Behind the Texas State Fair midway, an RV park houses the workers who run the fair
RV City, a temporary park on the Dallas fairgrounds, is home for weeks to ride operators, game workers and food vendors, RVtravel reported.
The workers who run the rides, games and food stands at the State Fair of Texas spend the season living in their own RVs on the Dallas fairgrounds, according to RVtravel. The site based part of its report on a recent story by NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.
The temporary park, known as RV City, is not open to fairgoers. It is reserved for the people who keep the fair running, including ride operators, game workers, food vendors and others who come from around the country. RVtravel, citing NBC 5, reported that RV City has roughly 200 to 250 spaces.
Rusty Fitzgerald, the fair's senior vice president of midway operations, lives in RV City and has the unofficial title of mayor. RVtravel reported that he is responsible for the park as well as the midway's rides and games. He also has duties involving Big Tex, the fair's 55-foot-tall cowboy mascot.
According to RVtravel, living on site makes sense because of the hours: a workday might start at 3 or 4 in the morning and run until nearly midnight. When a fire broke out on the midway in October, Fitzgerald was close enough to respond quickly. Food vendor Lupita Valerio, already at work, saw the trouble, tried a fire extinguisher and then called 911. Fitzgerald told NBC 5 he can reach virtually anywhere on the fairgrounds within seven minutes.
RVtravel reported that Valerio has made RV City her seasonal home for three decades. She drives her trailer up from San Antonio and stays about two months, along with workers she considers friends and family. She has fitted the trailer with bunk beds so the group can stay together. She also cooks three meals a day for her crew and starts making breakfast at her food stand around 6 a.m.
RVtravel noted that for these workers, the job and the calendar decide where they go and how long they stay. Their RVs mean they can bring familiar living quarters from city to city and don't have to find temporary housing at each stop.
According to RVtravel, the 2026 fair ran from September 25 through October 18 and drew nearly 2.1 million visitors over 24 days. Now that the fair is over, RV City's annual stay is coming to an end.
The report leaves several questions open. It does not say what caused the October fire or whether anyone was hurt or anything was damaged. It also does not say what workers pay to stay in RV City, if anything, what services the park provides, or where its residents go next. This story rests on a single RVtravel article, which relies in part on NBC 5's reporting.
