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Comments are welcome about this year's State Fair in Syracuse.
I'll start.
It was the coldest day I've ever experienced the Fair. It was fine during the day, but when the sun set, it became slightly uncomfortable in short sleeves.
Kelly Clarkson. I heard most of her concert. Stood behind the "virtual army experience". I'm not the biggest Kelly Clarkson fan, but I do like many of her hit songs. She butchered Behind These Hazel Eyes (one of my favorite songs by her) by inviting the fan to sing. Kelly Clarkson seemed to be in a good mood and didn't seem to mind the relatively small crowd. She praised the fans a couple times, so hopefully she liked Syracuse. Overall I enjoyed her concert. I'm guessing the small crowd was due to the fact that most people that enjoy her type of music are in my generation and most of them moved away from Upstate NY to places like North Carolina. Goo Goo Dolls had low attendance last year too probably for the same reason.
Sara Evans. I saw the beginning of her concert. I'm not a Country music fan at all, but I do know a couple of her older songs. I must of missed them though when I walked over to see Kelly Clarkson. Sara Evans had a huge crowd. I think I found the last spot at Chevy Court where you could see both her and the JumboTron. Sara Evans and the crowd looked to be enjoying themselves at the concert so I was happy. Hard to judge songs and music I'm not a fan of but from what I saw I thought Sara Evans' performance was good.
The State Fair looked pretty much the same as other years. The main difference I noticed was the sand sculpture was located in the Center of Progress building instead of the Horticulture Building.
I looked and looked for the "Rainforest Experience" just see what it was all about, but I couldn't find it.
A couple negatives:
-The bathrooms didn't look as clean as past years.
-Many of the trash bins located all around the Fairgrounds were overflowing with garbage.
For the first day, the demographics looked better than I thought they were going to be. Saw many attractive young adults. And exiting the Fair I couldn't help but notice that the youngest, coolest, "hippest" looking crowd waiting for a bus were in the line for Seneca Mall in Clay. Woohoo for the northern suburbs!
I was there with my very closest friend and each of our youngest children. We sat down at a picnic table with a Dinosaur's pulled pork platter soon after Sara Evans started playing... and enjoyed a crisp evening with spicy barbeque and a giggling baby girl, dancing to Jolene. And I really, really, really don't like country music but that's a classic! lol - I know that some of you must recognize, by now, my penchant for being sappy but... I definitely had "a moment" then. I love my city!
The wine slushies are entirely too small and the wine court was hard to find- it should be moved back to the courtyard outside the dairy building.
The fun of the fair is people watching, especially those who are *not* young and attractive.
I didn't like that the fair wasn't yet SATURATED with how I remember the Fair smelling, every year. That's because it was opening day though, not because of any lack of cooking. It will smell the way it should, more and more, when we go again this Monday and Thursday. lol
There aren't enough vendors in the Center of Progress building... just politicians. Yuck.
The butter sculpture was unimpressive. A dairy truck with cow milkmen. It was essentially a box carved from butter. eh.
We spent 4 hours at the fair and only made it through the center of progress building and no others... it takes a while to really go through the ENTIRE fair. Don't underestimate.
Find a DD and make sure to get a little schnockered before you arrive. LOL - watered-down drafts for $3 each aren't going to enhance your experience much. And you'll be much poorer.
Never EVER forget to leave the fair without fried dough from that swiss-looking building outside the Dairy Barn. And eat it all before getting home (share if you must, it shouldn't be wasted!), it doesn't reheat well.
Still deciding if we want to go. Its been 8 years since we went last, and imagine it hasnt changed much. I am pretty sure we will be going, for nothing more than for our 7 year old to have his first "NY state Fair" experience
Went to the fair today - the first time ever, since I just moved here 2 weeks ago from Ohio. I really liked the whole experience. We (dumbly) trusted Weather.com, which said it would rain after 5, and got decently wet while we were there, so bring an umbrella if it looks suspicious. We spent most of our time looking at livestock, but were never able to find the swines, save a pig and her piglets near the llamas. I don't know where the rest of the pigs were... I agree that the butter sculpture was underwhelming. I second the eh from proluxfamily. I do recommend the muffeleta sandwich at the vendor by the llama and goat barn - it's a bit pricey at $7, but everything there is pricey, and I was done after eating half of it. Plus, I like to get stuff at the fair that I can't usually get. I also liked the strawberry shortcake I had in the dairy building - I think it was around $4.50 but I swear it'd serve 4 people. Also in the dairy building is the Rainbow Dairy (I believe is the name), where you can purchase a small cup of white or chocolate milk for $0.25. Well worth it, have as much as you like. The highlight of our trip was the duck racing, at the Colonnade. After the not-so-official duck races, you can race one yourself for $5.00 and a duck whistle is included. Ok, so it's about a minute worth of fun to race a duck, but you get to hold a duck and maybe win. My duck came in last place. Oh, well. Still worth it. In all, a good day at the fair.
So yeah, we tried the fair today too We went after the 3:00 rain and wore our good hiking boots (with Gortex) so we could be okay about whatever we were tromping through, lol.
It did pour on us briefly at one point, but there were plenty of places to get in out of the rain so it didn't ruin our fun. We had not been to a big state fair in years so it was worth the trip. Parking was easy, the shuttle buses ran often and there were plenty of state police around to keep things in order.
I was only disappointed that the Iroquis long house had not been able to be completed in time - was looking forward to seeing that. I tried a lobster roll, which I actually really liked and a big ear of corn which was DELICIOUS. The 4H hall was surprisingly packed with exhibits and kids (didn't know 4H was still so big). One great surprise was a little rock group playing some really good Jethro Tull and Bob Seeger right in between two exhibit halls just out in the eating area. Also fun was a roving group of percussionists banging on an array of things, including pots and bar stools - they were quite entertaining All in all a good day!
Last edited by lovesMountains; 08-29-2009 at 11:53 PM..
The butter sculpture at the Fair has been horrible for years now. They seem to use the same guy every year, and looking at his website he seems capable of much better stuff. Maybe they aren't paying him enough.
Avoid the dog agility stunt show this year. We saw a good one there a couple years ago, so were happy to wait a half hour to see this new one (it's a different outfit than before). A disappointment. Basically 20 minutes of blabbing and maybe 10 minutes of dog stunts total. Not at all up to the level of the dog show we saw the other year. Plus the dogs just didn't seem to be trained all that well. Got sick of hearing the motormouth ringmaster bragging about how he'd been on Oprah and Ellen.
The fine arts show also seemed to be very lacking in comparison to other years. Maybe a lot of artists pulled out because of that stupid stunt Dan O'Hara pulled the other year when he removed a photograph from the show. I just remember the quality of art being much better before.
Don't like where they moved the lottery booth, don't like where they moved the wine tent.
Had a deep fried Oreo on restaurant row that was insipid. I don't know if they're supposed to be like that. It was like a damp Oreo wrapped in bland cake. Had a very good marinated steak sandwich at a place called (I think) JJ's. Happily, we were sitting there under cover when the rain came pouring down.
For all the recent changes at the Fair, one thing hasn't changed and will apparently never change: Has anyone noticed that the typeface on Fair signs has not changed since approximately 1975??? They had new signs this year with the same old typeface! Funny the things you notice.
There are more guinea pigs on display in the Poultry building. It seems to be half guinea pigs now! I guess "G Force" has made them really popular.
Someone finally got the bright idea to have duck races. Considering that, for many people, sitting in the Poultry building watching the ducks swim around in a circle is a lot of fun. Ducks = fun.
The bathrooms seemed cleaner to me, yet I often could not find where to leave tips for the attendants. (are they being paid now?)
There is a vendor booth in the Horticulture building selling fabulous silk thread paintings made in China. Not cheap crap. Beautifully designed and rendered stuff (and not all "oriental" either) Expensive, but if you are looking for a special gift for someone I thought they were pretty incredible.
Best time I spent, was in the Women's building getting a neck massage - at $1 per minute, also the best money I spent!
Last edited by Jeromeville; 08-31-2009 at 03:15 PM..
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I love my city!
My favorite ride at the fair :)
