analyzed<\/a> review volume and ratings from fairgoers across the country.<\/p>\nYelp identified state fairs with a high concentration of reviews mentioning food and ranked them based on the number and quality of those reviews. Collectively, the top 10 fairs generated more than 2,500 Yelp reviews, with 81% specifically highlighting food as a major attraction.<\/p>\n
Texas Fair Food Tradition Earns National Recognition<\/p>\n
Yelp credited the State Fair of Texas as the birthplace of Fletcher\u2019s Original Corny Dog, which debuted at the fair in 1942, as well as Fritos, first introduced there in 1936.<\/p>\n
The fair also earned recognition for its annual Big Tex Choice Awards, a competition known for showcasing inventive fair foods that have included fried Coke, deep-fried butter, fried beer, and other unconventional creations.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s bigger in Texas, including the fair food legacy,\u201d Yelp wrote in its rankings. \u201cThe portions are massive, the flavors are bold, and the whole experience is very, very Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Yelp reviewer praised the fair\u2019s extensive food offerings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe food\u2026 Oh man, the food,\u201d the reviewer wrote. \u201cThere\u2019s so many options that you can snag a free booklet of all the food that there is here. Many fair classics, plus a lot of crazy things that you\u2019ll never find anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recognition comes as anticipation builds for this year\u2019s Big Tex Choice Awards, with finalists for the 2026 competition expected to be announced this week.<\/p>\n
Midwest Dominates Food Rankings<\/p>\n
While Texas secured a top-10 finish, the Midwest dominated Yelp\u2019s rankings, claiming four of the top five spots.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota State Fair ranked first, followed by the Wisconsin State Fair, Iowa State Fair, New York State Fair, and Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.<\/p>\n
Yelp said reviewers consistently praised portable foods served \u201con a stick\u201d and increasingly creative deep-fried dishes as defining features of the country\u2019s best fairs.<\/p>\n
The complete rankings are:<\/p>\n
\n- Minnesota State Fair \u2014 Saint Paul, Minnesota<\/li>\n
- Wisconsin State Fair \u2014 West Allis, Wisconsin<\/li>\n
- Iowa State Fair \u2014 Des Moines, Iowa<\/li>\n
- New York State Fair \u2014 Syracuse, New York<\/li>\n
- Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center \u2014 Indianapolis, Indiana<\/li>\n
- State Fair of Texas \u2014 Dallas, Texas<\/strong><\/li>\n
- The Big E \u2014 West Springfield, Massachusetts<\/li>\n
- Florida State Fairgrounds \u2014 Tampa, Florida<\/li>\n
- Alaska State Fair \u2014 Palmer, Alaska<\/li>\n
- North Carolina State Fair \u2014 Raleigh, North Carolina<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Yelp said its rankings were based on businesses in festival-related categories with a large concentration of reviews mentioning fair food, using both review volume and ratings to determine the final order.<\/p>\n
The 2026 State Fair of Texas<\/a> runs from September 25 through October 18.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fletcher’s Original Corny Dog in foreground, Big Tex in background | Image by Trinh T\/Yelp The State Fair…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":977070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,392145,392144,1596,392143,392142,7348,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,25421,392146],"class_list":["post-977069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-best-state-fair-food","tag-big-tex-choice-awards","tag-dallas","tag-fair-food-rankings","tag-festival-food","tag-state-fair-of-texas","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-yelp","tag-yelp-top-state-fairs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117029579240943846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977069","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=977069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}