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    State Fair on the Cheap

    How to get every possible discount at the 2017 State Fair of Texas

    Alex Bentley
    Aug 28, 2017 | 11:26 am
    Big Tex at the State Fair of Texas
    The State Fair of Texas runs September 29-October 22.
    Courtesy photo

    The 2017 State Fair of Texas starts its 24-day run at Fair Park on Friday, September 29. For many, the fair is an annual ritual, a segue from summer to fall, and a touchstone of life in Texas. For us, it's all about the discounts. Call us cheap — but when State Fair time rolls around, our thoughts turn to finding the best ways to save a little cash.

    Tickets are $18 for general admission and $14 for seniors and kids under 48 inches tall. But with the multitude of options that allow you to pay much less than that, why would anyone pay the normal price?

    Below are the many ways we've found for you to save money on tickets to State Fair of Texas:

    The season pass
    If you plan on going to the State Fair more than once, a season pass is the way to go. Although you could just buy individual season passes for $39.95 each (or $34.95 at participating Kroger stores) and still claim a good deal, everyone knows the two biggest reasons to attend are the food and the rides.

    That's why the $95 Season Pass Combo Pack, which includes two season passes and 100 food/ride tickets (worth $50), is the much better deal. Not only will you have the food/ride tickets delivered early to your hot little hands, you're essentially getting a second season pass for only $5 (or two for $45, however you want to look at it). If for some reason you don't want the food/ride tickets, you can also get two season passes for just $49.95, a huge savings in and of itself. These deals are available only at BigTex.com.

    All season passes come with extra perks: one free single-day bring-a-friend ticket, a free State Fair of Texas reusable bag (limited to first 8,000 people), a free Midway Race Game, a coupon for $5 off the 2017 State Fair Cookbook, 10 percent off all State Fair gear at official merchandise stores, and special discounts on Fair food and Midway rides.

    Buy your ticket in advance
    If a season pass is not for you, you still have multiple options to save. Tickets bought in advance through BigTex.com are $1.50 off — but we recommend waiting until DART's GoPass app starts selling tickets in September. At $2 off, you'll get an extra 50-cent savings on individual tickets, plus you can also pre-buy DART tickets to get you to the Fair. The best part is that your tickets are right there on your phone, ready to be activated whenever you're ready to use them.

    Similar to the season pass combo is a family deal for individual tickets. The Family Four-Pack gives you four one-time-only general admission tickets and 100 food/ride coupons for $99. That's a 26-percent savings over normal ticket prices. If you want more, there's also a $199 family pack that ups the food/ride coupon number to 300; if you want less, there's a $79 combo pack that gets you two general admission tickets and 100 food/ride coupons. For a little extra savings courtesy of CultureMap, you can also use promo code CULTURECOMBO5 and get $5 off the two ticket combo pack.

    You can also save by buying advance tickets at Kroger. General admission tickets there cost $16.50, but no senior or children discounts are available. Keep in mind that kids 2 and under do not require a ticket.

    Opening day deals
    Unfortunately, gone are the days when the State Fair offered half-price deals on opening day. Now, anyone who brings in a full 20-ounce Dasani water or Coca-Cola product for donation to the North Texas Food Bank gets in for $10. No cheating: Every person in your group must have a bottle to get the discount.

    Back again for the second year is Military Appreciation Day, which offers free admission for all active military, retired military, and veterans, as well as their spouses and children under 18 on opening day only. Both military members and spouses must present valid military IDs at the gate.

    First Responders Day
    On October 13, First Responders Day will honor various active and retired public law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, and other emergency services agencies. All first responders, plus up to three family members, receive free admission to the Fair when they present a valid badge or ID card from their department or organization at the gate.

    McDonald's coupons
    The next time you eat at Mickey D's, make sure to check your tray liner or bag for State Fair coupons. You'll find ones for $5 off general admission any day, and ones that offer half-price tickets for kids when an adult pays full price. All coupons are only good for tickets purchased at the gate and cannot be combined with any other offer.

    Dr Pepper Tuesdays
    Don't toss your empty Dr Pepper cans. Save 'em up, as every person with one gets $6 admission all day on Tuesdays — October 3, 10, and 17 — or half-price tickets after 5 pm any day of the week.

    North Texas Food Bank Wednesdays
    Every Wednesday during the State Fair is Philanthropy Day, and the discount is large. Bring in at least four cans of food for the North Texas Food Bank on October 4, 11, or 18, and you get in for just $4.

    Senior steals
    Seniors 60 and over have it made in the shade — or the sun, more likely — as they can get into the fair for $4 off every day. But nothing beats the deal they get every Thursday on Seniorific Senior Days (October 5, 12, and 19): They get in totally for free.

    Thrifty Thursdays
    Thursdays have two ways to save. The first involves 20-ounce Coca-Cola products. If you drink them, hold on to your empties, as you can get in for just $7 every Thursday — October 5, 12, and 19 — with an empty 20-ounce Coke bottle.

    Back again for 2017 are special Thursday discounts on more than 60 popular food items. Those include State Fair classics like Frito pies, cotton candy, and funnel cakes, and deals on specialty foods too. Most are half-price or better; check out this handy State Fair map for a full list of vendors and foods.

    KISS-FM Fridays at the Fair
    Every Friday during the fair (September 29 & October 6, 13, and 20), you can get $5 off admission by printing off this coupon at KISS-FM and presenting it at the gate. Every person in your party must have a coupon to get the discount.

    NorthPark Center
    If you want to save some money and do some good, you might want get your tickets from NorthPark Center. They are offering tickets for $15 each, with $5 from each ticket given directly to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Proceeds will benefit The Salvation Army and American Red Cross. Tickets are available through the final day of the fair, October 22, at the NorthPark Concierge, located on Level One near Neiman Marcus.

    AdPages Giveaway
    AdPages.com is once again giving away 500 tickets to the Fair in the form of family four-packs. To enter for a chance to win, fill out this form on its website. As with many giveaway contests, you can share your entry on Facebook to earn more entries.

    Group tickets
    Not everyone can take advantage of this discount, but for anyone coming with a big group, you can rack up the savings. Groups of 20-249 people can get in for $12 each, or $6 off regular admission, which equals the best single-ticket price you can normally buy. If you happen to have a group of 250 or more, you can get tickets for $10 each.

    New this year are Group Value Packs, which include admission tickets, food and ride coupons, and $10 Midway game cards. Packs are available for 20, 35, 50, and 75 people. Groups can also pre-purchase food/ride coupons and get special rental spaces.

    Discounts on Midway rides
    Tuesdays are a great day to go to the Fair. Not only can you get your $6 Dr Pepper ticket, you can save more inside, when all rides (except for thrill rides and the Texas Star) are discounted. If you buy a season pass combo and only go on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you've found the perfect way to save a bundle.

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    Movie Review

    Animated Disney film Elio is fun but falls short of Pixar top tier

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 19, 2025 | 1:22 pm
    Elio (Yonas Kibreab) and Glordon (Remy Edgerly) in Elio
    Photo courtesy of Pixar
    Elio (Yonas Kibreab) and Glordon (Remy Edgerly) in Elio.

    Pixar has done a ton of different things in the 28 feature films they’ve released over the past 30 years, but the one they’d never done is deal with aliens (and, no, the alien toys in Toy Story don’t count). Now they’re going where many storytellers have gone before, but in their own unique way, in the new film Elio.

    Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) is a space fanatic who has recently lost both of his parents in an unnamed event. His Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) is now his guardian, and because she happens to be a member of the U.S. Space Force, Elio finds himself tantalizingly close to communications from space. With a desire to be abducted by aliens for both curiosity and sentimental reasons, Elio sends a message into space, hoping for some kind of response.

    He gets that and more when a ship full of multiple types of beings takes him into space, believing him to be a leader instead of a child. An encounter with a hostile force led by Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) gives Elio both a new friend, Grigon’s son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), and responsibility for maintaining peace during an unexpected galactic crisis.

    Pixar has not typically followed the route of many Disney movies of giving their child protagonist the trauma of dead parents, and doing so here is the first of a few minor missteps. Having Olga be his mom instead of his aunt would have altered their dynamic, but only slightly. While Elio is shown to miss his parents, his major focus is on making contact with aliens. Since the film only briefly deals with his grief, it would have been better served by excising it altogether.

    For the most part, the film is goofy, with Elio’s enthusiasm for aliens matched by the oddness of the creatures he meets in space. The filmmakers - there are three credited directors and three credited writers - seem to have taken inspiration from sea creatures and Pixar’s own history, as the main bad guy emulates Mike and Sully’s boss from Monsters, Inc. Almost every character in the film is heightened to a degree that makes for funny situations, but not as much sentimentality as other Pixar offerings.

    Surprisingly, especially since the film ends with a voiceover from notable astronomer Carl Sagan, the filmmakers play fast and loose with real-life science. Elio’s journeys to and from the alien spaceship are treated as close-to-instantaneous trips, even involving portals directly to Earth. The idea of the story doesn’t allow them to delve into things like relativistic time dilation, but there still could have been other scientific references to keep the story aboveboard.

    There are very few stars to be found among the film’s voice cast other than Saldaña and Garrett, who are each fine if unmemorable. Kibreab and Edgerly are given many more scenes than anyone else, and they each do a great job of bringing out both the joy and naivete of their characters. Some lesser-known actors like Jameela Jamil, Atsuko Okatsuka, and Brendan Hunt show up in minor roles, but they don’t stand out in any way.

    The story and characters in Elio are sweet and fun, but the film as a whole falls well short of the top tier Pixar movies. The filmmakers could have gone many different directions with a story about a boy who wants to be abducted by aliens, and the way they chose ended up being innocuous and less than compelling.

    ---

    Elio opens in theaters on June 20.

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