‘A giant money grab’: Arizona State Fair faces backlash after video showing high prices goes viral, including a $23 turkey leg

The price wasn’t just from one thing; everything from ticket prices that have gone up two years in a row to expensive food (including a $23 dollar turkey leg) led to the fair being significantly more expensive than normal.

“There was never a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, that’s too much,’” said Ramos to 12news. “It was just like… all of it, and it just adds up. It just feels like it’s turned into a giant money grab.”

Here’s what’s behind the increased prices and how you can visit the fair without breaking the bank.

High food and fuel prices are to blame

The Arizona State Fair says these price increases didn’t come out of nowhere; they were caused by the same gas prices that consumers are struggling to budget around right now.

“You see gas prices go up, and the vendors have to pay this gas,” a representative of the Arizona State Fair told 12news. “A lot of these vendors travel from California or New Mexico… it’s a terrible thing, and we’re hoping it gets better.”

Other state fairs and their vendors are reporting the same problems around high gas and food prices.

One food vendor for the North Carolina state fair, Tonga Ramseur, says she doesn’t expect to turn a profit this year because of inflation and greater fee costs from the fair. She also says that she’s going to have to raise her prices this year.

“It makes me feel bad when you have to go up on the prices,” she told WRAL. “That’s hitting into everybody else’s pockets too, because the same thing I’m feeling, they’re feeling too.”

A Tulsa State Fair vendor, Jay Wells, also says that customers are going to have to pay extra because of gas and fuel costs.

“In the past we’ve been able to absorb that, but in today’s world it has to be passed on,” he said to News On 6.