Indiana State Fair opens Friday with theme ‘Heroes in the Heartland’

The Indiana State Fair offers up other food choices besides just funnel cakes, corn dogs, and sausages. Some of the more populat items include deep fried Oreos and Twinkies, tenderloins, rib eyes, and elephant ears. Photo by Seth Morin, TheStatehouseFile.com. Photo by Megan Powell, TheStatehousefile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — In addition to the usual agriculture exhibits, deep-fried foods, carnival rides and Hoosier pride, this year’s Indiana State Fair will celebrate the state’s heroes with the theme: “Heroes in the Heartland.”

From Friday through Aug. 18, the fair will celebrate farmers, police officers, firefighters, teachers and military members, including at the daily parade through the Indianapolis fairgrounds. The Anderson Family Fun Park in the fairgrounds also will have 31 “tribute towers,” which the fair describes as a “photographic war memorial” featuring the photos of 5,000 service members and honoring the fallen in the post-9/11 era.

In addition to real-life heroes, the fair will feature some comic book superheroes, including Captain America, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and Batman. The Harvest Pavilion will host different Marvel and DC superheroes for daily meet-and-greets where visitors can experience hands-on, interactive exhibits to feel like a superhero.

Sharon Smith, director of communications at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center, said the state fair always look for themes that resonate with the typical fair-goer.

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“We knew that this theme would be a very positive, uplifting thing to build around,” she said. “Whether it’s something that honors heroes in a more somber way or lifts up superheroes in a fun, entertaining way, we just thought that there was a lot of different ways that we could celebrate heroes.”

The biggest draw, though, is the food.

“Food is the number-one reason that people come to the fair,” Smith said.

New fair foods this year feature a mac and cheese eggroll with pulled barbecue turkey on top, a pork barbecue “banana split” with coleslaw, a deep-fried chocolate cookie ice cream sandwich and a grilled cheese sandwich made with hash browns instead of bread.

Other new experiences include:

Goat yoga–For $20, you can connect with your inner spirit with a favorite barnyard animal this Sunday at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Indiana State Fair Wine Garden–Enjoy a glass from the winners of the State Fair wine and spirits competition at the Purdue Extension Agriculture-Horticulture building

Beehive demonstration–Celebrate National Bee Day on Aug. 17 by seeing a demonstration of how to properly inspect a beehive at 4 p.m. in Animal Town.

Party with the animals–For $10, visitors can be a part of an animal’s morning stroll at 10 a.m. or nightly feeding at 6 p.m. Visitors will learn how to take care of barnyard animals by feeding them and walking them in a one-on-one experience.

“There’s a lot of things that have to do with animals,” Smith said. “People love coming and seeing animals when they come to the State Fair.”

Events free with admission to the fair include the Big Top Circus and concerts at the Free Stage. Bands include KC and the Sunshine Band, SWITCHFOOT and The Guess Who.

While a record 91,000 people attended a single day at last year’s Indiana State Fair, officials reported fewer total attendees than in past years.

In 2018, the State Fair welcomed 860,131 attendees, which is almost a 5% decrease from the 906,732 guests who attended in 2017. The record was set in 2013, with 978,000 attending.

“Our goal is to give people a very positive, happy experience and the best way to do that is to plan ahead,” Smith said.

Because there is so much to do and people have a limited amount of time, Smith suggested visiting the State Fair’s website, indianastatefair.com, to figure out what to do before going and to obtain information on parking, discounts and attractions.

Daily fair admission is $13, with children age 5 and under free. Parking at the fairgrounds — located north of 38th Street and west of Fall Creek Parkway — is $8.

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For a daily schedule of events at the Indiana State Fair, visit indianastatefair.com.

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