Jacksonville Fairgrounds — Local services in Jacksonville

Great fair, super secure, the police do a great job patrolling. This fair gets packed on the weekends, the weekdays are the best time to come without waiting in line.

I have been to many fairs, state fairs, national fairs and interstate fairs and the Jacksonville fair holds it's own as quality family entertainment and agricultural education fair. The grounds are kept clean, there are many facilities available and they are kept clean constantly by attendees.

At first glance, one may think that the fairgrounds is small and not realize how much there is to offer packed into downtown Jacksonville. There are many exhibits tucked away, such as a rare plant exhibit that is in it's own little hidden section. Good luck finding it. ;)

Ok. It's inside the building next to the ag building that has events going on daily with different cattle. It's an entire huge arena.... Indoors. Totally check it out. Don't forget hand sanitizer.

There is bacon wrapped chicken on a stick. It's delicious, Right By the stage down the row from the most awesome Face Painting by the big oak tree at the center of the fairgrounds.

There is a guy that has the best kettle corn, His name is Henry. it's only a special batch he makes with coconut oil that is the most awesomely delicious though, I think he should make more of it and just charge more cause it's darn delicious. His regular corn is no n-gmo, not sure about the oil. He is right Diagonally across from the Face Painting.

Cedar River is awesome, try their farm raised shrimp basket. It's freakin' delicious. It's also right across from the Face Painting.

Oh yeah, the Face Paintier is Awesome, she claims she can do almost any of her designs in 1:30 to 3:00, you should time her and tell her the results, or be amazed, whatever. It's a sight to see in and of itself. They are like.. Intensely amazing. She is known for doing the top fairs in the USA with her company FaceMasters, LLC!

They have firefighter shows, and free ice cream from the WB tent on the weekend. They have dog shows inside and crazy acrobatic clown shows outside. There were giant robots around the midway last year! Too much to list!

It was a good fair, come with your family and definitely bring cash because atm's are like $4 a pop. Just bring whatever is in your budget, I recommend around $100 per child for the whole deal, well, unless you follow my advice.

There's also a funnel cake ice cream at the corner down from the Face Painting by the Oak Tree that has great milkshakes. Real... Milk and ice cream that is hand scooped and blended. For like only $4. Funnel cakes are cheap too. Very good though... for fair food. They have been there many years.

The cheese steak people are clean and local and they deliver a quality product as well. The fried rice is pretty good in the asian trailer. Shish ke babs are always good.

This year my friends at the taco truck will be there. The 3 amigos tacos is awesome, chicken, pineapple pork and steak. Real steak. In a corn tortilla with cotija and cabbage. Like a traditional taco. It's good. Their steak quesadilla is the best as well, it's even better with the green sauce on it.

The midway is the expensive part of the fair. It is fun but that is where the $60 of the $100 comes from. Best advice is something that has value like the Face Painting, it stays on all night and makes for awesome photos and memories. Imagine being a kid as a tiger going through a mirrored fun house! This is a place for kids to have fun above all else so remember that. It's an exciting and fun and family friendly fair, it also has the big rides that are crazy awesome.

Go this year! Make Jacksonville even bigger and it will expand into the stadium! Just keep coming. Attendance was larger than the state fair in...

Just thought I'd give a review of the Fair this year since they switched vendors for the food and rides. We go every year as a family thang so I'm pretty familiar. First things first, we went yesterday on the first day. ( we always choose this day because it's always the cheapest for our big family and it isn't crowded.) They opened at 5. We arrived around 630pm. We went straight in after being searched. Bought the $15 wristbands at the gate, and had to stand in a separate line to actually get the band it's self. ( This is unnecessary in my opinion) They should hand out the wristbands at the gate when you pay. They had a good bit of new rides that haven't been in Jacksonville for at least the last 10 years I've been going. The lines were short and sweet. We rode almost every ride besides the one right when you walk in you half to pay cash for. Now, one thing I DID NOT LIKE AT ALL, is they have a ride called The Hydra. It goes upside down which we all know everyone loves. Now, you get on the ride right, they have green lights at the top to make sure you're safely strapped in. If the green light doesn't go off, the ride operator then tries to shove the bar down onto you to smash you in until the light turns green. Now mind you, this is a safety feature which I LOVE, it's the fat shaming that this ride produces when your forced to get off cause the safety latch won't latch. Everyone is facing each other so you see all the people who are struggling to get strapped in and then getting shamed and told they can't "fit" forcing them to get out the seat which is about 3 feet from the ground while everyone else is looking at you and what is being said. I didn't see a sign about a weight limit and I rode the ride 3 times just to read the warnings first. Now, the food is good per usual. They have some new options like an egg roll truck, lobster rolls, and a place that sells Korean Hotdogs. All in all, go...

Went for the veterans stand down and job fair. The Jacksonville fairgrounds are pathetic. Not much to that piece of real estate in my opinion. This city is the largest little town I've ever seen in my lifetime of travels. The city leaders don't want this place to thrive and progress, they want it exactly as it is. How else would you explain a people mover elevated tram that didn't and does not link the sports complex's? I've lived and visited cities the size of Pensacola that have at least a Walgreen's, CVS or some kind of drug store within it's downtown vicinity. Hell Lakeland has more to offer downtown than Jacksonville. With no attractions in the core of this city the side walks roll up and the downtown workers make a beeline for the outskirts. When I moved here in 2007 the Landing was a great attraction and, I along with everyone else just watched it die a slow death, all because of the two brothers whom leased the space from the backwoods city leaders couldn't, rather wouldn't come together to make a decent business decision that would've greatly benefited both parties, the citizens and visitors to this city. The rumor's as to why is that neither party wanted to be responsible for security. The river and the beaches are the best assets and attraction to this place. And who builds a county jail on prime real estate property overlooking a beautiful natural river? Cities don't pay taxes to cities so this was a questionable decision when they could've had private enterprise build residences or commercial which would've drawn revenue from either sales or property taxes? You asked me about what I thought of my visit to the fairgrounds and you got...