The Florida State Fair (Part I): Rides and Fun

Today I began a four day assignment at the Florida State Fair, located in Tampa, FL.

At the fair are the number of things you'd expect at a carnival, rides, junk food, and strange people (we'll get to that in another post). Also there was a large number of animals (again, a later post).

Famous people were there, like former WWF / WCW / WWE wrestling star Brian Knobbs, formerly of the tag team the Nasty Boys. He wasn't part of the fair though, he was just enjoying it. Apparently, a lot of former wrestlers live in the Tampa area.

The fair seemed to be doing OK. It was definitely the hit of the town.

Look...da plane...da plane!

It was some of the little touches, like a life-sized sand-castle of...a cow...that makes the fair special.

But most of the people came for the rides.

On the first night, country & western star Lee Greenwood performed a free concert.

He gave quite a spirited performance, showing off his voice, his wit, and his musical ability (here, playing a saxophone).

The crowd was...different than I'm used to for a concert.

Possibly the coolest thing at Greenwood's performance came when he performed the patriotic tune, "God Bless the USA". The geriatric crowd, who had been sitting down the whole time, stood up as if they were hearing the national anthem. Many men took off their hats. Again, it was a really nice moment.

The fair featured a really large haunted house. I was too scared to try it. Look...it's intimidating.

The local Hard Rock Cafe / Indian casino had a concert display.

On hand, among other things, was the Johnsonville Brat grill, which boasts to be the largest grill in the world.

Ahh...don't forget the bad food.

It is a good time.