Great New York State Fair

Great New York State Fair
The fair on Labor Day 2005
Location(s)	Syracuse, New York
Years active	162
Date(s)	third or fourth Thursday in August to Labor Day
Genre	fall fair
Website	The Great New York State Fair

The Great New York State Fair is an annual farmers' exposition and a 12-day showcase of entertainment, education, industry, and technology sponsored by the State of New York. Additionally there are midway rides, games, and concerts. The first fair took place in Syracuse in 1841. It is the oldest and one of the largest state fairs in the United States, with approximately one million visitors annually. (Minnesota and Texas have larger attendance records). From 1842 to 1889 the fair was hosted in many different cities across New York, until settling permanently in Syracuse in 1890. The year 2009 was the 163rd Great New York State Fair.

Gates open everyday at 8 a.m. Specially themed days include Beef Day, Dairy Day, Firefighters' Day, Governor's Day, Law Enforcement Day, Native American Day, Senior Citizen's Day, Student's Day, Veterans' Day, Women's Day, and others. The Mohegan Sun Grandstand features concerts from some of today's most popular musical artists, and Chevrolet Court features free concerts from acts of yesterday and today.

The Great New York State Fair begins on the third or fourth Thursday in August and runs for 12 days, ending on Labor Day. It is located on the 375-acre (1.52 km²) Empire Expo Center on the western border of Syracuse, in Geddes.

Butter sculpture in The Great New York State Fair 2007

Attendance Records

Syracuse Labor Day Derecho

On September 7, 1998, two people were killed during the fair in the Syracuse Labor Day Derecho, a windstorm that ripped across the region during the evening. A piece of roof from an exhibit hall tore off and struck a vendor, while an exhibitor camping on the Fairgrounds was crushed by a fallen tree.

The state fair, for the first time in its history, shut down one day early due to the storm and the resulting electrical outages.

Controversy

In recent years, the director, Dan O'Hara, a former Baldwinsville, NY mayor, has fired a variety of long-time employees^[2]. Among those O'Hara fired include Joe LaGuardia, the fair's marketing director of 32 years. In September 2007, Syracuse's daily newspaper, The Post-Standard, reported that LaGuardia had announced his resignation, which O'Hara had requested.^[3] After firing LaGuardia, who had booked the bands who played at the venue's Mohegan Sun Grandstand during each year of LaGuardia's long tenure, O'Hara engaged in a controversial deal with the concert booking agency Live Nation that was made outside of the normal bidding process.^[4] In 2009 O'Hara reversed that decision by accepting a bid from Triangle Talent, Inc.^[5]

O'Hara has been criticized for his treatment of State Fair employees. He allowed his daughters to attend an August 29, 2008 Jonas Brothers concert at the grandstand in seats normally reserved for the handicapped. When a fair employee who was ushering the concert attempted to tell the girls that they wouldn't be able to sit in that section, O'Hara's children called the director, who threatened to fire the usher.^[6]

According to State Fair employees at the time, O'Hara used a stack of Burger King job applications as a prop during a 2007 meeting to convince them that there were other opportunities for employment if they didn't like his way of running the fair.^[7]

O'Hara's actions have been investigated by the New York State Inspector General, Joseph Fisch. Despite the investigations into the well-reported incidents, O'Hara remains the fair's director.

Since LaGuardia was moved from his post, the quality of music presented at the fair has been criticized by the arts sections of local newspapers. The Syracuse New Times published a scathing preview of the 2009 country acts at the fair in its August 29, 2009 issue, for example.^[8] Attendance at the fair's concerts has been unpredictable since LaGaurdia's resignation, as described in other Post-Standard articles.

During the 2009 State Fair, the traditionally operated Post-Standard building in Chevy Court was torn down. Other local media sources reported difficulties covering the 2009 version of the State Fair. Some felt this was because the director was retaliating for the Post-Standard's previously critical coverage of the fair by reducing opportunities for photographers and restricting press credentials for State Fair concerts.

References

Sources

• "The New York State Fair". The Encyclopedia of New York State. http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/encyclopedia/entries/new-york-state-fair.html. Retrieved 2005-06-21. 
• "State Fair directors come and go: So do their handpicked staffers". The Post-Standard. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/state_fair_directors_come_and.html. Retrieved 2009-08-19. 
• "State fair's marketing director to retire after 32 years". The Post-Standard. http://blog.syracuse.com/news/2007/09/state_fairs_marketing_director.html. Retrieved 2007-09-13. 
• "Grandstand Play: No-bid contract with fair promoter ill-advised, wasteful". The Post-Standard. http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2008/08/grandstand_play_nobid_contract.html. Retrieved 2008-09-13. 
• "Comptroller approves state fair's contract with concert producer". The Post-Standard. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/comptroller_approves_state_fai.html. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
• "Ushers say fair boss berated them". The Post-Standard. http://www.syracuse.com/city/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1221728342199010.xml&coll=1. Retrieved 2008-09-18. 
• "New York inspector general investigates State Fair's no-bid contract, questions employees under oath". The Post-Standard. http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/new_york_inspector_general_inv.html. Retrieved 2008-05-23. 
• "Country On Ice". Syracuse New Times. http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3485&Itemid=148. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 

External links

• The Great New York State Fair
• The Empire Expo Center