Usually when you think of the Florida State Fair, you think of fun rides, laughter, and deep fried everything. Although these things do exist, there also lies a dark past filled with crimes yearly. Just this year chaos was everywhere within the fairgrounds. Deputies had apples thrown at them, civilians were been robbed, and people involved were seriously injured.

“Honestly the violence was so crazy that I left early so I could stay out of danger. There were people running everywhere, fight all over the place. It all just felt so unsafe, “said junior, Edward Cortez.

Most of the violence created during the State Fair is usually caused by people under the age of 17. According to Tampa Bay Times deputies arrested a total of 111 people on February 7, 2014. 95 of these people were 17 and under.

Every year on the first Friday of the fair all hell breaks loose. Hillsborough County students are given a free admission ticket to go. Most teenagers take advantage of this ticket and go spend the day with their friends. Throughout the day everything goes fine, but once the sun goes down the violence begins. Crowds of teenagers rampage through the fairgrounds. Policemen try to stop the chaos, but they are outnumbered and are attacked by unsupervised minors.

“As soon as you see that moon come up you know that you need to get out of there. You do not want to be there when stampedes of kids are running wild, “said sophomore, Tanner Stall.

Innocent people are injured and bothered by the recklessness of these teenagers. Complaints are given daily by civilians.

“I was just having a great night with my kids when all of a sudden there are teenagers everywhere. They were stealing, fighting, and being complete idiots. I’ve been going to the fair for as long as I can remember and this isn’t my first time encountering these actions by teenagers, “said local resident Freddy Lopez.

That night a 14-year-old Andrew Joseph III was taken out of the fairgrounds for his behavior. Later after attempting to cross interstate 4 he was killed. Deputies were saying that because of all the violence going on that night that they could not supervise every teenager in the fairgrounds.

The Florida State Fair isn’t the only fair were chaos is happening. Reports have been made from Iowa and Wisconsin. Violence in these fairs is only increasing. Something needs to be done in order to control these raging teenagers.