For me, fair food is footlong chili dogs made by the Columbus (Ga) Exchange Club. I don't have childhood fair food memories. My dad hated the fair, so I didn't go with him until I was a teenager, when his 4th wife and her 4 kids forced him to go & so we went every year then. When I was a kid, the first time I remember going to the fair was when we went on Halloween, and I was in a bad plastic costume of I don't know what little girl was the fad at the time, with a plastic blondheaded mask. The highlight of the evening, if you could call it that, was seeing Tanya Tucker perform for free, and me sitting there the whole time wondering what rooftop she jumped off of to get in that skin tight red leather bodysuit she was wearing. I think I was about 7-8 years old.
Mother took me and my friends in junior high, but we were all about the rides by then. Dad always said they weren't safe, which is why he didn't want to go, but we loved them anyway. The last time we went, when I was in high school, a roller coaster flew off the tracks the night after we were there, so he refused to ever go back, saying his point had been proven. I'd just ridden that coaster when we were there the night before.
When I was married, my ex liked to go to these 2 events in Columbus, GA every year for the food. One was "The Taste of Columbus" and the other is the Columbus Day festival, which goes all weekend. The first is a 1-day/night thing that started out indoors & has gotten so big it's a street fair now, where local caterers and (mostly) new restaurants give you a chance to try their food a la carte. They used to do it where you paid with special poker chip type coins, but it's gotten too big now & you just pay all the vendors like anywhere else. The Columbus Day thing is huge, and includes kiddie rides & games, a barbecue competition, 4 days of live music (Fri night - Mon night), craft competitions, and historical demonstrations. Of course, anything I did or anywhere I went with the ex, the man wants no part of though, so I haven't been in 8 years.