Expect thrills, killer concerts and, yes, maggot sandwiches
The 139th Colorado State Fair will be crooning, mooing, spinning, grilling, dazzling and exploding at the Pueblo Fairgrounds Aug. 25 through Sept. 5 (2011.)
You and your kids can get up close and personal with cowboys, chickens, artists, quilters, escape artists, pirates and barkers and you can taste some truly bizarre food: deep fried Kool Aid, anyone? How about a Maggot Melt sandwich, with real fly larvae.
Here’s your guide to the all the most exciting, fabulous and gross stuff you’ll find at this year’s fair.
No matter what genre of music you prefer, it’s hard to deny that pop-country singer and songwriter Martina McBride has vocal talent. The Grammy winner’s play-it-to-the-back-row amplitude, emotional songs and soprano range have sold 18 million albums and earned 23 top-ten hits, including six that reached No. 1.
When she plays the Colorado State Fair on Thursday (9/1/11), McBride says few of those hits will be spared.
“We always get a good reaction to ‘A Broken Wing’ and ‘Independence Day.’ ‘This One’s for the Girls’ is always fun to play,” McBride says during a phone interview.
She says crowds also are reacting very favorably to her new single, “I’m Gonna Love You Through It.” “It’s really new, but people seem to be moved by it. It’s a pretty powerful song.”
Having grown up “next door” in Kansas, McBride says Colorado and its friendly people remind her of home. She says she’s thrilled to play our state fair.
“I like playing state fairs. There’s a certain amount of pride that people have in their state and its fair, and to me, it’s an honor to get to play,” she says. “Plus, state fairs feel like summer. It’s something we get to do very year and something I always look forward to.”
While her commercial success has been significant, McBride is also known for her vibrant on-stage performance and the emotional depth of her lyrics. Over the course of her career, she has increasingly written her own songs and in fact wrote eight of the 11 songs on the upcoming album “Eleven,” which will be released in October.
“My whole goal is always to connect with the audience and share an evening together,” says McBride. “We have a really high-energy show, and it’s a lot of fun for the whole family.”
Some call it ‘exotic’; most say ’ew!’
“Jungle George” Sandefur admits that he grew up eating raccoon hunted by his father, but his favorite these days is either yak or alligator.
“Python, too. Python tastes like calamari,” says George Sandefur, a carnival food vendor specializing in exotic meats and bugs. For decades, he’s traveled the country peddling odd edibles, and he’s seen trends in yuck-factor foods evolve and change.
“Our two new meats this year are beaver and raccoon,” he says. Both are cooked as full carcasses on the grill, a sight that attracts lots of attention, and are then chopped and served on a stick. This year’s big seller so far has been the Maggot Melt sandwich, made much like a patty melt but with fly larvae in place beef.
“The more strange the idea, the more I think it won’t go over, the more it becomes a huge, huge success,” Sandefur says. “It seems like the more you couldn’t imagine people would eat it, the better it does.”
Some of Jungle George’s exotic meats include buffalo, llama, Rocky Mountain oysters and black bear, all farm-raised in USDA-certified facilities. The bug side of the menu offers scorpions, crickets and ants, either plain or chocolate-covered.
“First they say, ‘Ew, I wouldn’t do that.’ A half hour later, they come back,” says Sandefur. “It’s a wow factor. Maybe they have an adventurous side to them. People do it just to say they did, and they love to take pictures.”
Jungle George also serves what could be called normal food, such as turkey legs, several types of fries, and corn on the cob. And then there’s the food that’s normal only in a state-fair setting: deep-fried butter, deep-fried jellybeans, deep-fried skittles and deep-fried Kool Aid.
“I’ve seen the Kool Aid being done this summer, but I’m the only one with two flavors, cherry and grape,” says Sandefur.
So you want to be a:
PIRATE
What: It’s a Pirate’s Life
When: Daily at 1:30, 6 and 7:30 p.m. (additional 11:30 a.m. on weekends)
Where: Fountain Park/Main Street
This live-action show sets out to answer the argggg-ravating question: Who was the better captain? Jack Sparrow or James Hook?
“The captains meet and compete to see who is better with song, with jokes and with the sword,” says Ted Shred of Pirates for Hire, which organizes the cast of costumed, in-character actors. “It’s very family-friendly, though the adults get the tongue-in-cheek humor that the kids don’t.”
Rife with audience participation, ‘It’s a Pirate’s Life’ allows fairgoers to experience up close these romantic and mischievous rouges of the sea — or at least an entertaining modern interpretation of the pirate.
“When a pirate winks at you, you’re going to smile. In a pirate costume, you can say or do things no one else can,” says Shred. “The show will bring a feel of the ‘piratical’ world to people and hopefully will let them get in touch with their inner pirate, too.”
STUNTPERSON
What: Movie Stunt Adventure
When: Noon, 2, 4, 5:30 and 8 p.m. (noon, 2, 4 and 5 p.m. on Sept. 5)
Where: Sunshine Park
Learn the secrets behind your favorite action movies, as trained stuntmen and women demonstrate dramatic jumps and high falls up to 50 feet — or five stories — high.
“They’re landing on a real Hollywood stunt airbag, which has won awards, including Academy Awards for design,” says Mark Bell, Movie Stunt Adventure manager. “It’s very different show from anything else out there touring.”
That’s especially true because while the company is visiting other fairs, only Colorado will experience Kristen Johnson, world-renown female escape artist. Daily at the 5:30 p.m. show, Johnson will perform an upside-down, aerial, straightjacket escape, followed by a 50-foot free fall. At the 4 and 8 p.m. performances, she presents the “World’s Only Full View Water Torture Cell.”
“Houdini created that escape in the early 1900s,” says Bell, who adds that Houdini used a curtain to obscure his secret methods and Johnson does not. “Because she is a real escape artist and not an illusionist, she wants you to see the thing from beginning to end.”
Movie Stunt Adventure also offers a hands-on experience. Sign up for a training course on the ground, and then climb the tower to test your new skills on the Hollywood airbag. Weight restrictions apply.
BULLFIGHTER
What: American Freestyle Bullfights
When: 7 p.m. Aug. 28
Where: Budweiser Rodeo Arena
Tickets: $12, $5 with military ID
Back by popular demand, a contest between those darting and daring cowboy protectors sometimes called rodeo clowns.
“When you say bullfighting, people think bullfighters in capes with spears, and no, it’s nothing like that,” says Kevin Rich of American Freestyle Bullfights. “Basically, when you watch rodeo and bull riding, these guys are the ones out there saving the cowboys. I’m glad the State Fair is bringing it back, because it’s such an exciting part of rodeo.”
Five competitors, some past award winners, will take the ring to win the $1,000 prize after the PRCA Ram Rodeo. Scoring is based on control of the 2,000-pound animal as well as bull contact, bull jumping and barrel handling.
“I’m bringing pure-bred Mexican fighting animals of all ages. They are big and mean,” says Rich. “When (the contestants) are in front of a crowd that’s having fun and cheering, they’re going to take those extra risks. It should be a wild show.”
MUTTON BUSTER
What: Wool Riders Only
When: 7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 and 7 p.m. weekends and Labor Day
Where: Sunshine Park
Tickets: $12
This so-called “toughest sport on wool” isn’t for the young at heart, but only the truly young: children 3-6 years old and less than 60 pounds. Wool Riders only is a mutton-busting competition in which children ride sheep — 150-170 pound Columbian and Suffolk ewes — much like cowboys ride bulls.
“The event itself has its roots in rodeo, and it’s often kind of a halftime show during rodeo events,” says Lisa Lawson, director of operations at Tommy G Productions, which organizes the contest. “Tommy G Productions thought this could be a great stand-alone event so that more kids get the opportunity to do it, especially kids without a rural background.”
Up to 35 kids can compete each round. The top three constants receive a medal, and first place is invited back to the championship on Labor Day at 7 p.m. to compete for a trophy, custom belt buckle and $1,000 savings bond.
The contest appeals to kids of all backgrounds, says Lawson.
“They ride in Crocs, in shorts, in dresses. Little girls, little boys. It’s so diverse,” she says. “We’re giving kids the opportunity to do something they’ve never done and earn that sense of accomplishment.”
CLICK HERE to read the full text of this article, which published in the August 26, 2011 Gazette GO! section.
Running from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, the second-annual “What-If?! Festival of Imagination and Innovation” can answer some of those burning questions — and hopefully excite even more curiosity. Presented by Imagination Celebration and the Pikes Peak Library District, the outdoor festival’s main goal is to stimulate the creative mind.
