Texans Wait In Their Cars For Hours To Get Into State Fair's Drive-Thru

The State Fair of Texas got off to a rough start this year. Not only was the fair canceled due to COVID-19, but people who went to this weekend's Big Tex Fair Food Drive-Thru found themselves sitting in their cars for hours.

The fair came back in 2020 as a drive-thru to give people a chance to take their photo with a masked-up Big Tex and enjoy a corndog or two without the potential of contracting the coronavirus. What was supposed to be an hour to 90 minute experience turned into a chance to sit in a parking lot for a few hours.

Fairgoers on Twitter were saying that they had to wait in a line of cars for two to five hours just to get into the fair. Some people ran out of gas while waiting in lines of cars that stretched for up to a mile.

“We have been waiting for over two hours in the drive thru line and now maybe we’re halfway through the queue in the parking lots,” Steven Rosenbaum told CBS 11. “We were definitely not prepared for this wait and it looks like lots of others weren’t either.”

For $65 or $99, fairgoers got a photo with Big Tex, corn dogs, kettle corn, fried oreos, cotton candy, drinks, and a prize. People had to pick a time slot for when to arrive at the fair when purchasing tickets, but the waits were so long that the time slots no longer mattered.

The first tent where people picked up their drinks is what slowed the line of cars down since people didn't know what option they had before they pulled up, the Dallas Morning News reported. Fair organizers apologized for the first weekend hiccups and are retooling its drive thru process. Organizers also said that they're planning to provide gas for cars that run out while waiting.

Photo: Getty Images