{"id":331229,"date":"2025-10-25T09:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331229\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:23:13","slug":"state-fair-prices-need-to-come-down-and-the-fair-knows-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331229\/","title":{"rendered":"State Fair prices need to come down, and the fair knows it"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now you\u2019ve seen the headlines or read something on social media or had the thought yourself as you took part in our beloved annual tradition of the State Fair of Texas. <\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s expensive.<\/a><\/p>\n

Prices at the fair have been the talk of this town this season, and we agree that it\u2019s something to be concerned about, even in a world where prices are going up everywhere. <\/p>\n

The fair probably gets more focus because it comes around once a year, and it\u2019s an event where you actually can add up the dollars spent ticket by ticket. <\/p>\n

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In real dollars, the average cost of attending the fair has gone down since 2019, according to the fair chief finance officer. But that\u2019s not how it feels after parking, tickets, food, rides and games that have grown in cost.<\/p>\n

State Fair President Mitchell Glieber is keenly aware of the concern. In a discussion with us, he said it has been keeping him up nights, and we take him at his word. Fair leadership is treating prices as the top issue right now, he said. <\/p>\n

The fair has always been hands off when it comes to reviewing vendor prices, he said. That is likely to change. <\/p>\n

Yes, vendors are paying more for everything from food to supplies to labor. But that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t opportunities to look at pricing and ask whether vendors can trim margins or otherwise find some savings for fairgoers. Another possibility is to seek out new vendors offering similar quality at lower prices. Concession vendors are deeply entwined in the fair\u2019s tradition and many have been there for generations. We believe they need to be part of the solution. <\/p>\n

Ride prices are another place where we would like to see the fair rein in pricing. Apart from labor costs, rides should represent more stable pricing than food. But ride prices have reached a point where a small family has to really sacrifice to do more than one or two.<\/p>\n

Glieber said everything is on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have discussions around [prices] and how we can better work with our vendors to make sure that, at the end of the day, the prices that they\u2019re putting out there are reasonable, acceptable and affordable for all and still allow them to be able to make money and do business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fair attendance was down significantly this year,<\/a> and that isn\u2019t good for anybody. The fair is not only the best community tradition we have in this region, it\u2019s a major economic engine for South Dallas and Fair Park. Many factors appear to have played a role in lower attendance, but we have to believe that as many people tighten their belts in this economy, pricing is a consideration.<\/p>\n

The fair does have many low- and no-cost options. <\/a>But going to the fair and enjoying similar experiences is part of the fun and sense of community. We are confident that with some hard work and thoughtful approaches, prices can come down and attendance can rise in 2026.<\/p>\n

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and <\/b>submit your letter here<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at <\/b>letters@dallasnews.com<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By now you\u2019ve seen the headlines or read something on social media or had the thought yourself as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":331230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14841,6083,18367,266,14053,7348,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-331229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-hall","11":"tag-editorials","12":"tag-fair-park","13":"tag-inflation","14":"tag-south-dallas","15":"tag-state-fair-of-texas","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-tx","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115434081774868494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}