When the New York State Fair announced a Chevy Court act for the Sunday night prior to Labor Day–considered a marquee show each year–it was a departure from tradition. The performer on that night, often one of the Fair’s best-attended, will be a young man who calls his act “A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie,” not exactly your mainstream major star. For many years the Stan Colella Stage was more likely to spotlight da cowboy in da Stetson, da rocker in da ripped jeans or even da crooner wid a pearl necklace than da rapper in da hoodie.  

This booking joins a long list of conversions that are remaking the Fair, squeezing out some of the old traditions to bring our beloved annual festival into the high-tech new millennium.

There’s no denying that the Fair is keeping one foot in the past, characterized by exhibits centered around thriving agriculture, the outdoor spirit of the Finger Lakes and the Adirondacks and Empire State history from Haudenosaunee homeland to the Erie Canal to interstates and skyscrapers.

But beyond recent Fairgrounds infrastructure updates that paved over the venerable track of the Syracuse Mile to make way for the muscular posts of the Broadway Skyliner, the Fair has experienced an attitude adjustment, taking on a glitzier, 21st century personality. Makeovers are really nothing new, as the Fair’s Grange-Building history exhibit documents the fact that changes have remade the Fair in many ways over its 177-year run.

Some longtime Fair aficionados actually miss the character of the aging wooden food stands that lined the trackside fence or the dilapidated grandstand that served for decades as the Fair’s main concert venue. Campers inhabiting the new, neatly- manicured RV village may fondly recall waking up in the massive, but rustic infield after a night spent hearing echoes of music from the big stage or the roar of motorsports kicking up dirt-track dust.

Those nostalgia buffs are balanced by patrons who have long complained that the Fair changes too little from year to year. That group has embraced the new day dawning in Geddes where admission tickets are now computer-scanned at gates. To them, it’s progress seeing trams towed by state-of-the-art pick-up trucks instead of belching tractors and they love receiving cell phone text alerts when a calf arrives in the cow-birthing tent.

Clearly, which change to consider an improvement is a matter of perspective, though some updates–the reborn main gate for instance–likely have universal approval. Regardless of how you view the dichotomy of today’s Fair, there is a symmetry as most of the action takes place between the retro-style main buildings and colonnade at the eastern end and the shiny new Exposition Center at the western.

Likewise, while young hip-hoppers have found space in the Chevy Court line-up, there’s still plenty of room for the classic performers who carry Medicare cards. And it’s all magic to the generation of kids who will someday look back at State Fair 2018 as a great childhood memory.

There are plenty of bargains to be found at the New York State Fair, but this year one of the best will be eliminated. A news report by Andrew Donovan on Channel 9 revealed a change for 2018 that is certain to draw criticism from patrons and create problems for vendors. According to that report, which included comments from Acting Director Troy Waffner, all bottled water sold on the grounds this year will have to be Pepsi’s Aquafina brand and vendors will have to charge two dollars per bottle.

Up to now there has been competition for water sales, with different vendors selling various brands, often for a buck apiece. Donovan interviewed State Fair Essentials’ Casey Stock, who lamented the decision, which will prevent his General Store stand from selling Poland Springs water for one dollar. Water had been their best seller, but Stock fears that this could hurt sales.

The change is part of a deal between Pepsi and the Fair and Waffner said the Fair wants to see how much water is sold and to assure consistency and quality while putting the State Fair logo on water bottled in New York. But it’s a bad deal for customers and sellers alike. Certainly PepsiCo will make a bundle and Syracuse.com reported that the Fair will get a one-dollar kickback on each 24-bottle case sold.

Fair visitors have found it easy to buy one-dollar water as a healthy choice and a vital one on hot days. It’s also noteworthy that Aquafina is not spring water, but purified tap water. If a customer prefers spring water, the Fair won’t allow you to make that choice. Aquafina’s website says it has 40 “purification sites” throughout the US and Canada, so it’s hardly a New York product.

Food and drink sales at the Fair have long relied on competition between vendors to set prices and give customers a choice, so this greed-driven, 100-percent increase is deeply troubling. What’s next–one sausage vendor setting sandwich prices or a single beer company monopolizing suds sales?

And what about the veterans’ organization that has been raising funds by selling donated one-dollar water in front of the Veteran’s Memorial?

This is an outrageous idea and one that deserves pushback from Fair visitors.

Contact the Fair and demand better.