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Hi listmates - sorry the delay in posting a summary.  Thanks very much to all who responded - I really appreciate the advice.  Here it is:

I am the mom of two celiac kids and we are very
careful with the diet.  however, things like fairs and
festivals are really difficult to find out about the
ingredients.  A couple of things that are almost
always gf are kettle corn and the snowcones.

1. bring a supply of rice crackers of your choice for tasting goodies like 
jam, sauces or cheeses that might be available. You also need to use common 
sense (obviously ;-) ) and make sure there are no visible crumbs in the sample 
container. Several times when I've asked permission to taste jams with our own 
crackers, and explained it was because of our food allergies, the vendors have 
been really nice about making sure there's a fresh jar we can sample from

2. I've had better luck getting on ingredients from booths run by a 
professional food company than ones staffed by volunteers raising money for 
their groups.

3. everybody has to decide their own level of sensitivity, but I personally 
don't even ask about snow cones, fruit juices, lemonade, and sorbet.

4. Have a couple small cups in your bag - we've found several festivals where 
they had fresh-made ice cream - but only with cones. I used to beg a cup from 
a drink booth, but they were too tall, so now I try to bring a small one along.

5 For my son, age 4, I try to bring along something special, GF of course, 
that he really likes but doesn't get often, so I can put a "YES" among all the 
"No's" Mini M&M's in a tube travel well.

6. Try watching food booths for a few moments to see how careful they are with 
food handling before you approach them to ask about ingredients. There are two 
companies in our area that offer fries at community fairs - one is really 
careful about only using the fries tongs for fries, batter tongs for batter 
foods, and the other uses the same tongs for everything. Ingredient lists 
won't tell you that.

7. Don't be afraid to ask booths to leave something out - we've eaten a lot of 
strawberry shortcake, hold the shortcake, please. This usually means we get a 
lot of extra whipped cream!

Oh, I just remembered that I had snow cone syrup in my cupboard and looked at 
it.  The label says "For use with your Rival Snow cone maker - distributed by 
the Holmes Group" Ingredients: High Fructose corn Syrup, water, artificial 
flavor and colors, and preservatives.

We enjoy all of the local festivals and have an
absolute BLAST!!!!  We bring a cooler with us.  Yes, this is a royal pain,
but hey...  it works.  Having done this for many many years, it has become a
way of life.  We hardly even think of it anymore.  There really is life
after Celiacs, it is just different.  One thing we do splurge on is the
pickles.  When we go to festival's we eat pickles!  Lots and lots of
pickles!  And have had no adverse reactions.

In my own experience, I eat snow cones happily and haven't noticed a problem.  I will buy fries at places where that's the only thing they fry.  I buy soft serve ice cream without checking for malt, in a dish (the rest of the family likes cones).  I usually also pack snacks for myself - there's rice krispy type bars that are GF, expensive, but GF - so I don't feel deprived during the food experiences.  

Tropical Sno brand is definately GF the company's vice pres. has CD.

You'd have to find out the name of the syrup to be absolutely sure. I do 
remember in the past people calling a couple of the major makers and they were 
GF (don't know brands). Personally, I've come to the conculsion that these 
syrups simply would not have gluten. This is NOT scientific, but based on my 
three years worth of experience with celiac.

Cotton candy will without exception be GF. Popcorn should be - every oil and 
topping I've ever checked has been GF. This includes Flavacol, the top selling 
popcorn topping. If they have the smoked turkey legs every time I've been able 
to check those they've been GF. Smoked sausage should be GF but I'd be more 
comfortable if I could check the brand. Hot dogs withut the bun (except 
Nathan's, Nathan's has wheat).

I would think the syrup is GF -- my daughter's has snow cones out and about and never reacted.  However, I always pack a picnic's worth of food for these things and keep it in the cooler in the trunk of my car.  That way, if the festival turns out to be a gluten-a-rama, I have food available for her.  BTW, she's four, so I can sympathize -- small children can't always understand why they can't have the donuts!  Once you get there, also, you can ask to read food labels (where applicable) -- once I explain, most vendors fall all over themselves to help me.  

My son is 7 and we've hit a few fairs in the past few years where this 
has come up.  We haven't done snow cones yet, but my assumption--right 
or wrong--is that they are safe.  The flavor is just sugar and 
artificial flavors; these are usually okay for Celiacs.  Personally, my 
son goes for the cotton candy as a treat.  You don't find cotton candy 
just every day of the week, so I let him indulge.  Again, just sugar and 
artificial flavors...and no reactions to date. 

Thanks everyone,
Lori

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