It’s time for the crafty Texans to showcase creativity. Texas State Fair has issued the 2025 version of its Arts & Crafts and Culinary Contest Guide.
The State Fair Creative Arts team hosts two types of contests. Prefair art and craft contests such as quilting and jam making. And then there’s a fairtime cooking contest, including the best breads and the best dishes with cheese. There are over 1,100 art and craft categories and 26 cooking contests.
Prefair contest
The 2025 Arts & Crafts Contest includes fine art. Ceramics; Designer craftsman. Dolls; Canned food; Hobby collections; Holiday corners; Needle points, Cruel, counted cross stitch. Needles and sewing; Afghans, rugs, quilts, bed covers. Photo; Scale model. Glue-a-shoe; and a great pumpkin challenge.
Actual registrations for the 2025-year-old fair contest will open online online with the deadline of Monday, July 28th, with an online entry form and fees.
Contestants can submit entries by post by July 28th, or hand-delivered items to the Creative Arts Building in Fair Park from 9am to 5pm on August 1st and 2nd.
Over the next few weeks, entries will be judged and contestants will be notified once the results are confirmed. The ribbon awarded entries will be exhibited at the 2025 state fair in Texas.
Cooking contest
The 2025 Cooking Contest includes bread. Cook with cheese; honey, magical ingredients. Beekeeper honey, fork from the farm. Chocolate; Pizza Cook Off; Youth Cooking Contest. Best of Showdown (Invitation only); Play with your food; Dough-re-me pastries; Soup or salad; Ice cream freeze-off; The ultimate grilled cheese challenge. Charcoal Grilling Committee. Texas Chuck Wagon. International cuisine; Fast cuisine; Fair formulas; Chicken or eggs; Cobbler cook-off; Tex Mex; and candy.
The Texas Cooking Contest Guide’s 2025 State Fair and Cooking Contest Calendar are now available. Online registration will be open on May 7th and ends on Monday, July 28th.
Blue Ribbon Battle
The Texas State Fair is reclaiming the Battle of Blue Ribbon, a spring cooking competition consisting of three most popular creative arts cooking contests, including cookies, cakes and pies, which will take place May 16-18.
Amateur home cooks of all ages can enter for the opportunity to be awarded the first, second, third and honorable mentions to a total of 40 Blue Ribbon recipients invited to participate in their respective Best of Showdown in the Competition Kitchen at the 2025 State Fair in Texas on October 5, 2025.
One contestant from each of the three contests will be awarded the Best of Show Ribbon, allowing you to proceed to a direct battle to win the best grand prize of Showdown. To learn more about this particular competition and to register, visit bigtex.com/battle.
Registration
Participants are encouraged to use an online registration system for all contests. This allows the creation of family accounts, allowing adults within the household to add additional contestants to their accounts and register youth contestants. Youth contestants have their own designated entries for the Creative Arts Competition, but all communications regarding these entries will be sent to the account’s primary adult.
The Arts & Crafts and Cooking Contest guide has a paper registration form that can be mailed to the fair, but we recommend using the online registration portal to ensure that competitors receive useful reminders and review results for each contest.
The 2025 state fair in Texas will open on Friday, September 26th and will run until Sunday, October 19th.
