The State Fair of Texas made a bet this year that cheaper meant busier. Midway ride prices dropped by just over 17% on average, parking and admission came down, and a new $10 kids’ ticket is available every day of the run. There’s also a new Little Lone Stars zone built for children 8 and under, with rides priced for smaller budgets. Even the folks running the Midway said the vendors agreed they could make it work.

The early returns are complicated. Attendance fell by more than 365,000 people from 2024 to 2025, and that’s after the fair topped 2 million visitors two years in a row. Four days remain before the gates close, and final attendance figures won’t be released until after that. Lower prices clearly didn’t flip the trend overnight, though the final weekend could still close the gap.

It’s worth remembering what’s riding on this for communities like ours. The State Fair is a nonprofit, and the money it takes in goes back out through scholarships, youth livestock programs, and grants across Texas, Ellis County included. A strong fair year isn’t just a Dallas story. It’s a Texas story.

So what do you think: would cheaper tickets and rides get your family to Fair Park, or is the cost of the whole trip still too much? Let us know.