SFOT News

How to score discount tickets for the 2024 State Fair of Texas

The State Fair of Texas runs from September 27 to October 20.

Photo by Kevin Brown

The 2024 annual State Fair of Texas debuts on September 27, starting a three-week run through October 20 with rides, fried food, music, and fun.

Given the amount of money visitors are likely to spend inside the gates, it's smart to try to save money on admission into the Fair. That's where we come in: Below you will find every possible way to get a discount on tickets for the 2024 event.

Prices for single day tickets (which go on sale on September 16) vary by the day.

If you go on a weekday, prices at the gate are $10 for kids 3-12 and seniors, and $15 for adults. That bumps up to $15 and $20 on Fridays and $18 and $25 on Saturdays and Sundays. If you can wait until 5 pm, adults can get in for the price of a kids ticket, a savings of up to $7.

If you're not sure what day of the week you want to go, the Fair also offers Premium Tickets for $24 that are good on any day, giving at least a saving of $1 for adults on weekends (premium tickets are also available in two- and four-pack combos that include $50 worth of food, ride, and game tickets.).

The Season Pass is a great option for those who know they'll be attending multiple times. This option is available for $60, which pays for itself after three visits if you're an adult. The season pass also includes two vouchers for $5 off parking, one Bring-A-Friend ticket, $10 off State Fair Merchandise with any $50 Purchase, and more goodies.

Premium tickets and season passes are now available at BigTex.com/Tickets, and CultureMap has some special deals for our readers.

When you use code 24mapCOMBO, you will receive $24 off a Season Pass & Coupon 2-pack or $24 off a Premium Ticket & Coupon 4-pack.

You can also save $12 off a Premium Ticket & coupon 2-pack (along with the $24 off a Premium Ticket & Coupon 4-pack) when you use promo code 24mapPACK.

But those are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the discounts you can get on certain special days during the Fair:

Peanut Butter Drive Opening Day (Friday, September 27) - Anyone who brings two jars of peanut butter to donate to the North Texas Food Bank will receive $10 admission at the gate.
Dr Pepper Value Days – Big Tex Insiders (aka those who sign up to get e-mails from the State Fair ) can purchase tickets online for $10 on Dr Pepper Value Days, which is every Tuesday and Thursday of the Fair. To receive the promotion code, sign up at BigTex.com/Insider. (Or, psst, you can also use the code 24cultureMAP to get the same deal.)
North Texas Food Bank, Feed the Need: Every Wednesday of the Fair, visitors can bring five canned food items to receive admission for only $5. All canned donations go to the North Texas Food Bank, which helps feed members of the community.
Senior Day: Every Thursday of the Fair, senior citizens 60 years and older receive admission to the Fair for only $5.
McDonald's coupons: Discount coupons are available at participating McDonald’s locations throughout Dallas-Fort Worth on tray liners and inside meal bags, giving a savings of $5 on any day of the week.
Military Appreciation Day sponsored by Chevrolet: All active duty military, retired military, and veterans save $5 off any day when they present valid documentation of military service at the gate or online. Spouses of service men and women with a valid Military Spouse ID and accompanying children under the age of 18 also receive discounted admission.
First responders: All first responders get the same discount of $5 off on any day when they present a valid badge or ID card from their department or organization at the gate or online. Spouses of first responders and accompanying children under the age of 18 also receive discounted admission.
Ride DART or TRE and save: Not only can DART take you right to the front gate of Fair Park instead of having to deal with parking, you can enter the promo code 24DARTSAVE when purchasing your fair admission on the State Fair’s website and receive $5 off admission any day of the week. Those coming from Fort Worth can ride TRE and get the same discount from the GoPass app.
Group Tickets and Corporate Discount Program: If you're planning on bringing a big group or your company to the Fair, they offer unspecified deals for both; go to BigTex.com for more information.

In addition to ticket discounts, you can also save on rides on Thrilling Tuesdays, when most rides on the Midway are four coupons, with kiddie rides discounted to three coupons on Tuesdays (exceptions include the Thrillway and the Texas Star Ferris Wheel).

If food savings are what you're after, Thrifty Thursdays give you a chance to try signature menu items at participating food vendors at a reduced price, ranging from mini versions to regular-size items.

Finally, for all the hoarders out there, check your drawers for old Food and Midway Coupons from past Fairs. Those coupons are good for this and all future Fairs, and as of 2023, you can use them on food, rides, AND for games.

And that's not all! Bookmark this page, as we will add other ticket discounts announced by various State Fair partners in the days and weeks leading up to the start of the biggest annual event on the Dallas calendar.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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