I visited the state fair yesterday. The fair was postponed from its original dates in February until now due to the pandemic. It was strange being there in April, it was nice though, didn’t have to worry about bringing a jacket, but wasn’t too hot
either.

I bought my ticket and armband at the gate. Instead of giving me a voucher to exchange for my armband inside, they gave me the armband right there. It’s a different style armband than I’ve ever seen before, it was like a soft plastic with a circular
tube to tighten it on. The ticket booth employee told me to be careful putting it on, as it’s like a zip tie where it can’t be loosened.

Masks are required state fair. Early in the day most people were wearing masks but later in the day it was less. The fair was not crowded at all during the day, but did pick up later. The fair seemed to have a little wider open spaces, but had generally
the same layout as usual.

Wade shows provided the midway, with some book ins. Dreamland was absent as a book in provider. Powers, Wood and Floyd provided most of the book ins this year. There was no gold pass (cut the line) offered this year (I don’t buy that anyway, so it
makes it nicer when it’s not offered at all).

The fair offered 5 coasters this year - Super Cyclone, RC-48, & Wacky Worm (Wade owns 2, this is the 2000 model) from Wade, Magic Dragon (a powered kiddie coaster, not sure who owns it), and new for 2021 Dragon Flyer, owned by Powers. This is that ride’
s first spot in operation, it’s a junior coaster from Jung Maxx, this one is a model with a helix, unlike most of their other junior coasters, which are simple ovals. They gave 4 circuits each cycle. This was coaster credit 499 for me. Finally my next
one will be 500 (it’s taken a lot longer to get to 500 than I expected, but with Ice Breaker and VelociCoaster opening soon, it won’t be much longer).

3 dark rides were offered- Asylum, Haunted Mansion, and Haunted. All were terrible. Missing from the last few years was the very good Haunted Castle from Gosetto. Hoping it returns next year when the fair is at its normal dates. New York New York fun
house was offered, all the moving features were working except the stairs. Definitely one of the best walk through fun houses still.

New for this year’s fair is the SkyHawk, a tall swing with vehicles in the “flying coaster” position. I skipped it. I did my usual multi rides on Magnum and Space Roller. Space Roller was looking a bit better since it’s rough appearance at the
strawberry festival last month. Yesterday they were running cycles in the forward direction, which I prefer over the typical backward direction. Of course, running both directions in the same cycle would be ideal for me. Magnum’s ride itself is always
hit or miss, but their operation always impresses me, their crew is always so efficient, they got it down to a science.

I saw 3 shows. Circus Incredible, which was held outside, not under the tent (which is usually pretty stuffy in February, it would’ve been brutal in late April). The show was great as usual, and seems different every year. Show was an hour long. Also
saw the Fire Guy show and the Illusion show. Both were decent.

As far as food, I ate some of my favorites- chicken strips, grilled cheese, rolled ice cream, strawberry shortcake, corn on the cob, and 2 cups of $1 Tiki Tea.

One other strange thing about the fair being held about 2.5 months later than normal, is that it got dark almost 2 hours later than it usually does (including the daylight saving time difference). So I didn’t get a lot of after dark time with the
lights on as I would’ve liked.

Had a great time at the fair and already can’t wait til next year. Luckily with this fair being held later than usual, it’s not going to be as long as usual until it’s fair season in central Florida again.

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