After welcoming North Texans back to Fair Park for another year, Big Tex is "riding off into the sunset" Wednesday and being dismantled.
Crews lowered the giant cowboy from his post at about 10 a.m. Wednesday, signaling the end of Big Tex's 69th year as the fair's official greeter and this year's theme of "Howdy, Folks!"
Big Tex welcomed more than 2.2 million visitors to Fair Park during the 24-day run of the fair.
Here are some facts about the 2021 State Fair of Texas.
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- More than 1,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered to fairgoers by Dallas County Health Department.
- More than 300 volunteers supported the Feed the Need promotion, raising nearly 200,000 pounds of canned food items at the State Fair gates, which equates to more than 236,000 meals for the North Texas Food Bank.
- More than 21,000 first repsonders and their families visited the Fair over 24 days, utilizing the special discount offer for their service.
- More than 50,000 military members and their families visited the Fair over 24 days, also using a discount offer.
- About 525,000 Fletcher's corny dogs were sold.
- Nearly 1.84 million free admission tickets were given to students throughout North Texas, with more than 270,000 teachers receiving a voucher for free admission.
With exactly one week to go until Opening Day, the State Fair of Texas lifted Big Tex into his spot.
