Crews Begin Tulsa State Fair Tear Down

The gates and rides closed Sunday night as the Tulsa State Fair wrapped up. Crews spent the day getting ready for the big tear down.

The '11 Days of Awesome' shut down Sunday night and the entire fairgrounds will go under a massive renovation.

"Oh it's a rat race, you know when we move into town we build a city," said Vendor Andy McKinney.

That city is the Tulsa State Fair, and Sunday night it was already being torn down and the barns where cows and goats were being shown during the fair slowly turned into dust.

All the places you walked in and around during the '11 Days of Awesome' were soon replaced with dirt because the Arabian Horse Show is coming to town, and the Expo Center will turn into a horse barn.

Wayne Driggers, Tulsa State Fair, "It will be about 12 inches, about 12 inches high and we'll put stalls on top of it," said Wayne Driggers with the Tulsa State Fair. “This will all be stalls, this area right here will be horse stalls."

Driggers oversees the bulk of the cleanup operations and logistics for the fairgrounds.

"It's a massive operation to flip it from this, and all these guys will be out of here by Tuesday afternoon,” Driggers said. “And we'll have dirt rolling in."

The Art Deco Pavillion changed over several times. Crews had to tear down and setup three shows during the fair.

Driggers said the Arabian Horse Show, starting in about a week, will be just as big as the Tulsa State Fair.

"All these barns will be full of horses; our guys just do a super job on the turnover," he said.

The McKinney's Corn Dog stand at the Tulsa State Fair said they come just about every year, but in just a matter of moments – when it's time to shut down – they go from selling to cleaning.

"Usually in an hour's time we can be off the site, it's a pretty simple operation for us," McKinney said.

He has about a week to rest before he has to head down to Louisiana for its state fair.

"What it takes us four days to put together we can take apart in one night, you come by Monday morning and pretty much everything is gone," McKinney said.

As the rides get packed up and carnival games come to a close, vendors are already looking forward to next year.

“Lord willing and the creek don't rise we'll be here," McKinney said.

Driggers said, “This was just perfect the other day, now we're tearing it down."

Horse competitions start Friday Morning, October 17th.

Officials said the state fair will be held all in October next year.