COLUMBUS (AP) – The Ohio State Fair had a record-breaking opening day.
Ohio State Fair: July 29-Aug.9, 2015
The first day of the annual event on Wednesday drew 59,324 attendees to the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus. That beat the old record, set in 2013, by more than 400 people.
Gov. John Kasich was on hand Wednesday for the opening, and attendance was helped along by good weather and a sold-out concert by country star Reba McEntire.
If you’re feeling gluttonous, the fair is the place to be, as vendors try to out-fry, out-chocolate and out-Buckeye one another again this year with over-the top food.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
As if a funnel cake isn’t self-indulgent enough, several vendors are offering hyped-up versions this year. The Deep-Fried Sweets stand next to the Bricker Building covers one with maple icing, crushed pecans and bacon, and makes another out of red-velvet cake mix slathered with icing. Either version will set you back $7.
“People are leery of trying it out, but they like it when they try it,” said Alli Prowant, who works at the stand.
Another decadent dessert offered by the same stand: deep-fried pecan pie. It sells for $5.
Kim Ross, who was working at the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s fair booth, opted for a plain-Jane funnel cake on opening day. She said she was taking that — and a huge turkey leg — back to share with co-workers.
“But if it were for me, that red-velvet one, that’s definitely what I’d get,” she said.
Equally as extravagant is the $5.50 Buckeye Bowl, a creation that Aaron Tracey thought up for his grandparents’ Tracey Concessions booths north of 17th Avenue.
Tracey rolls a golf-ball-size chunk of peanut butter around a chocolate Rolo candy, dips it in batter and fries it. That goes into a waffle bowl with a baseball-size scoop of ice cream. Hot fudge is poured over the top.
Such concoctions are “what the fair is all about,” Tracey said. “It’s definitely something to try.”