Here he stands, 55 feet of Texas cowboy, with boots and hat to match, a wry smile and a look that says, “I’ve seen some things.” And he has. Since 1952, Big Tex has been the fixed point around which the State Fair of Texas has grown. Today, the legacy of the Fair is seen in homes across Texas: family portraits with Big Tex towering in the background.
As iconic as Big Tex is, he is, in fact, much younger than the Fair he presides over. Beginning September 25 and continuing through October 18, the 2026 State Fair of Texas will celebrate 140 years as our nation wraps up its own 250th anniversary. With the commemorative theme of “Stars, Stripes, and Howdies,” expect Big Tex to be decked out in red, white, and blue!
Stars, Stripes, and Howdies:
By Josie Brocato on September 25, 2026
Sponsored by State Fair of Texas
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The State Fair of Texas has been resilient since day one. In early 1886, a group of Dallas businessmen chartered a fair. When a fair site could not be agreed upon, part of the group split off. Their fair opened the day before. Two fairs, dueling across town, both drawing
- Karissa Condoianis, Senior VP of Public
Relations for the State Fair of Texas
"The food you eat, the clothes you wear, the people you meet—that's what we were founded on, 140 years ago, The Fair began as a celebration of Texas agriculture, and at its roots, it still is one.”
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Every fall millions of Texans do the same thing: head to Fair Park and find Big Tex.
The State Fair of Texas Celebrates 140 Years!
Every fall millions of Texans do the same thing: head to Fair Park and find Big Tex.
The Cowboy Arrives
Big Tex started life as Santa Claus. In 1949, the town of Kerens, Texas, built a 49-foot St. Nick out of drill-pipe casing and papier-mâché to lure Christmas shoppers away from the bigger towns nearby. The gimmick worked—for exactly one season. By 1951, the town’s love for the hulking Kris Kringle had ebbed. The State Fair bought the giant for $750, handed him to a Dallas artist named Jack Bridges, and had him reworked into a cowboy—complete with a ten-gallon hat and welcoming grin. Big Tex made his debut at the 1952 Fair and has greeted Texans ever since.
The Entire State
in One Place
With a state as big as Texas, the State Fair serves an important role in our shared identity. For 24 days, the community converges on 277 acres in Dallas. It’s the one event big enough, fun enough, and delicious enough to get Texans to come together. People
A Fair of Generations
The Fair not only brings together Texans from different regions, it also connects Texans across generations. Every fall, the same families raise the same food stands their parents and grandparents ran, and the same families come through the gates to find them.
Tami Jo Nevins-Mayes, whose family has cooked at the Fair since 1949, likes to point out that she was born in the middle of the Fair—great timing, she jokes—and has spent a lifetime of autumns at Fair Park since. Today, Nevins-Mayes still runs Nevins Concessions with her daughter, Josey Nevins-Mayes, while her other daughter, Cheyne Mayes-Hickey, helms a grilled cheese stand under her own banner.
- Tami Jo Nevins-Mayes, concessionaire at the State Fair of Texas
“As a mom watching my girls, I don't think I could be any more proud of my daughters and watching them train up their kids.”
In a way, Big Tex has survived generations himself. On the last Friday of the 2012 Fair, an electrical short set Big Tex ablaze and the cowboy burned down to his frame. Not one to miss the festivities; he was back the next year—rebuilt, a few feet taller, drawling "Hooooowdy, Folks" just like always. For a Fair that had already weathered a devastating fire last century, it was almost fitting. Burning down and coming back is practically tradition.
140 Years, and Counting
This year, the Fair turns 140 while America celebrates 250 years—a coincidence the Fair leaned all the way into with its 2026 theme, "Stars, Stripes, and Howdies," and Big Tex done up in red, white, and blue. Fitting company. Both have proven hard to kill, and both mostly ask you to show up and be part of something bigger than yourself.
So this fall, a couple million Texans will do the same thing they always do. They'll find Big Tex, lift a kid onto their shoulders, and take the photo—the newest one in a stack going back generations, on the same ground, under the same cowboy.
The 2026 State Fair of Texas runs Friday, Sept. 25 through Sunday, Oct. 18 at Fair Park. Visit BigTex.com for season passes, the live music line-up, the 2026 Big Tex Choice Award Winners, and more!
crowds but neither making money. The lesson of that first year wasn’t to quit—it was to go bigger. For 1887, the rival groups merged, expanding the East Dallas grounds that would become Fair Park, National Historic Landmark and home to the Cotton Bowl.
It nearly died more than once after that, too, due to several circumstances such as fire, debt, and a grandstand that collapsed. By 1904, the Fair had run out of money; its grounds sold to the City of Dallas in exchange for one promise: a place on the calendar every fall, in perpetuity. That deal is the reason the Fair is still here.
Still, the ideals the Fair was founded on have never really changed.
Condoianis has watched the joy this produces. "The Fair is a melting pot of people, and everybody is getting along," she says. "There's not many places in the world these days where you get to witness that."
Nowhere is that unity more visceral than the Red River Rivalry, when tens of thousands of fans flood the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl, which sits inside the fairgrounds, has hosted the Texas–OU game since 1929. One stadium, split straight down the middle, burnt orange on one side and crimson on the other, in the middle of the Fair.
Another quintessential Texas sight? The roughly 5,200 young Texans who show livestock they've raised, arriving from the Panhandle to Hill Country and everywhere in between. City and country, north and south, all of it under one gate—that’s the enduring value of the Fair.
drive in from every corner to scarf a Fletcher's Original Corny Dog, ride the gigantic Texas Star Ferris wheel, catch a glimpse of the fried-foods arms race of the Big Tex Choice Awards, and of course, take a photo with Big Tex himself.
Condoianis has watched the joy this produces. "The Fair is a melting pot of people, and everybody is getting along," she says. "There's not many places in the world these days where you get to witness that."
Nowhere is that unity more visceral than the Red River Rivalry, when tens of thousands of fans flood the Cotton Bowl. The Cotton Bowl, which sits inside the fairgrounds, has hosted the Texas–OU game since 1929. One stadium, split straight down the middle, burnt orange on one side and crimson on the other, in the middle of the Fair.
Another quintessential Texas sight? The roughly 5,200 young Texans who show livestock they've raised, arriving from the Panhandle to Hill Country and everywhere in between. City and country, north and south, all of it under one gate—that’s the enduring value of the Fair.
Another quintessential Texas sight? The roughly 5,200 young Texans who show livestock they've raised, arriving from the Panhandle to Hill Country and everywhere in between. City and country, north and south, all of it under one gate—that’s the enduring value of the Fair.