COLUMBUS – When the Ohio Expo Center opens its gates on July 29, the first decision visitors face will be harder than usual. Thirty-plus new food items from 15 first-time vendors have joined the concession lineup at this year’s Ohio State Fair, the largest single-year food expansion the midway has seen in recent memory, leaving returning fairgoers to abandon old routines before the first corn dog is ordered.
The twelve-day fair, running through August 9 at 717 East 17th Avenue in Columbus, has long run on a combination of nostalgia and novelty. This edition tilts toward the latter. Among the additions drawing early attention is a Catfish on a Stick, the kind of straightforward execution that has defined fried fair food for decades. Alongside it sits a Churro Korean Corn Dog, combining a churro-dusted coating with the Korean-American corn dog format that has moved steadily from coastal food halls into the American fair circuit. The pairing on a single fairgrounds illustrates how far and fast culinary trends now travel.
Two more new items lean into the sweet-savory terrain that state fairs have always done well. A Fluffer Nutter Funnel Cake layers marshmallow fluff and peanut butter onto the battered-and-fried base that is among the oldest fair standards. Pork Belly in a Cone takes the opposite route, fitting a preparation more commonly found in restaurant menus into the handheld container of a food cart. Neither is especially subtle, and neither is supposed to be.
Not everything on the list is from a first-time operator. Schmidt’s Sausage Haus und Restaurant, the Columbus German-American institution that has been drawing fair lines for decades, returns with its Root Beer Cream Puff, a choux shell filled with vanilla cream and glazed with root beer. It is the fourth consecutive year Schmidt’s has offered the item. Lines at the Schmidt’s stand typically form early. Fair organizers have not released individual food prices ahead of opening day.
The 2026 fair also debuts two new physical additions to the fairgrounds. The Ohio Showcase Building opens as a consolidated space for shopping vendors and the Ohio Food Hall, bringing multiple dining operators under one covered roof. The structure joins the Taste of Ohio Café as a permanent dining option, giving visitors a weather-protected destination during the late-July heat that regularly characterizes the fair’s opening days. The ImAGine Agriculture Exhibit makes its debut this year as well, an interactive installation designed to connect younger visitors to Ohio’s farming traditions in a format built to compete with the midway for attention.
On the two Thursdays of the fair’s run, July 30 and August 6, organizers run the $3 Thursdays promotion, historically among the most-attended days of the twelve-day calendar. Senior Day, organized in partnership with the Ohio Department of Aging, and free live music events round out a schedule designed to draw each segment of Ohio’s population to Columbus before the fair closes.
The midway this year has approximately 70 amusement rides provided by Talley Amusement Rides, all subject to multi-stage inspections administered by the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Ride Safety Division. Ron Dean, who leads the division, described a sequence beginning with static inspections during ride setup and continuing through operational tests before the fair opens each day. Inspectors use fall arrest equipment to climb towers and examine connection points on complex rides like ferris wheels. Large rides require at least two inspectors under the standards enacted by Tyler’s Law, the 2019 Ohio legislation passed following a fatal accident at the 2017 fair. The law mandated stricter manufacturing requirements and mandatory fatigue corrosion reviews. Ride operator certification is annual and specific to each assigned ride, according to Taylor Talley of the ride contractor.
The fair has drawn more than one million visitors in strong years, anchored partly by perennial draws like the Butter Cow, a full-size bovine sculpture in butter that has been a tradition since 1903 and is displayed in a refrigerated case each year. Band and choir competitions, livestock judging, and youth organization showcases fill the non-midway schedule alongside Ohio State Fair programming that runs across all twelve days.
Across Ohio, summer gatherings have operated with heightened awareness of crowd safety since the Toledo Old West End Festival shooting in June left 12 people injured. The Ohio State Fair’s grounds, under the supervision of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, include a law enforcement presence that fair management has not specifically detailed ahead of opening day.
Whether the new vendor lineup produces the sort of lines that signal lasting inclusion on the fairgrounds roster remains an open question. Some new fair foods find their audience and return for subsequent years. Others disappear between editions. The 15 first-time operators setting up along the midway this week are making their case on a fairgrounds that has been editing its food program since the nineteenth century.
