GEDDES -- If you have been waiting to get your tickets to State Fair concerts this summer, you’ll only have to wait a little longer.
The New York State Fair announced Thursday morning that it has contracted with a company called Etix to sell its concert tickets for the State Fair Grandstand. The 12-year-old company provides online ticket sales for concerts, fairs, theaters, and sporting events around the country.
The Fair says tickets for the previously announced Keith Urban and Jason Aldean concerts will go on sale on Saturday, June 16. They will be available online via Etix.com and in person at the State Fair box office. You can also order by phone at 1-800-514-3849. The Fair does caution that sales will be limited to eight tickets per person per show on the first day, and no one will be allowed to line up to buy tickets at the Fairgrounds before 6:00 a.m. on Saturday.
"We are excited about this new partnership with Etix," said Dan O'Hara, New York State Fair director. "We feel that this affiliation will greatly benefit Fairgoers as it is going to dramatically reduce the service fees for concertgoers."
O’Hara says Etix will offer several options for electronic tickets, including the option to scan either a credit card or bar code on your mobile device to gain entry. Traditional paper tickets will also be available, either through the mail or printed at home.
"Etix is without-a-doubt a 21st-century company as concertgoers will not have to worry about remembering their concert tickets before they leave the house. Instead, they can now go entirely paperless by sending the ticket to their smartphones," O'Hara said. "If they don't want to do that then they can simply purchase and print their tickets right at home."
The Fair says ticket purchases will come with a $3.75 service fee no matter how they are purchased. An additional 3% fee will be applied if tickets are purchased with a credit card. The Fair says these fees are 25% less than those charged by the previous vendor, Ticketmaster.
The 2012 New York State Fair runs from August 23 through September 3.
