Photo credit: Brian Benefield
[This is the latest installment of “Cobb Cuisine, Culture and Community” by Brian Benefield. Photo above by Brian Benefield]
There are two kinds of people at the North Georgia State Fair: those who go for the rides, games, livestock, and funnel cakes, and those who claim they’re “just going to walk around.”
Nobody is just going to walk around.
The North Georgia State Fair has a way of turning otherwise reasonable adults into children who have suddenly forgotten the dangers of fried food, spinning rides, and games designed by people who clearly understand probability better than we do.
You arrive with a perfectly sensible plan. Maybe you’ll stroll through the exhibits, check out the animals, listen to some music, and grab a snack. Twenty minutes later, you’re holding a ninety-six ounce lemonade, carrying a bucket of something fried and wondering whether it’s physically possible to eat a turkey leg the size of a tuba.
I’m trying to convince my wife, Cecilie, to go with me, but she thinks the smells that are so heavenly euphoric to me are somewhat offensive to her. I shall keep trying…
The fair is a sensory assault in the best possible way. There’s the smell of funnel cakes drifting through the air, competing with sausage, barbecue, popcorn, and something on a stick that probably started life as a perfectly innocent food before somebody decided it needed to be dipped in batter and lowered into boiling oil.
Then there are the lights. At night, the midway looks like somebody handed Las Vegas to a teenager with a credit card. Ferris wheels glow against the Georgia sky, carnival rides spin with people screaming happily, and every game booth is brightly illuminated, practically begging you to spend $50 trying to win a stuffed animal that would cost $6.99 at Walmart. And somehow, you do it.
New entertainment for 2026 includes Off Axis stunt show featuring world class acrobatics, Keith King BMX- an X games competitor performing tricks, jumps and aerial stunts. And kids of all ages will love The Amazing Bubble Factory, featuring millions of bubbles that range from pea sized to ones that could swallow a minivan.
The livestock area offers a welcome dose of reality. Cows stand there looking mildly annoyed by the whole affair, as if they have been dragged away from perfectly good grass to participate in our annual celebration of deep-fried carbohydrates.
The kids, meanwhile, are having the time of their lives. They run from ride to ride with the boundless energy of people who have not yet discovered lower-back pain. Parents follow behind carrying drinks, jackets, backpacks, and the growing realization that they have spent approximately $147 in cashless transactions without actually purchasing anything they can explain.
For those of us of a certain age above 55 like myself, the fair has another attraction: the senior discount day on 9/25. What’s not to love about free breakfast, a cuddly petting zoo and being first in line for the Ferris wheel? There is something wonderfully Southern about being handed a discount because you’ve reached an age when you have finally developed enough wisdom to know better, and immediately use the savings to buy a baseball bat size corn dog and then have a fried Oreo for dessert.
And that’s really the charm of the North Georgia State Fair. It isn’t elegant. It isn’t particularly sensible. It doesn’t pretend to be. It’s noisy, colorful, slightly ridiculous, and wonderfully communal. For a few hours, everyone gets to be a kid again. We eat things we wouldn’t normally eat, ride things we probably shouldn’t ride, and walk far more than we intended.
Eventually, you head toward the parking lot, full of fried food and questionable decisions.
And just before we leave, someone inevitably says: “Same time next year?”
Of course. We’ll see you at the funnel cake stand.
For more information: https://www.northgeorgiastatefair.com
Brian Benefield is an Atlanta native born in Dekalb County, who has lived in Cobb since 2003. He has worked in Hospitality, Marketing, Real Estate, and most recently Food Tourism. Married to Cecilie Benefield for 12 blissful years. They have a dog, Miss Pickles. Hobbies are mountain biking, running, gardening, and trying new recipes in the kitchen. Member of Les Marmitions cooking club since 2016, where we cook 5-course meals with local Atlanta chefs.