It’s no secret that the Red River Showdown is one of the busiest weekends for the State Fair of Texas. The bitter feud between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma stirs up a frenzy at the Cotton Bowl every year, and it’s easy for Fair Park to become a nightmare.
Whether you’re cheering on the Longhorns or the Sooners, here’s a guide to navigating the State Fair of Texas during Saturday’s game. (A note for regular Saturday fairgoers: time your trip so that you enter the fairgrounds after kickoff and leave before the game ends. Trust us.)
If you’re going to the game…
Show up early. More than 100,000 people show up to the Red River Showdown every year, and you can bet that traffic will be nuts and lines will be long.
Just for Saturday, parking lot gates will open at 7 a.m., the Midway and outdoor concessions will open at 8 a.m., and the Cotton Bowl gates will open at 9 a.m. It’ll give you plenty of time to scarf down a corny dog or two and maybe get a ride in on the Ferris wheel. The game itself starts at 11 a.m.
Ride DART. It’s better if you don’t get in a car to go to the State Fair, especially on this day. There’s a Green Line circulator that bypasses both Victory and MLK Jr. stations. If you’d prefer MLK, a special Red Line service shoots past Cityplace/Uptown on the way to MLK Jr. There’s a quicker pre-game Green Line southbound route that skips past a few stops on the way to Fair Park station. There’s also a special Green Line post-game northbound route.
Plus, special bus service to Fair Park will leave from CityLine/Bush, SMU/Mockingbird, and Trinity Mills. You can find more information here, but it’ll be way less of a headache to ride DART this weekend.
If you must drive, know where to park and be dropped off. If you’re patient enough to drive, you can park at gates two, six, eleven, and fifteen. For those taking the rideshare route, pick-up and drop-off for all rides will be at gate one, near Gurley and Haskell avenues.
Buy your coupons ahead of time. You can’t buy food, drinks, or ride anything without coupons. To avoid long lines at the kiosks, you can buy coupons at BigTex.com and pick them up at a hospitality booth or a coupon pick-up center when you get there.
Coupons are sold in $50 packages with a $200 limit, and one coupon equals $1. When you pick them up, make sure you’ve got your ID and the card you used to purchase the coupons. (Psst: If you don’t use them all, you can save them for your next visit).
Download your ticket before you get to the stadium. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, and in terms of getting into the actual Cotton Bowl, we’re going to play it extra safe. Download your ticket before you get to the fairgrounds. It doesn’t matter if you have the speediest 5G in the country—save your ticket onto your phone to avoid any issues or heartbreak.
If you’re just going to the State Fair…
Try going during the game. For those who are bold enough to head to the fair this Saturday without a ticket to the game, keep in mind that somewhere around 90,000 people will likely be gathered in the stadium between 11 a.m. and about 2 p.m., making it more tolerable to hop from booth to booth during those hours. After the game is over, the fans from the Cotton Bowl will empty onto the fairgrounds, and at that point, no one can help you.
Prepare for the crowds. The game is one of the biggest college rivalries, and fans will show up even if the teams aren’t exactly good. The same advice above goes for you, too: buy coupons (and your tickets, just to be safe) online and pick them up when you get there. And maybe don’t bring the kids, if you can help it.
Wait it out. Go a few hours after the game is over. The State Fair is open until 11 p.m. Saturday, so the crowds probably won’t be as hectic after the game is done. Or just go Sunday, or any other day when Fair Park isn’t a sea of burnt orange and crimson.
Other tips
Wear a hat and sunscreen. It’s going to be sunny with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s, but at Fair Park—and especially the Cotton Bowl—the sun can still be a scorcher. Don’t forget to stay hydrated.
Pick a guide, any guide. We’ve rounded up a family-friendly guide, a discount guide, a shopping guide, and a food guide. Take your pick.
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