State Fair News

State Fair of Texas issues 2025 guide for arts & crafts blue ribbons

State Fair of Texas blue ribbons

SFOT

The time has come for crafty Texans to showcase their creativity: The State Fair of Texas has issued the 2025 version of its Arts & Crafts and Cooking Contest Guides, now available for download at BigTex.com/CreativeArts.

The State Fair’s Creative Arts team holds two kinds of contests: pre-Fair arts and crafts contests like quilting and jam-making; and Fair-time cooking contests, like best bread and best dish with cheese. There are more than 1,100 arts and crafts categories and 26 cooking contests.

Pre-fair contests
The 2025 Arts & Crafts Contests include Fine Art; Ceramics; Designer Craftsman; Dolls; Canning; Hobby Collections; Holiday Corner; Needlepoint, Crewel, and Counted Cross-Stitch; Needlework and Sewing; Afghans, Rugs, Quilts, and Bedspreads; Photography; Scale Models; Glue-a-Shoe; and The Great Pumpkin Challenge.

Actual registration for the 2025 pre-Fair contests will open online on May 7 with a deadline of Monday, July 28, to submit online entry forms and fees.

Contestants can submit their entries via mail by July 28 or hand-deliver items to the Creative Arts building in Fair Park on August 1, 2, and 3 from 9 am-5 pm.

In the weeks following, entries will be judged, and contestants will be notified once the results are finalized. Entries awarded a ribbon will be displayed during the 2025 State Fair of Texas.

Cooking Contests
The 2025 Cooking Contests include Bread; Cooking With Cheese; Honey, the Magic Ingredient; Beekeepers Honey, Farm to Fork; Chocolate; Pizza Cook-Off; Youth Cooking Contest; Best of Show-Down (invitation only); Play with your Food; Dough-Re-Me Pastry; Soup or Salad; Ice Cream Freeze-Off; The Ultimate Grilled Cheese Challenge; Charcuterie Board; Texas Chuck Wagon; International Cuisine; Speedy Dishes; Fair Concoctions; Chicken or the Egg; Cobbler Cook-Off; Tex Mex; and Candy.

The 2025 State Fair of Texas Cooking Contest Guide and the Cooking Contest Calendar are now available, with online registration opening on May 7, and closing Monday, July 28.

Blue Ribbon Battle
The State Fair of Texas is bringing back the Battle for the Blue Ribbons – a spring cooking competition consisting of three of the Fair’s most popular Creative Arts Cooking Contests: Cookies, Cakes, and Pies, running from May 16-May 18.

Amateur home cooks of all ages may enter for the chance to be awarded first, second, third, and honorable mention for a total of 40 blue-ribbon winners who will be invited to compete in their respective contests at the exclusive Best of Show-Down in the Competition Kitchen during the 2025 State Fair of Texas on October 5, 2025.

One contestant from each of the three contests will be awarded a Best of Show ribbon, allowing them to advance to a head-to-head battle for the Best of Show-Down grand prize. For more information about this specific competition and to register, visit BigTex.com/Battle.

Registration
Participants are encouraged use the online registration system for all contests. It allows the creation of a family account, which permits adults in the household to add additional contestants to the account and register youth contestants. Youth contestants will have their own designated entries for Creative Arts competitions, but all communications regarding those entries are sent to the primary adult on the account.

Although there are paper registration forms in the Arts & Crafts and Cooking Contest Guides that can be mailed to the Fair, it is recommended to use the online registration portal to ensure contestants receive helpful reminders and judging results of their respective contests.

The 2025 State Fair of Texas will opening on Friday, September 26, and run through Sunday, October 19.

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to selena, with love

New Selena documentary features unseen footage and family members

Photo courtesy of SXSW

Selena y Los Dinos was produced by her siblings Suzette and A.B. Quintanilla.

In the 30 years since Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez's death, her legacy has lived on through her music, multiple biographic films, a TV series, and her dedicated fanbase worldwide. A new documentary produced by her family now delves deeper into the personal life of the young woman at the height of her stardom, with big career aspirations and a deep love for her inner circle.

Selena y Los Dinos, which premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin on March 12, reveals a never-before-seen look into Selena's life through home footage, past interviews, and new interviews with her family members, her husband, and bandmates. SXSW badge holders and public presale ticket holders had the chance to see the premiere at the Paramount Theatre, and at additional screenings on March 14-15.

Viewers were impressed. The film won the audience award — with voting open for 30 minutes after each screening — in the 24 Beats Per Second category, which focused on musical stories. Also in the category were other documentaries as well as some narrative features. Last year's winner was Faders Up: The John Aielli Experience, which followed the life and career of one of Austin's all-time most-loved radio hosts.

Selena y Los Dinosshares personal, but not invasive, details about Selena's upbringing and her rise to fame alongside her brother, A.B. III, and sister, Suzette, in the 1970s-'80s. It describes a family rising above financial hardship in the name of making music, while also battling sexism in the Tejano music scene. Selena's role as the lead singer and Suzette's as the band's drummer challenged norms and were met with more challenges in return.

The film also gives an in-depth look at the integral part each member played in the band, with A.B. as the Dinos' producer, Chris Pérez as the guitarist, Ricky Vela as the keyboardist, Pete Astudillo as a backup vocalist. A.B., Vela, and Astudillo all had a hand in writing Selena's songs, with "Dame Un Beso" as the band's first standout hit when the singer was just 15-years-old.

Viewers — many dressed in Selena-branded shirts or jackets — laughed with the singer as she told jokes or made sarcastic comments in home videos or behind-the-scenes during interviews, and smiled as she graced each stage with her radiant energy and belted out flawless vocals. Attendees also cried as her family members recalled where they were on March 31, 1995, the day Selena was shot and killed by her former fan club president, Yolanda Saldívar.

At the time of her death, Selena was in the middle of recording her highly anticipated English crossover album, which had been a longtime goal of hers. When the title track, "Dreaming of You," was released posthumously five months after her death, A.B. admitted that it was the song he could never bring himself to listen to, stating that the beginning notes on the piano were all it took to bring him to tears. But the song became one of Selena's biggest hits, spending 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 22 in 1995.

Selena y Los Dinos feels like a love letter to the late singer from her siblings, parents, her widower, and her bandmates. The vulnerability they expressed while sharing their stories was at times heartwrenching, but many of their memories illustrated Selena's bright personality, her strong will, and her drive to succeed. Her death at just 23-years-old devastated the world, but she continues to live on in the hearts of her fans and through her family.

Cinetic Media is handling sales of the film; it currently has no release date.

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