10th Most Favorite Thing About the State Fair of Texas: Creative Arts Contests
A State Fair simply wouldn’t be a State Fair without a little friendly competition. Whether you’re trucking the largest pig in the state to a livestock contest, pitching a softball to take out a pyramid of bottles, or stacking up your favorite photograph or piece of crochet against the best of the best, you quickly discover that having the opportunity to tote a beautiful blue ribbon or an oversized stuffed panda with you as you visit your favorite food vendors is a simply irresistible prospect.
I do not personally own or raise any livestock, and I’m an utter disaster at Midway games, so I’ve chosen to work specifically in the Creative Arts realm. Many people don’t realize that this particular department of the Fair (housed in the Creative Arts building) not only holds a contest EVERY DAY of the Fair, but beforehand as well. (You need only enter the Creative Arts Building to see the winners of the pre-Fair contests, which are displayed on every bit of available space inside.)
I have found over the years that the Creative Arts staff and volunteers are one of the best reasons to keep coming back. They are a jolly bunch, and organizing 200 entries on pie or cake contest day so that the expertly-selected panel of judges can quickly select their winners is no easy task! Neither is corraling the sometimes-unruly or impatient entrants. The staff and volunteers keep things exciting for EVERY contest, throughout the Fair. Just look at the whirl of activity pictured here on pie contest day last year (no, I did not take this photo, but I chose it because it DOES prominently feature two of my FAVORITE Fair friends… a happy accident).
The Creative Arts Crew are constantly happy and enthusiastic about all things Fair-related, but I imagine that they must look forward with greatest anticipation to the annual SPAM cooking contest. Yes, you read that correctly. It takes some serious talent in the kitchen to make SPAM into a thing of beauty, and the Crew takes this particular contest very seriously. They not only spend the day wearing special SPAM t-shirts, hats, pins, etc., but they also start off the events of the morning by singing a special SPAM Contest song (which I scoured the internets in an effort to find — my lack of success has made me despondent so I will absolutely figure out a way to get video this year).
The MAIN reason to visit the Creative Arts Building, of course, is to actually enter a contest. I personally got hooked 7 years ago. During that particular Fair, I entered two contests and won two ribbons:
I took second place in the Birthday category of the now-defunct “Ugliest Decorated Cake Contest” and first place in the (also now-defunct) “Wild and Crazy Hat Contest.” The hat entry, in particular, was not terribly well-crafted or thought-out, but it was somewhat clever (and I believe it was also the ONLY submission in its particular category), so it earned me a spot in a local TV news interview profiling Creative Arts winners. I knew I would be a Creative Arts participant for life when the interviewer looked at my hat, looked at me, and said straight into the camera, “I can’t believe THAT won.” She was right, of course. I couldn’t believe it either. But that’s part of the beauty of Creative Arts contests — you just never know.
The next year, I won Best of Show for the “Ugliest Decorated Cake,” taking home a beautiful purpley ribbon and retiring the contest forever. Alas, too few people had taken the time to construct and enter ugly cakes over the years (a phenomenon I still cannot understand, given the popularity of this), so it could not continue. In my book, a small number of entries is a GOOD thing (fewer entries mean a better chance of winning), but everyone did not share my opinion.
Since then, I’ve played the odds. I enter the Glue-A-Shoe Competition on Opening Day almost every year (further explanation will follow — Glue-A-Shoe deserves a post all its own), and then I pick and choose other contests to enter throughout the Fair. What’s tricky is the fact that ALL of the other contests require the entrants to cook something. As far these competitions are concerned, I would say that it’s best, if you’re still a little tentative about the whole cooking thing, to simply steer clear of the contests featuring big cash prizes — those are for REAL cooks, people who spend all year working on their recipes.
Funny thing is… it’s all kind of like the Lottery — if you take the time to enter, you might just possibly earn yourself a prize (unless your food happens to make one of the judges sick).
I can very honestly tell you that I have absolutely NO particular skill in either crafting or cooking. But just look at all the ribbons I’ve amassed over the years:*
I know. I’m still shocked by it.
*Honorable Mention ribbons not pictured.
Great story, and great that my picture of the pie jury was useful. A first time visitor to the State Fair from a comparatively rural area in Germany, I loved the creative arts contests, livestock shows and many more features that I would not have expected to find in a metropolis like Dallas at all. I also did not really expect to find a monstrous SUV vehicle labelled “Green Car of the Year” and to be able to buy a “deep-fried capuccino” to my “deep-fried icecream” after my corny dog (also new to me and an instant favourite: sausage on a stick!). I hear this year’s hit is “deep-fried butter”. Yummy!
AndreasPraefcke said this on September 16, 2009 at 6:04 pm |