together.

Rookie mistake.

We did not do our due-diligence. It was so lame.

It was finally time to head back to reality. Truffles *sulkily* awaited our return, it was moving day for us the next day and Katie had to get up early the next day to work.

On the way out I captured one final image of something I was so looking forward to at the fair. I’m sorry to start and end on a low but ugh… devastation.

This is Dizzee.

He’s the super adorable mascot for the Tulsa State Fair. And I wanted one so bad. I thought for sure they’d have Dizzee merchandise and t-shirts, but alas, they did not. Louise (Hi Louise, Keith and Macy!) from guest services in the River Spirit Expo Center even called Penny from the fair to find out where I might find a little Dizzee. She suggested Ida Red’s. It was a good suggestion since it was full of cool Tulsa stuff, but sadly they didn’t carry anything like that.

Side note: I know at some point they definitely had Dizzees because I saw a well-loved one in the cheese sculpture cooler. So Tulsa State Fair, if you wanna redeem yourself in my eyes, contact me and tell me where I can get a Dizzee.

Overall, the Tulsa State Fair was incredibly fun. Having never been to a fair, I had some preconceived ideas that mainly included a lot of overalls, pumpkin size competitions and jam. It was so much more than that. In fact, I only saw one pair of overalls all day!

Shout-out to all the guest services staff. I chatted with people from the front gate through the entire fair and back to the entrance. Everyone was friendly and knowledgeable. I’d highly recommend going to the Tulsa State Fair. It was an amazing day out.