DALLAS — The State Fair of Texas' 2023 festivities may have concluded in October, but the calories gained memories made over the course of its 24-day run will last a lifetime.
Or at least a few more news cycles, anyway!
Earlier this week, the fair's organizers released their annual by-the-numbers look back at the wildest stats from the just-wrapped event -- and, per usual, there's some eye-popping details included in this year's batch.
Most notable, however, is this year's total attendance figure. For 2023, fair officials report a total of 2,341,449 attendees spread over its 24 days. That number was down from last year's record-breaking reported attendance count of 2.5 million.
The highest-attended day of the fair came on Saturday, Oct. 7 -- the day of this year's Red River Rivalry game between Oklahoma and Texas at the Cotton Bowl -- when the fair welcome a reported 208,731 people through its gates.
The least-attended day of the fair was Wednesday, Oct. 4, when it welcomed a reported total of 40,088 visitors.
As one might expect, the least-attended weekend day of the fair came on Sunday, Oct. 15, when 88,076 people reportedly came through Fair Park's gates. That day, notably, had a delayed start after three people were injured in a shooting at one of the fair's food courts the night before.
Other notable figures released by the State Fair of Texas about this year's offering:
- About 518,000 Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs were sold this year.
- More than 45,000 slices of cheesecake were sold from Drizzle Cheesecake throughout the run of the Fair.
- More than 111,000 individual sopapillas were sold during the fair's 24-day run by Texas Sopapilla Factory and Texas Holy Fried Ribs & Fusion BBQ
- More than 154,000 rides were taken on the Texas Star Ferris Wheel.
- More than 500,000 prizes -- valued at a combined $1.65 million -- were won in games played on the State Fair Midway.
- More than 12,102 entries were submitted to this year's creative arts competitions, which resulted in 4,181 ribbons awarded to the top entries.
- A total of 8,010 individual cookies were entered into this year's cookie competition.
- More than 400 people donated a combined 217,913 pounds of canned food items at the gates, equating to 181,594 meals for the North Texas Food Bank.
- 2,951 cooks from across the state participated in the State Fair’s cooking contests this year
- The Big Tex BBQ & Chili Challenge included 171 entries, 130 chili cooks and 41 BBQ cooks.
- 74 animal births were celebrated at the Livestock Birthing Barn, including 56 piglets, 10 calves, five baby goats and three lambs.
- More than 30 dogs found their fur-ever homes at the DFW Rescue Me booth.
The State Fair of Texas will attempt to best each of those figure during its run from Friday, Sept. 27, through Sunday, Oct. 20, next year.