This fair is an utter rip off. Like holy cow, why I don’t I just give you the PIN number to my debit card and hand over all the security information for my Visa while I’m at it. Oh, you need my checkbook too? Great, let me make sure you have my signature while we’re at it. This is horror disguised as rides, popcorn, and carnival games at its best.
Let’s do a small round up shall we? Luckily, me and the man got to enter the fair for free since I’m in education and we get free passes. Students in the public schools also get free tickets. So, if you were a family of four thinking, “Hey, let’s go to this great fair that’s being advertised as a fantastic family event!” you should be up by two tickets. That’s great. BUT, adult tickets will cost you $14 dollars per person.
Not bad yet, but I forgot to tell you that you have to pay for parking. Let’s be realistic, you’ll most likely take your family to the fair on the weekend. This will cost you $15 to park your car, unless you want to walk three blocks and park on some stranger’s lawn for $10.
You’ve just walked through the gate with your family of four and before you’ve done anything, even with two free passes for the kiddos, you’ve spent $43!
Luckily, looking at the exhibits and animals are free and they *are* pretty awesome. You can even get a handful of feed for twenty five cents and that will be the last reasonably priced item you will see.
Because, if you have kids, they’re going to want to play the carnival games. Yes, they do the games on a ticket basis, and you need ten tickets to play a game. Individual tickets cause sixty cents, meaning to play one hella rigged carnival game you get to spend $6. Who the hell pays for this crap?! God, if you have two kids who want to play five games a piece, you’ve just spent $60 for fifteen minutes of bullshit fun since they do everything in their power to make sure you don’t win some crap stuffed toy from China.
Oh, and the rides are their own set of tickets! Another sixty dollars down the drain–Unless you want to go on the ride with your kids, then make that $120.
Mind you, I use the term “rides” loosely since what I actually mean is “carnival death traps.”
Never fear though, if you want, you can buy the “Dizzy Pass” for $50 per person so you can ride all the rides no matter the tickets you have. Of course, this excludes all the rides in the Adventure Zone and the Extreme Scream, so basically you get ripped off. Yaaay, for buying passes that mean nothing!
So we are up to $163 with mom and dad not getting on any rides. But hold up! The kids want those ridiculous souvenirs that will fall apart in a week but cost $15 a piece. Screw it you say, we’re not buying into it.
By now, you’re dying, your kids are dying and God help you it’s time for food. Me and my man bought some lumpia. It cost $8 for three small rolls that only tasted okay. We then searched high and low for some affordable food since $15 for chili cheese fries seemed excessive (please remember, portions were ridiculously small). The best deal we found was a cheeseburger, hotdog, fries, water and a coke for $25. Average fair food that tasted like Satan pissed on it. Please, $25?! It’s not like we were at a Red Robin that actually served enough food for leftovers. So, add in kids and that meal would be closer to $50.
At $213, your family will probably want ice cream. What the hell, you say, let’s completely vacuum out the wallet. You decide each kid gets a cone. $15 gone and God help you if you want funnel cake.
So at the end of the day, roughly $230 dollars was spent at the fair for your family of four, and that’s attempting to be modest with your spending. No riding the rides for mom and dad, no stuffed animals for the kids, no fun food since the fun food costs a small fortune. Add in those things I left out and you’re pushing $400.
Honestly? I’d rather buy a ticket to Disneyland so I could at least get some quality control. I’d bypass this fair completely if I hadn’t had free passes but I guess I like my money more than I like $6 carnival games.
Wow! That’s a very expensive fair!! We have a fair coming to our town this weekend and luckily we don’t have to pay for parking, but we do for everything else. I don’t know how much we spent trying to win a teddy bear last year that I could have got at the dollar store for a dollar. My husband always has to have these fried onions. He can never eat them all and I refuse to eat them, so he basically paid $8 for heartburn.
I might have laughed out loud when you mentioned paying eight dollars for heartburn. Been there, done that, sometimes it’s worth it!
I just find it a little gag worthy when they encourage it as a family event and then charge astronomical prices for the things that cater to kids. It’s a fair, not a fancy theme park! And it’s not exactly a community full of people with deep pockets. I just find it completely off putting.
Wow I’m glad I read your post. That fair was on my list of contenders for a fall fair!
It just seemed a bit extreme with the pricing. I mean, $6 per carnival game? For, as one commenter put, stuffed animals you can buy at the dollar store? For a toy that you probably won’t win anyway since the games are rigged? Really?
I didn’t even try to go on the rides. I liked seeing the animals though 🙂
Yes I think I’d just be walking around too at those prices! That’s like our PNE here during the end of summer
It’s unfortunate the prices are so steep 🙁
For sure! That’s going to leave families out
Exactly!
I completely get where you are coming from, I think for me it is the money you are spending and how awful the crowds are. We went last year and we were shoulder checked every 5 minutes. My kids really want to go so I am thinking maybe this Saturday, but praying it rains!! Ha!!!!! I am ok with going every two years. Maybe even every three.
Oh yes, the crowds are always bad! And the lines to all the food stalls and rides are ridiculously long!
I mostly think it’s a ripoff for what it is. I do enjoy the vendors who show up to sell their artisanal bbq sauces and homemade wares though. I sample all the food. I’m that person. 😂