Posts Tagged ‘2010’

On Sunday, September 19, we held the 2nd Annual Digital Photo Shoot-out.  The Shoot-out is a live contest that takes place at State Fair Park during the Oklahoma State Fair.

When participants arrive and check-in for the contest, they receive an item that must be placed in the photo that they submit for the contest.  In 2009, each person had to use a bright blue ‘I had fun at the Fair’ ribbon.  In 2010, each participant received a small stuffed farm animal.

At the end of the contest, participants check back in and upload their best photo of the day.  Staffers compile a slide show and fairgoers vote on their favorites to win.

This year’s results were hilarious! Thank goodness that this is a people’s choice contest, because we would have never been able to pick a winner.

In the adult category, congrats go out to:

1st Place – Megan Collier

2nd Place- Frances Muller

3rd Place – JoRaye Lytle

In the under 16 category, congrats go out to:

1st Place – Kyle Andrews

2nd Place – Kayla Wiggins

TIED for 3rd Place:

Bethany Belcher

and Karen Griffin

Yesterday was a historic day for us:  in addition to having a HUGE Opening Day, we survived the first phase of the 1st Annual Great Taste of a Fair!  Our fantastic panel of judges tasted and tested every single morsel that our food vendors had to offer and they deliberated for a long time to determine the winners.

2010 Great Taste of a Fair Winners

Most Unique Idea

1^st Place – Gopher Express dba Nitro Ice Cream – Nitro Vanilla Ice Cream

2^nd Place – Fire and Ice Concessions – Frozen Chocolate Covered Deep Fried Bacon

Best Presentation

1^st Place – Sweet Shop – Roast Beef Sundae

2^nd Place – Topper Concessions – Pizza Frenchee

Best Tasting

1^st Place – Coco Flow – Chocolate Bread Pudding

2^nd Place – Ragin’ Cajun/Harvell’s Cajun Chicken and Foods – Chicken On-a-stick with homemade sauce

Text Message Voting

The response to the 1st Annual Great Taste of a Fair was, in a word:  GREAT.  We had 23 different Fair foods entered.  The entries range from tried and true Fair favorites like the Poncho Dog and Cinnamon Roll to newcomers like Deep-Fried Coke and Shrimp on-a-stick.

In order to vote for the People’s Choice Award, you don’t need to taste every single item.  Picking out what you want to eat off the list of possibilities is part of the judging process!  Once you’ve sampled the fare, please take a few minutes to send us your vote.  Every participating vendor will have a sign displayed at their booth with the texting information.

To vote: Text the keyword ‘TASTE’ and the two digit number of the vendor you would like to vote for to 405-640-8648.

Sweis Restaurant/Gyros Sandwich – TASTE 01

Randy Brown’s/Fresh Strawberry Crepe  – TASTE 03

Dean O Foods/Steak On-A-Stick – TASTE 04

Topper Concessions/Pizza Frenchee - TASTE 05

Sweet Shop/Roast Beef Sundae – TASTE 06

Cajuns Unlimited/Shrimp On-A-Stick - TASTE 07

Silver Dollar Bakery/Cinnamon Roll – TASTE 08

Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees & Smoothies/Hawaiian Dreamcicle Smoothie  - TASTE 09

Diventuri/Deep-Fried Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes On-A-Stick - TASTE 10

Pretzel Dragon/Homemade Soft Pretzel – TASTE 11

O’Neil Amusements/Poncho Dog – TASTE 12

Ragin’ Cajun/Harvell’s Ragin’ Cajun Chicken On-A-Stick - TASTE 13

Tad’s Indian Tacos/Garlic Chicken Burrito – TASTE 14

Grand Slam Grill/John’ s Gumbo Vieux Carré - TASTE 15

Nitro Ice Cream/Fresh Made Vanilla Ice Cream – TASTE 16

JAK/Porky’s/Doughnut Burger – TASTE 17

Gary’s Fun Food/Frozen Chocolate-Dipped Cheesecake On-A-Stick  – TASTE 18

Fire and Ice Concessions /Chocolate-Covered Bacon – TASTE 19

Mom ‘n’ Pop/S’more Pop – TASTE 20

Layne Concessions/Deep-Fried Coke – TASTE 21

The Roadhouse/Fried Peaches - TASTE 22

OK Hosp Club/Dairy Bar/Wonder Bar  - TASTE 23

Coco Flow/Chocolate Bread Pudding – TASTE 24

One of the most anticipated Chesapeake Energy Stage performers is rising pop sensation Mitchel Musso.

How would you like to win Meet & Greet passes and VIP seating for the concert on Sunday, September 19?

Five lucky winners will receive passes that will allow you and a guest into the backstage area of the Chesapeake Energy Stage for a Meet & Greet with Mitchel plus access to the VIP seating area during the concert on Sept. 19, 2010.

Winners must be able to pick up your passes at the Administration Building at State Fair Park on Wednesday, September 15 OR you may pick them up Thursday thru Sunday at the Gate 3 ticket booth. PLEASE do not participate if you can’t pick up the passes.

Ready to find out what you have to do to be entered to win?

It’s easy:  Leave ONE comment on this blog post.  At 6 PM we will randomly select 5 winners using a random number generator.

If you don’t win passes, don’t worry.  The concert is still FREE with gate admission.  You can’t beat going to the State Fair and seeing a great concert all in the same day!

Happy commenting!

UPDATE:

To select winners for this contest, we used the Random Number Generator on this site: http://www.psychicscience.org/random.aspx

Congrats to the following lucky winners:

Jeff Karl:

this is like Willy Wonka (5 lucky winners) good luck everyone

Sabrina dunn:

My little girls are so excited to see him!! Hope it’s us!

Diana Trammell:

I am entering for my sweet Lydia to have a chance to see this wonderful show.

Amber Watts:

How fun!! My daughter would LOVE this!!

Stephanie:

I dont know anyone else in this world who loves him as much as my neice. My husband and I are going to take her to the fair this year and seeing this wounderful young star who has become a young man, would just blow her mind. SHE would love to recieve the tickets backstage. It would truly be a blessing to her an a memory she would never forget. If he has a number one fan it is her. So please pick us for backstage passes.

Have you ever shown an animal at the Fair?  Check this great guest post by an Oklahoma 4H participant!

Hello my name is Kylee, I am 14 years old and fair time is my absolute favorite time of the year.

I have been showing goats since I was 9. It has been a lot of trial and error on finding the right combination of feed and exercise for a wether goat to look his best on show day. Everyone thinks showing goats is easy, but if you do your Homework at home before arriving at the show you will agree with me when I say, “They are not easy to show and take a lot of hard work.”

One might ask what exactly do you do when working with an animal to get it ready for the fair or any show that you may be thinking of going to.

First and foremost, one must have patience and not get excited when working with the animal. They can tell when you do and they get excited too. Goats are a lot like little kids in that they try your patience and will break all the rules if allowed to do so. They are an animal of repetition and the more one works with them the better they will respond in the show ring.

I also show does; the one I have this fall is named Pebbles. She is a paint doe and has a big brown spot on her right hip. To me, she is a miniature heifer! I say this because you have to do the same thing you do with a doe that you have to do with a heifer. As my 4H agent told me, I have to train their hair to lay down by washing and drying it.

4H has made me realize that I want to be a County Agent when I get older. I love animals and working with kids and I really LOVE this time of year.

Fair time is a lot fun; yeah its hard work getting ready for the fair, but once you get there it’s a lot of fun. I like to go to eat the food (my favorite is fried cheese) and look at all the exhibits, plus show my goats.

We know that you’re waiting to find out who the ‘wild card’ judge for the 1^st Annual Great Taste of a Fair will be.  We promise to tell you who the lucky winner is, but first we have to say: WOW, y’all.  We didn’t realize what we were getting into when we started this contest, and we were blown away by everyone’s responses. 

We know that everyone loves Fair food.  It is simply part of human nature to crave things that are deep-fried.  In fact, the entire reason we held this contest in the first place is because every time we so much as mention corn dogs on our Facebook page, people go crazy and start posting comments with their favorite Fair foods.  It makes our mouths water – and we WORK here!

So, when we say that it was really hard to pick a winner, we really, really mean it.  How do you choose between this:

 “I won’t turn my nose up at one single fried thing on a stick, whether it’s Coke or bacon or shrimp or anything else the vendors have up their sleeves. I’ll gladly try just about anything, and find deep pleasure in every offering,”                   

and this:

“My palate is responsible for creating more cravings for foods than Bill Clinton had for cigars and interns. It just hasn’t gotten me in as much trouble…well other than a few pounds overweight”?

We had responses from parents: 

“I always enjoy spending time with my girls and showing them all the creative things that go on at the fair. They love the turkey legs and the funnel cakes; they have already made me promise to buy them one each this year because they say they are ‘too big to share’ anymore.”

We had responses from parents-to-be:

“We have 2 daughters that we are bringing up to be a part of our fair food loving clan. I am expecting number three so this year’s fair food is going to be a huge deal to me because I want to try it ALL. ”

We also had responses from people we can totally relate to:

“It is not uncommon for me to leave the fair completely full, having to return a second time, to get the food I missed the first time.  I have been known in the past to arrive when the fair opens, making a funnel cake my breakfast, while walking around scoping out my snack and lunch.”

But the person who stuck out in our mind as The Ultimate Fair Food Fan and our 1^st Wild Card Judge is Tammy Propeck from Oklahoma City.  Her unique response made us laugh and we are hopeful that a healthy dose of Fair food will cure her of FAIRNATACISM:

Warning….you are about to read a letter composed by a FAIRNATIC.  If you have never encountered such a crazed beast, please be advised that those who are subject to spending prolonged periods of time with a FAIRNATIC may exhibit such behaviors:  wild appetite for fried foods, a keen sense of taste and smell for fair foods, and the worst symptom of all…a craving to wear elasticized waist banded pants…BECAUSE ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS EAT FAIR FOOD!! 

I have lived with FAIRNATICISM ever since I caught it 6 years ago when I moved to Oklahoma and went to the Oklahoma State Fair for the first time.  While there is currently no cure for FAIRNATICISM, although researchers say they are VERY close to finding one, being a wild card judge for the 1^st Annual Great Taste of a Fair Contest may cure me of my symptoms… temporarily!!!  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the Oklahoma State Fair and my absolute favorite part has always been the food…although Dale K came in a very close second last year   

Honestly, I would be so honored to be a wild card judge for this premier event.  I would love nothing more than to spread my FAIRNATICISM…Oh….. Guess I forgot to mention that warning upfront…..FAIRNATICISM IS CONTAGIOUS!!

Congratulations, Tammy!  We can’t wait for you to try all the delicious goodies entered into this year’s competition.