Park Profile
parkworld-online.com
Everything’s bigger in Texas especially
the food! Visitors to the State Fair of Texas have often ranked food – and we’re
talking fried food – as one of the top reasons for attending, up there along with the amusement rides and other activities. Nine years ago, organisers implemented the Big Tex Choice Awards, sparking a friendly food fight among concessionaires. Best taste for 2013 went to the Deep Fried Cuban Roll, comprising slow cooked pork shoulder, chopped ham, pickles and a secret sauce spread onto a slice of Swiss cheese, rolled up in pastry dough The winner of ‘most creative’ was the Fried Thanksgiving Dinner! Here’s some of the other weird, wonderful and award-winning foods that have been blocking the arteries of State Fair visitors:
2005 Most Creative Fried Ice Cream
2005 Best Taste
Fried Jelly & Banana Sandwich
2006 Most Creative Fried Coke
2006 Best Taste Fried Praline Perfection
2007 Most Creative Deep Fried Latte
2007 Best Taste Texas Fried Cookie Dough
2008 Most Creative Fried Banana Split
2008 Best Taste Chicken Fried Bacon
2009 Most Creative Deep Fried Butter
2009 Best Taste Fried Peaches & Cream
2010 Most Creative Fried Beer
2010 Best Taste Fried Fritos Pie
2011 Most Creative Fried Bubblegum
2011 Best Taste Buffalo Chicken in Flapjack
2012 Most Creative Deep Fried Jambalaya
2012 Best Taste Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll 52
the open areas we created water attractions. The other challenge was to transform the older ’carney’ look into a softer, theme park feel. We used lots of greens and blues, quiet and cool colours. Also we had to create an aura of safety, so we gated it.”
An existing advantage that Summer Adventures had is Dallas’ bus and light rail access to the front gate of Fair Park, but it didn’t quite take off for opening year. “During the fair the public transportation accounts for 45% of our audience. But for Summer Adventures it was only 10%.”
Even so, Summer Adventures’ 2013 debut from 4 May until 18 August was encouraging. Of course, Errol’s Alma mater, Six Flags Over Texas, is a mere 15 miles away, but Summer Adventures is making no Davidian attempt to compete with Goliath. “There’s no way we would even consider competing with Six Flags. In fact, our marketing is just zero to 10 miles outside of Dallas. We believe we’re creating a unique offering for families with young children, with softer, family-friendly rides and attractions. That’s our unique offering.” As part of the relaxing environment, Summer Adventures has cabanas available for families to rest and picnic during the day. “That actually came out of necessity. We had all of these game tents from the State Fair that we didn’t want to move, so we used 21 tents as cabanas for Summer Adventures. It was very little cost to us. We also thought there may be a market for a high end type of cabana with air conditioning, so we bought four Airstream trailers, and those were very popular.”
Another challenge for Summer Adventures is its choice of rides, having the State Fair to consider, and particularly the three travelling shows that bring in an additional 80 rides. “Summer Adventures and State Fair are two completely different products, and we’re necessarily keeping them separate. Except for three big rides and our Windstorm coaster (Pinfari), all of Summer Adventures’ flat rides will be removed during the run of the fair.”
The three big rides include one that opened for the
Texas Sesquicentennial Celebration, the Texas Star (from the now defunct Italian manufacturer SDC), which at 212ft is currently the tallest Ferris Wheel in North America. In 2008 the 40-gondola Texas Skyway cable car opened from Doppelmeyer to transport guests from Big Tex Square, the hub of Fair Park, to the rear of the amusement area. The third big ride was new for Summer Adventures’ opening this year.
Windstorm, by Pinfari
“What we try to do is create rides that are bigger than life, such as the Texas Star,” notes McKoy. “Most World’s Fairs have a big Ferris Wheel, a gondola ride, and a big space needle, so I felt that the third ride that would round out the offer was an observation tower. In fact in 1936 we held the World’s Fair, and that’s where our larger-than-life, highly designed buildings came from. We decided on a 500ft air-conditioned Super Gyro tower from Intamin, which we opened this summer as the Top O’ Texas Tower. While Summer Adventures’ 2013 opening was successful, Errol has identified its challenges. “It was hard to sell the season pass because no one knew yet what the park was. So our biggest challenge now is to do a better job building awareness, and getting people to ride the light rail to get here. The product itself worked great, so there’ll be no changes there. Overall, we’ve giving it three-years to get the park up and profitable.”
In the meantime, the Texas State Fair continues to be, indeed, “the best state fair in our state.” Errol says, “We promote it all year long, it’s such a huge product and has such a huge market. We have visitation from all 50 US states and 16 foreign countries. It’s the biggest state fair in the world. We present musicals, college football games, the largest car show in the nation; it’s more of a World’s Fair than it is a state fair.” Since 1952, the Texas State Fair’s iconic greeter has been a 52ft (16m) tall cowboy named Big Tex. Though damaged by an electrical fire in October, 2012, Big Tex is now back greeting visitors, as big and Texan as ever.
fairparkfun.com
Gary Kyriazi is the author of The Great American Amusement Parks, and the writer/producer of America Screams, the first pictorial history and television special about American amusement parks. He has been a researcher and historian on American amusement parks for 40 years. Summer Adventures reopens on 6 June, 2014.
NOVEMBER 2013
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