On today's Dopest we're covering:
New State Fair foods that are basically your old late-night kitchen experiments — butter ice cream, General Tso fries, and a pickle lemon shake up
Rewind: A VHS Revival — the most unexpectedly cool exhibit at this year's fair
How to save real money at the fair before August 6th — discount tickets, parking, and midway wristbands
Thanks for reading!
-Hillary
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Via Indianastatefair.com
🍦 The Dopest New Fair Food — Drunk Cravings Are Now A Fair Standard
Remember being 24, stumbling into your kitchen at 3am, and making something unhinged out of whatever was in the fridge? Fries with whatever sauce was available. Ice cream straight from the container. Something pickled because your fridge had more condiments than food.
Well. The Indiana State Fair has looked at those early 20s 3am decisions and said: what if we charged you for this? And here we are paying for it. The Indiana State Fair has added 50 new wild food items to this year’s line up!
Butter Dipped Ice Cream at Urick Concessions is vanilla soft serve dipped in real melted butter that hardens into a golden shell, finished with flaky sea salt. This is exactly what you would have made at 3am if you'd been slightly more creative and significantly less sober. It's perfect.
General Tso Fries at Red Frazier Bison are french fries tossed in General Tso's sauce with ground bison, pickled carrot slaw, sriracha mayo, green onions, and sesame seeds. This IS the 3am fridge raid. Every condiment. Every leftover. On fries.
Pickle Lemon Shake Up from Shake Up Cocktails is real pickle, real lemon, real spirits — a boozy riff on the State Fair's most beloved drink. You used to drink pickle juice straight from the jar at midnight because someone told you it was good for hangovers. Now it's a craft cocktail. You've grown so much.
The Dopest Tip: Hit all three. Butter ice cream for dessert, General Tso fries for the main event, Pickle Shake Up to tie it all together. Your 24-year-old self would be proud. Your 35-year-old self will have a flavor hangover.
Via indianastatefair.com
📼 The Dopest Fair Exhibit — Rewind: A VHS Revival
If you grew up wandering the aisles of a video rental store, this exhibit is going to do something to you emotionally and we say that with full sincerity. Rewind: A VHS Revival is an immersive tribute to the hand-painted movie poster art that defined pop culture from the 1980s through the early 2000s — over 100 large-scale works from Art of Music's private collection, originally created for video stores across the country.
These aren't prints. These are the real hand-painted posters that once lined the walls of your favorite local video rental spot, now displayed larger than life with themed sections, interactive activations, a Popcorn & Pours Bar, live painting sessions, a Baseball Movie Theatre, an Indy CD and Vinyl Pop-Up Record Store, and behind-the-scenes insights from the artists who made them.
This exhibit will transport you back in time to the era of Blockbuster. RIP. You’ll forget you're at the State Fair for a minute, or at lease until the next bite of your elephant ear.
The Dopest Tip: Give this one real time — don't rush through it between funnel cakes. The nostalgia and vinyl pop-up alone are worth the detour.
Via indianastatefair.com
🎟️ The Dopest Deals — Buy Before August 6th
The Indiana State Fair runs August 7–23 and discount tickets are only available through August 6th. These are the best ways to do the Indiana State Fair on a budget.
Single Day Admission — $14 (Save 20%)
Valid any day of the fair. Kids 5 and under are always free.
Advance Parking — $9 (Save 20%)
Buy online and skip the parking line. Worth every penny.
Family Four Pack — $57 (Save 30%) ⭐ Most Popular
1 parking pass + 4 admission tickets. Tickets don't have to be used the same day.
Foodie Family Four Pack — $105
1 parking pass + 4 admission tickets + $50 in Fair Bucks. Basically pays for the new food above and then some.
Midway Wristband — $33 (Save 25%)
Valid on select days: Aug 7, 12–14, 19–21, and 23. Not sold after 8:30pm. Buy online before Aug 6.
💰 $2 Tuesdays — Aug 11 & Aug 18
$2 gate admission, $2 Midway rides, and $2 food options at every food stand. The most chaotic, most fun day to go. Buy tickets online or at the gate on those days only.
The Dopest Tip: The Foodie Family Four Pack is the best value if you're going with a group — $50 in Fair Bucks covers most of the new foods above and then some. Fair is closed Mondays.
The Dopest This Week:
Billy Strings | Fishers Event Center | Thursday
Dear Evan Hansen | Butler Arts + Events Center | Thursday
Cassius Goens III | Chatterbox | Friday
Woodruff Place Walking Tour | Woodruff Place | Saturday
Coffee Bike Tour | Indy Cultural Trail | Saturday
Young the Giant + Cold War Kids | Everwise Amphitheater | Sunday
Indy is always up to something. So are we.
See you next week! — Indy's Dopest
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