There are fun games to play and cool prizes to win in nine weeks at the New York State Fair.
Author: State Fair Hound (Page 12 of 75)
The 2022 New York State Fair blasts off in 10 weeks. Back to its 13-day run, the Fair will also see the return of many favorite features missing from last year’s version. State Fair Hound has all the details in coming posts.
Planning for the 2022 New York State Fair is underway–at least it should be. It’s hard to say what’s really happening as there has been no recent press release and none of Kathy Hochul’s underlings are saying anything.
The first performer booked to play a major stage show, the Art of Rap, was announced on Dec. 6. A steady stream of scheduled acts followed, a total of 15 shows, the most recent being City Girls, announced April 1. 
Since then there has not been an act announced or anything else coming from the Fair, unless you count vague responses to questions about the baffling situation that led to the departure of a successful, dedicated and popular Fair Director, Troy Waffner.
At this point, we should have been given most of the itinerary for the Chevrolet Concert Series. We should also be hearing about all of the food, fun and entertainment to which we can look forward with less than 11 weeks to go. State Fair Hound contacted the Fair a few days ago to ask what’s going on and to request an honest, reasonable explanation for Waffner leaving while a newcomer with no apparent fair experience comes in to run the Fair this year. There has been no reply.
NewsChannel 9 reporter Andrew Donovan reported that a Fair spokesperson–it’s likely that it was Dave Bullard, but he wasn’t named–said that Troy is “fine.”
We hope that’s true. Since Troy has taken another job with Agriculture and Markets, it seems reasonable to assume that it is. So what happened and will anyone tell the people of New York to whom the State Fair belongs?
Longtime Fair fans can’t help but be reminded of 1995, George Pataki’s first Fair as Governor, when he made the moronic and completely political decision to replace Director Wayne Gallagher, a consummate professional and one of the best directors ever. The first potential director considered to replace Gallagher–a political appointee with little to qualify him (sound familiar?) was ultimately withdrawn and local businessman Peter Cappuccilli, Jr. served a one-year apprenticeship as Gallagher’s assistant director before becoming an excellent director in his own right.
Now, Gov. Hochul lives down to Pataki’s standards in belatedly naming a questionable, though temporary, replacement to a first-rate director while she offers no reasonable explanation. Meanwhile, it’s been 10 weeks since the Fair announced a concert or anything else about the 2022 edition.
This is unacceptable and completely avoidable. 
All the Gov had to do is concentrate on other pressing issues, stay the hell out of the way and allow Waffner to run the Fair. A recent editorial in the Post-Standard and syracuse.com said “Take politics out of the State Fair: Hire a professional to run it.” In fact Waffner, though he may have benefited from political connections in first being hired, had become as good a pro as we could find anywhere.
But he’s gone and the silence from the State Fair administration is deafening.
State Fair Hound recently sent an inquiry to the New York State Fair asking why it has been over a month since the most recent announcement of an act being added to the Fair lineup. We hadn’t received a reply when NewsChannel 9 on Wednesday reported the shocking news that Director Troy Waffner no longer holds that post. Channel 9 reported that Waffner had been on leave from his job as director for about eight weeks.
No explanation has been revealed by the Governor’s office, though syracuse.com reported that “Several vendors and other sources familiar with the State Fair have told syracuse.com that Waffner has seemed to be under pressure to drive harder bargains on fees and related deals with vendors, especially those who book fairgrounds space outside the actual duration of the fair itself.”
So it sounds like Waffner was removed by the Governor due to policy changes and perhaps disagreement about how the Fair should conduct its business. But Gov. Hopeful clearly has a lot to learn about the New York State Fair, especially if she thinks that a replacement or interim director can slide into the job fewer than 100 days prior to opening day and have no problem. Waffner is a real pro with substantial experience and expertise that is essential to meet the substantial demands of the job.
For this year, Sean Hennessey, an assistant commissioner with the state Department of Transportation, will direct the Fair. Prior to his appointment to DOT in December of 2015, Hennessey had been a state regional building supervisor and a commissioner of elections for Jefferson County, but it doesn’t look like he has experience that would lend itself to managing the Fair.
Yikes.
Is the Gov going to provide any further information on why this change is being made and especially, why it’s being made now? If she was dissatisfied with Waffner, she could have replaced him months ago, but since she didn’t it seems only logical that she would keep him on for this year rather than bring in an unproven replacement. Troy isn’t in a position to disclose any grievance he may have since he will remain employed by Ag and Markets, but we strongly suspect that he’s not happy with the events.
Three months from now, the State Fair will be underway. Although Fair spokesman Dave Bullard gave Channel 9 a positive spin, we’re not buying it. 
Those of us who love our Fair have every reason to be apprehensive about how it will go. We hope that Hennessey will have the good sense to lean heavily on the unsung staff members who work diligently every year to make the Fair great.
But this change, at this time may indicate that he will instead be beholden to politicians and bureaucrats who try to manipulate the Fair from Albany. Gov. Hopeful has the authority to do that, but she has to be willing to accept the consequences for failures and problems it causes. She’s already given us reason to doubt her judgment and competence with this ill-advised, poorly-timed move.
State Fair Hound wishes Troy Waffner the best. He was a top-notch director and a class guy who deserves better than this.
We’re still waiting for more announcements on what we’ll see at the Fair while wondering what else hasn’t been done during this transition and how the Fair will be affected. It’s a scary time for Fair fans.
Our midwinter mood is getting a boost this week as we eagerly look forward just six months to opening day of the 2022 New York State Fair.
You might expect that the earliest announcements of performers booked for shows at the bookend stages–Chevy Court to the east and Chevy Park to the west–would elicit great enthusiasm. 
Alas, it may be a harbinger of a continuing trend toward acts that appeal primarily to the under-30 crowd as thus far three of the announced headliners will be rap/hip-hop acts.
There’s nothing wrong with booking people who can’t sing or play instruments as part of a long and varied list of entertainers. Only a few shows have been announced. It’s certainly likely that they’ll sign several performers who appeal to your more mature fans, especially those who value actual talent.
When you look closely, the reason for this uninspiring start is that the booking agency–is it still Triangle?–usually books ticketed major venues that invariably want acts most likely to draw massive crowds. Those customers would generally consist of youthful fans, who are thought to be the most reliable concert ticket buyers.
But the New York State Fair is a cow of a different color due to a more mixed intended audience, many of whom go to free-with-admission concerts as part of a whole package of entertainment geared toward both maintaining traditions and getting the most out of a widely-varied, hours-long day on the grounds.
Maybe a few fans come just for the music, but the Fair is such a wide-ranging event that the concerts presented at both major stages have to fit in with the other attractions. Fair vendors need concert fans to also be customers who put the profit in their businesses.
Thus the fan base to which the 13-day itinerary must appeal is more diverse and surely includes gray-haired fans who appreciate the seasoned entertainers who have been their favorites for decades.
Fortunately, there have been a few acts for fans of vintage rock, pop, blues and soul, though classic country fans have been ignored year after year. Those devoted fans of 2oth century country are still plentiful, mind you, but the Fair’s incompetent concert agency makes no effort to find acts who attract them.
It comes down to a matter of balance so everyone gets a couple of shows to enjoy on the schedule and no one genre dominates. 
If only Triangle would wake up and sign a better variety of acts available to appeal to the Fair’s diverse clientele.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of time–six months–to fill out the Fair concert schedule and reverse a troubling trend, so it could still happen. Stay tuned.
Early each year, visitors flock to the swine and sheep barn at the New York State Fair to see llamas, the long-necked South American mammals who have carved a niche as wool-producing livestock in the United States. 
For people who enjoy those quirky critters, there will be an event at the Fairgrounds this weekend that features the llamas’ smaller cousins for the annual Alpaca Showtacular.
The cute and cuddly alpacas are prized for some of the softest and warmest fibers in the world, proven by their ability to thrive in the rugged and frigid Andes mountains. The show will hold judging in various classes as hundreds of animals are on display in pens throughout the Exhibit Center, known during the Fair as the cattle barn.
Free admission includes plenty of opportunity to see and photograph alpacas, thought they tend to be shy about allowing strangers to pet them. The show runs Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Centuries prior to the “discovery” of this continent, great civilizations stretched from coast to coast. The descendants of the original People of the Longhouse welcome thousands of visitors to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) village every year during the New York State Fair.
While the 2021 New York State Fair had its highs and lows, the big stage in the wide-open prairie at the western end of the grounds–recently renamed Chevy Park–really came into its own as a concert venue. 
The huge crowds that gathered near the pond for shows during this year’s Fair demonstrated that the massive, slightly sloping lawn can provide a satisfying experience for tens of thousands of fans.
There were a few food vendors nearby, but expansion of amenities is both likely and necessary as the development of the site moves forward. Great things should be expected in the future for that venue, but there a few questions to ponder.
First, isn’t the burgeoning potential at Chevy Park proof that a state-of-the-art concert venue should have been built there as a permanent part of the Fairgrounds? The poorly-conceived and sadly mismanaged Lakeview Amphitheater continues to disappoint fans and interfere with State Fair events from its toxic waste bed site. Really, have you ever heard and read as many complaints and criticisms of a concert setting in local media?
If the venue was where it should be–the site of Chevy Park–it would support the State Fair by thrilling fans and providing patronage to vendors while lighting up the proverbial marquee with illustrious names. Sure, the park does those things now, but a well-run, ticketed venue of that size could book top acts that are financially impossible in the current free format. We would only hope that the promoter would do a better job than what’s happening at the amp.
But we’re stuck with Randy Andy’s dumb decision, so the focus now should be maximizing the Chevy Park experience. It all starts with the stage and planners should be considering whether a permanent stage should be constructed on that site.
The stage that was used this year was nicely done, but it was built just for the Fair only to be dismantled after Labor Day. Thus, absent the construction of a year-round stage there, another temporary structure will be necessary for the 2022 Fair. That could be workable as it was for decades with the grandstand stage, but it seems reasonable that the one-time erection of something permanent would be more cost effective over the long run.
Such a move would allow for three seasons of shows there, remembering that consideration of stage orientation would be necessary as as fans currently face west into the setting sun. With most late August Fair concerts starting at 8 p.m., the sun is nearly out of sight before the music starts, but earlier in the summer it would be a problem.
Such a permanent venue would be great spot for large music festivals and multi-day events. There would need to be serious discussion of how it would conflict with the amp as there are certainly similarities between the two venues. There are also significant differences as the Fairgrounds offers use of the nearby camping facilities and possibly some of the Fairgrounds’ other services, such as food stands, vendor space and maybe even the Chevy Court site.
Even if such an undertaking never happens, Fair music fans should be excited about the future of Chevy Park, especially in concert (pun intended) with Chevy Court.
With the decision from Gov. Hochul that the New York State Fair will resume its 13-day schedule next year, 
we can all start looking forward to that and to the return of the traditions and conventions we love in our Fair.
But first, let’s take a quick look back at what we just finished, the only 18-day State Fair in our history and likely the last, at least for a while. This year, people attending the Fair didn’t really know what to expect when they first passed through the gates. It was certainly not the Fair we’ve come to love, but if you gave it a chance, you could have had a great time there nonetheless.
While the absence of some of the most popular food stands dominated the headlines, many favorite vendors returned to their familiar locations from restaurant row to the Eatery to the Pan African Village and the colonnade. 
Food aside, most disappointing were the missing wine court, closed Agriculture Museum and lack of livestock, particularly the International Horse Show.
But Hawk Creek Wildlife Center, juggling comedian Hilby, the colorful Circus Hollywood, the delicate butterflies, wacky splashdowns of the Sinbad High Dive Show and one-man rock’n’roll band Bandoloni all returned to the cheers of Fair audiences, while the regal Iroquois Village welcomed us warmly beneath its majestic shade trees.
Additionally, there were great new features such as the daring parachuting skills of the all-women Highlight Pro Skydiving Team, the mobile virtuosity of the Strolling Piano, a wall of pop art from muralist Arcy and feats of strength from wisecracking Mighty Mike. The pink passion of strawberry milk brought back sweet memories of the Rainbow Milk Bar and the sheer number of big-stage concert acts gave nearly everyone music to enjoy.
The Latino Village is a work in progress, while the racing pigs and the WaterBark show weren’t as much fun as they sound and the sand sculpture, while still artistically amazing, was thematically pretty dull. Aside from the petting zoo, there were no wild animal acts, which is a step in the right direction.
Remember that you can submit ideas, criticisms, compliments and suggestions on the website, nysfair.ny.gov, where planning for 2022 is already underway.
