50 free State fair trivia questions with answers. State fairs are where America goes to eat something on a stick, watch a 1,400-pound boar get weighed and argue about who really invented the corn dog. This quiz covers the whole midway: the first state fair in 1841, the giants in Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and New York, the butter sculptures, the blue ribbons, the demolition derbies and the rides. You will find the origins of cotton candy and the Ferris wheel, what the four H's in 4-H stand for, which state runs two official state fairs, and how the county fair scene in Charlotte's Web actually ends. There is a stretch of easy crowd-pleasers, then the questions get harder for the people who have been to more than one Big Tex Choice Awards. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia, official fair websites or other primary sources before it went in, so you can play it at a fair-themed party or trivia night without worrying about a wrong answer sneaking through.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which state held the first U.S. state fair, back in 1841?
New York
That first fair drew crowds for two days in September and has been held annually ever since. It still ends on Labor Day.
Q 02In which upstate city was that first 1841 state fair held?
Syracuse
The fair moved around for decades before a land company donated a 100-acre tract next door in Geddes in 1890.
Q 03State fairs were originally created in the 1800s to promote what?
Agriculture
The early fairs were competitive livestock exhibitions and farm-product displays; the rides, concerts and fried food came much later.
Q 04Which state's fair drew the largest total attendance in the U.S., more than 2.5 million people in 2019?
Texas
The fair runs 24 days in Dallas, which helps it rack up the biggest overall gate even though a smaller fair beats it on average daily crowds.
Q 05Which state fair has the highest average attendance per day, at just under 200,000 people?
Minnesota
The fair in Falcon Heights crams its crowds into twelve days ending on Labor Day, which is why its daily average tops everyone else.
Q 06How tall is Big Tex, the cowboy statue that greets visitors to the State Fair of Texas?
55 feet
The current version weighs 25,000 pounds and is engineered to stand in 100-mph winds without guy wires.
Q 07Before he became a cowboy in Dallas, the original Big Tex figure was built in Kerens, Texas, as what?
A Santa Claus
The 49-foot Santa was made from iron drill casing to lure Christmas shoppers to the small town, and Kerens still calls itself the Birthplace of Big Tex.
Q 08What happened to the original Big Tex on October 19, 2012?
He was destroyed by a fire
The blaze started in an electrical panel under his right boot and consumed the statue within minutes. A new Big Tex debuted the following September.
Q 09Fletcher's, a State Fair of Texas fixture for decades, is famous for which food?
Corny dogs
Brothers Carl and Neil Fletcher introduced them at the fair sometime between 1938 and 1942, one of several rival claims to inventing the corn dog.
Q 10The Red River Rivalry, played each year at the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair, pits Texas against which school?
Oklahoma
The stadium sits inside Fair Park, so fans walk past the midway and Big Tex on the way to their seats.
Q 11The Texas Star Ferris wheel, which debuted at the 1985 State Fair of Texas, was built in which country?
Italy
SDC Corp. built it in Reggio Emilia for $2.2 million and shipped it to Dallas, where it stayed the tallest wheel in North America until 2013.
Q 12Which creation won Most Creative at the State Fair of Texas Big Tex Choice Awards in 2010?
Deep fried butter
The contest has crowned fried food since 2005, when a fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich took Best Taste.
Q 13Abel Gonzales Jr. introduced Fried Coke at which state fair in 2006?
Texas
The frozen Coca-Cola-flavored batter is deep fried and then topped with Coke syrup, whipped cream and a cherry, at roughly 830 calories a cup.
Q 21Which is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written directly for the movies rather than the stage?
State Fair
It finally reached Broadway in 1996, padded out with songs borrowed from other Rodgers and Hammerstein shows.
Q 22The 1962 remake of State Fair moved the story from Iowa to which state?
Texas
Pat Boone and Ann-Margret starred, and the family drives through Dallas, where the real fair is held.
Q 23How much does the block of butter carved into Princess Kay of the Milky Way's likeness weigh?
90 pounds
The dairy princess poses for several hours, and each of the finalists gets her own butter head too.
Q 14The Iowa State Fair's famous butter cow has been sculpted every year since what year?
1911
J.K. Daniels carved the first one; it lives in the Agricultural Building and is joined each year by a companion sculpture on a new theme.
Q 15The first Iowa State Fair, staged in Fairfield in 1854, was run on what budget?
$323
The fair has been on its permanent Des Moines fairgrounds since 1886 and drew a record 1,182,682 people in 2024.
Q 16How long do candidates get on the Des Moines Register Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair?
20 minutes
The soapbox is a rite of passage before the caucuses, and hecklers are part of the deal.
Q 17Finnegan, who set the Iowa State Fair Big Boar record in 2024, weighed in at what?
1,420
The crossbred boar beat the previous record by 85 pounds. The fair also runs contests for the biggest ram, bull and rabbit.
Q 18Iowa's Butter Cow Lady, Norma 'Duffy' Lyon, also carved a butter version of which artwork?
The Last Supper
Her other butter subjects included Elvis Presley, John Wayne, Garth Brooks and a Harley-Davidson before she retired in 2006.
Q 19In the 1932 novel State Fair, what kind of animal is the Frakes' prize entry Blue Boy?
A hog
The book spawned three films and a Broadway show; Blue Boy is a Hampshire, a breed known for its white belt.
Q 20Which song from the 1945 musical film State Fair won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?
It Might as Well Be Spring
Jeanne Crain's character sings it while moping around the farm before the family leaves for the fair.
Q 24Sweet Martha's, a legendary state fair stand in Falcon Heights, sells what by the bucket?
Chocolate chip cookies
The buckets are served warm and overflowing, and regulars pair them with all-you-can-drink milk from a nearby stand.
Q 25The New York State Fair's Dairy Products Building bar sold a record 403,189 cups of what in 2012?
Milk
The building also houses an 800-pound butter sculpture, a tradition at the fair since 1969.
Q 26What pastry, sold since 1924, is the Wisconsin State Fair's most popular food?
Cream puffs
The Wisconsin Bakers Association runs the bakery in the Dairy Building, and the treat celebrated its 100th fair in 2024.
Q 27The first butter cow ever displayed at a state fair appeared in 1903 at which state's fair?
Ohio
A.T. Shelton & Company, distributors of Sunbury Creamery Butter, sculpted a cow and calf; the fair still unveils a new companion sculpture each year.
Q 28The first Ohio State Fair, in October 1850, was held at Camp Washington in which city?
Cincinnati
The fair had been planned for 1849 but a cholera outbreak forced a delay, and autumn dates were chosen to lessen the risk.
Q 29Raleigh's Dorton Arena was the first building in the world to use what?
A cable-supported roof
Its saddle-shaped roof hangs in tension between two parabolic concrete arches, a design that inspired arenas from Yale to Tokyo.
Q 30Besides Cal Expo in Sacramento, where is California's only other remaining monorail?
Disneyland
The Sacramento monorail was designed by Swiss firm Habegger and built in 1968, the year the fair moved to Cal Expo.