Young fans go crazy for Nick Jonas at the Great New York State Fair. (Photo by Great New York State Fair)
Great New York State Fair in Syracuse had an overall successful year despite ticketing and entertainment lineup difficulties before a major layout overhaul to come for 2016.
The fair’s Chevy Court stage set an all-time attendance record, bringing 283,000 fairgoers to enjoy 23 performances, even with two last-minute replacements due to artists canceling because of illness. Jason Derulo replaced Meghan Trainor with about a week’s notice, while NAS stepped in for Snoop Dogg with less than 24 hours to prepare and garnered the second-highest concert attendance.
Performances at the facility are free with fair admission, but that didn’t stop a few unscrupulous sellers from reportedly attempting to sell fake tickets on the secondary market for upwards of $1,500 to the scheduled Meghan Trainor concert Sept. 3.
The fair heard about the fraudulent tickets and contacted the secondary market platform TicketNetwork, which quickly worked to resolve any issues.
“Once TicketNetwork learned that those tickets were ‘free,’ Don Vaccaaro, TicketNetwork’s CEO, immediately ordered the removal of those tickets from the TicketNetwork exchange. Additionally, he instructed TicketNetwork’s Customer Service department to refund any purchaser of those tickets 125 percent of their purchase price,” said Chris VanDeHoef, director of Government Relations at TicketNetwork. Vaccaro then suspended the users responsible for listing the tickets. The total measurable impact of the fraudulent tickets was very small on the TicketNetwork platform, with two separate orders totaling five tickets.
Dave Bullard, Public Relations for New York State Fair, said that TicketNetwork acted quickly to shut down any fraudulent ticket sales and that the fair put out a press release to inform fairgoers so they wouldn’t be misled by false tickets.
The attention from the secondary market reflects on the caliber of acts being booked by the fair.
“We’re booking higher and higher levels of talent on Chevy Court, so what we took away is that we need to keep an eye on the secondary market as these shows become more and more desirable,” said Bullard.
The fair opened Aug. 27 with 62,136 guests, up more than 16,000 over last year. Part of the opening day success can be attributed to the $3-Thursday promotion, cutting gate admission by about 70 percent.
“That played a big part, but having Rick Springfield at Chevy Court played a big part, too,” said Acting Director Troy Waffner, who added that perfect weather also helped.
Conversely, the final day of the fair experienced a drop of more than 40,000 after setting an attendance record last year. This year’s final day, Labor Day, still drew 82,172 attendees and was up significantly looking at a three-year average.
“The final six days of the fair we had increasing heat and humidity each day to the point where it got pretty uncomfortable,” said Bullard, who added that temperatures in the 90s left the fair struggling to get to attendance averages. Overall, attendance for the 12-day event reached 908,147, down 5.9 percent.
The fair’s operating budget is approximately $17 million and is operationally self-sufficient; however, the facility receives about $3.5 million each year from the state for capital improvements.
Sponsorship was up to about $2.1 million, with the vast majority of sponsorships being cash. A core group of sponsors includes Chevy and Gianelli Sausage, which is one of the largest sponsors and important because, as Bullard said, “sausage with peppers and onions is the corn dog of the New York State Fair.”
The fair experienced its usual share of political visitors, “highlighted by Senator Charles Schumer who spends about nine hours and shakes the hand of every person on the fairgrounds.”
A few promotions were particularly successful this year. Along with the $3-Thursday, Great New York State Fair worked with carnival provider Wade Shows to introduce Wade Shows Wednesdays where fairgoers could purchase a book of 10 rides for $10. There were a couple of ticket promotions before the start of the fair, including a Cyber-Monday promotion where 10,000 tickets were sold for $3 each to purchasers from 10 states and Canada, as well as a $5-promotion for Cinco de Mayo where 5,555 tickets were sold. Overall, the fair’s first foray into electronic ticket sales was a success, with both promotions selling out quickly.
About 275-300 food vendors make up the concessions at Great New York State Fair. For the first time this year, the fair introduced a vegan food stand from a local restaurant, Strong Hearts Café.
Waffner said the stand was a huge success, and on the other end of the spectrum the Fried Specialties booth sold an item called ‘The Defibrillator,’ a deep-fried half-pound Angus beef burger, six deep-fried bacon slices, deep-fried pickles, deep-fried cheese curds, and cheddar cheese, all squeezed between two grilled cheese sandwiches.
“He couldn’t make them fast enough to keep up with demand,” said Waffner.
Concessions stands are flat rate rentals except of beer sales, of which the fair gets a percentage.
The fair is proud of its agricultural heritage, which remains strong even as tech takes over in the future.
“It’s always exciting to talk about the music and crazy foods, but the fair at its heart is an agricultural exposition,” said Waffner. This year, the fair created Equine Avenue, a large tent with a small ring in the center containing a horse and handler there to answer questions. The cow birthing center also continues to draw crowds, with “hundreds of people just sitting there waiting for a cow to be born.”
Great New York State Fair’s advertising shifted toward electronic this year, focusing on things that are trackable and accountable with a particular move toward targeted Facebook ads.
“I would think we’ll continue on that road because that’s kind of where the audience is,” said Bullard, who added that about 96 percent of the country is on Facebook, so it just makes sense to be there. Now that the fair sells tickets online they’re looking at ways to continue that relationship. This year the fair introduced online contesting, signing up with a platform called OfferPop to administer contests and measure results.
One of the most successful new competitions was called the Star Spangled Competition. Every day, the fair has played a musical version of the Star Spangled Banner at 10 a.m. This year, one of the vendors had the idea to get real people involved. More than 260 contest participants entered via Facebook, with 12 people being picked to perform the Star Spangled Banner live on the grounds. “The 260 entries were spattered all across New York state,” said Waffner.
The fair’s midway, provided by Wade Shows, is in year two of a 10-year contract. This year, the company incorporated 13 new rides into the mix, partially in response to concerns last year that kids under 33 inches tall couldn’t get on rides.
“Part of the new rides is because Wade has to comply with their contract to bring new rides to us each year, but another part of it is that the midway is a huge untapped opportunity,” said Waffner. The fair receives a $750,000-guarantee then 23 percent of any additional revenue.
Part of upcoming construction will expand the midway by three acres and create a symmetrical triangular layout. The state has allocated $50 million for upgrades at the facility, including a complete re-envisioning of the grandstand area, which will be demolished.
“The 43-year-old grandstand, with the stage, one-mile track and infield area, comprises about 70 acres of land, so we started looking at what we can do with that plot of land,” said Waffner. The plan? To build a new RV park, upgrade Chevy Court, expand the midway, add a 110,000-sq.-ft. expo center, add new equine facilities that will include a covered ring and new uncovered rings, as well as address some streetscape improvements. With all of these upgrades, infrastructure improvements and utilities will also have to be addressed.
Demolition will begin in mid-November, with construction on the midway, RV park, Chevy Court and utility project beginning in March.
“We don’t even have until the next fair to be done,” said Waffner, stating that construction on the first stage of improvements needs to be done by July 8 for the Syracuse Street Road Shows. “Not to be lost in all of this is that the fairgrounds hosts 100-150 events each year, which won’t be interrupted by this construction.”
Stage 2 of improvements includes more streetscape and the equine facilities, with everything being completed by July 2017.
The track previously took up about one-third of the land mass of the fairgrounds, so the construction will open up areas that were previously not available for vendor space and allow for better traffic flow.
Interviewed for this story: Dave Bullard and Troy Waffner, (315) 487-7711 x1377; Chris VanDeHoef, (860) 644-4000 x1382