Colorado State Fair: Fun, thrills, and spectacles for all

(PUEBLO, Colo.) — The 152nd Colorado State Fair is underway in Pueblo and this year’s theme is “Colorful Colorado,” bringing a new attraction for 2024: the nightly drone show at 9:15 p.m. at the “Big Arena.” FOX21 News Reporter Carolynn Felling checked out the fair and experienced some of this year’s main attractions.

The Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show is a must-see. Their show features wood carving, comedy, log rolling, and axe throwing.

“My favorite thing about being a lumberjack would be making people laugh. I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m just good at pretending,” said Lyle Lecaptain, a lumberjack with the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show. “We got four shows a day, at 1, 3, 5, and 7 p.m., come early because we’ve got four bleachers, and about five minutes before the show, it’s standing room, only.”

Another must-see at this year’s fair is the Xpogo Stunt Team, which performs wild stunts on professional pogo sticks. These pogos aren’t your typical pogo stick you played with as a child, each one is nearly four feet tall and made of high-grade metal infused with air to adjust the buoyancy required for each trick. The show includes flips up to eleven feet in the air, high jumps over bars, and much more.

“Every section of the show is different, and it’s a lot of fun for the whole family, old people, young kids, like anybody,” said Tone Staubs, Xpogo Stuntman.

“This is the only one that I really, really love and consider family. The reason why is when we’re doing these shows, yeah, they’re choreographed, they’re a little scripted, but as you saw… out of the blue, like yesterday I was singing opera in our show,” said Wesley Gadson with the Xpogo Stunt team. “The thing is, it’s like, we’re just dudes that are buddies that are hanging out, doing what we love.”

In addition to some amazing shows, the fair also features some delicious food offering everything from funnel cakes, ice cream, nachos and so much more. They also feature local vendors like Giodone’s, a staple for the fair selling Pueblo’s finest fried green chilis, a dish the city is known for.

“This is our staple right here; this is what we’re all about. So, our deep-fried chilis, our sloppers, everything is based out of the fair. My boss… loves the fair, this is his favorite place on Earth. So, we are just blessed to be here,” says Andrea Messick, a server for Giodone’s.

The fair also offers free concerts, a rodeo, carnival games, rides and so much more. Even when the sun goes down the fun continues with a drone show and other events. The fair runs until Monday, Sept. 2.

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