Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 30, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, September 27, 2013 Page: 13 of 44
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coverstory
STATE FAIR, From Page 11
5. Festival of light
3. High-heeled decorators
Past examples from the Shoe & Glue contest
closes on Oct. 20.
4. King of the gays
i
v.
7 V
1
2. The good bad girl
Dragon at the Chinese Lantern Festival
09.27.13 dallasvoice
13
Mi
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Kacey Musgraves
I
era and the beginning of a new era."
The couple, who even attended last year's Hal-
loween block party on Cedar Springs as a fire-
fighter and a burning Big Tex, are planning to
attend the State Fair again this fall to enjoy the
food and witness the return of the icon they
helped rebuild.
Kacey Musgraves has a knack for going against
the grain. Her smash album Same Trailer Different
a
Park, released earlier this year, touched on some
nontraditional topics for country music, including
smoking pot and LGBT rights. But that hasn't
stopped the country bad girl one bit.
In fact, she likes that country stations won't play
her gay anthem "Follow Your Arrow." The song
has the line "Kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls if
that's something you're into" and would shock
many fans of the often-conservative genre.
But for Musgraves, a Texas native from Sulphur
Springs, the song was about expression and being
proud of who you are, what you do and who you
love.
While she's busy shaking up the norms in coun-
try music, encouraging country stars to come out
as LGBT and others to be supportive of equality,
she'll be bringing her inclusive music to the fair-
grounds when she performs on the Main Stage on
Friday, Oct. 18, at 8:30 p.m.
This is one bad girl it's good to like.
The tradition of the State Fair musical — the
four-week long national tour from Dallas Summer
Musicals that takes place at the Fair Park Music
Hall during most of the run of the fair — is so en-
grained, it's hard to imagine a world without it.
But starting next year, you won't have to imagine:
This is the final year DSM will run a show during
the fair. (The company's contract with Big Tex ex-
pired, and the DSM chose not to renew.)
It's nice, though, to be able to go out on a high
note — and a gay one at that. The last-ever musical
is Disney's stage adaptation of The Lion King, the
Tony Award-winning behemoth that has played
on Broadway for well more than a decade and
shows no signs of slowing down. And why would
it? It has the pageantry of a Fashion Week runway
show, the spectacle of Halloween on Cedar
Springs and most of all, the songs of that gay mas-
ter of the catchy pop hook, Elton John.
And it doesn't hurt that the hot actor who plays
Simba, B'way veteran Dashaun Young, makes our
eyes pop out of our heads with lust. But no — it's
a family musical. We'll keep it clean.
J
State Fair of Texas
The State Fair of Texas runs Sept. 27 through
Oct. 20. Exhibit buildings are open 10 a.m. to
9 p.m. daily and until 10 p.m. on Friday and
Saturday. For more, visit BigTex.com.
If your idea of a exhibit featuring Chinese
lanterns is a wire holding up pieces of colored
paper hanging from trees while strands of Christ-
mas light bulbs weakly illuminate them, then
clearly you haven't see the State Fair's eye-pop-
ping outdoor festival of light.
The Chinese Lantern Festival is back again and
bigger than last year. Life-sized (and more-than-
life-sized) castles, dragons and even dinosaurs are
draped in vibrant silks, dotting a substantial por-
tion of acreage near the Natural History Museum.
During the day, it's a spectacular explosion of
pastels, but after the sun goes down, it becomes
something even greater: An explosion of shim-
mering energy, with water-spouting boats, Anima-
tronic dancing girls, a palace made, literally, out of
china (the porcelain kind) and even a roaring T-
rex.
For fabulousness, there's simply no comparison
(and that includes Big Tex). ■
Staff writer David Taffet and Life+Style editor
Arnold Wayne Jones contributed to this report.
[, n,- *»
part of a Texas tradition chipped in to donate to
Big Tex's restoration. Among them, of course, were
the gays.
Fort Worth couple Kevin Reichenstein and Jim
Forrester have attended the State Fair together
every year for 15 years.
While they made it out to the fairgrounds last
year before Big Tex was destroyed, Reichenstein
said it was "a numbing moment" when he heard
the news.
He donated to the fund to restore Big Tex in
February, in part for the memories the two had
shared at the fair and also because it was For-
rester's birthday.
"It was such a tradition we wanted to be a part
of the rebuilding of the icon," Reichenstein said.
Forrester said he was "ecstatic" when he
learned about the donation in their names.
"I felt very honored to be a part of the last of the
first Big Tex," he said. "And part of the end of an
■t j
F
♦ w
Take a high heel
pump and glue nickels
all over it and the result
is pumpernickel and a
blue ribbon.
Shoe & Glue is a cre-
ative arts contest held
in the crafts building
during the State Fair.
hk "It's completely off
the wall," Friends of
Fair Park Executive Di-
rector Craig Holcomb
said. "The most camp
part of the State Fair."
Friends of Fair Park
helps preserve the
buildings, art and
sculpture in Fair Park
from the 1936 Centen-
nial Exposition and
promotes use of the
park year round. Hol-
comb, who is gay,
in . - ~ served on the Dallas
City Council.
M He explained his fa-
vorite contest as get a
K, shoe, a glue gun and
decorate.
"It is not officially
gay, but it is soooo
gay," he said.
That would include one of
last year's winners — Honey Boot Boot.
Shoe & Glue is one of the first contests of the fair.
Check in is on opening day this Friday from 10-
11:30 a.m. The judging begins at 11:30 a.m. Entry
fee is $2. Only one decorated shoe accepted per
class—boot, high-heeled shoe, sandal or flip flop,
tennis shoe and slip on. Edible substances may not
be used. All entries must be no more than
24"x24"x24" and made from purchased or hand-
made decorations.
Winning entries will be on display through the
run of the fair and may be picked up after the fair
11MMY CHOO CHOO TRAIN Hk *
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Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 30, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, September 27, 2013, newspaper, September 27, 2013; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1179805/m1/13/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.