Thursday is the start, but it's busy now
It's almost time! And there's still time to get discounts on tickets and at-the-Fair coupons.
It is crunch time, for the hundreds of vendors who are setting up for this year's State Fair. The grounds are full of people building booths or setting up tents and exhibits. The animals start shipping in on Monday, and the first competition, the Western part of the horse show, starts on Tuesday.
The Strates Shows wrap up their Erie County Fair engagement in Hamburg on Sunday night and come to Syracuse next. They'll start setting up the Midway rides on Monday, but their advance people are already on the fairgrounds, marking to the inch where everything will be set up.
Along with advance sale tickets, the Fair this year is offering a Be$t Bet$ Bargain book, offering, according to Fair Agriculture Manager Mel Chesbro, more than $3.200 of coupons for food, events and merchandise on the grounds. (The booklet, which also includes maps locating each vendor, is $4 in advance, $5 at the Fair). The book is in addition to the daily Fair handouts, which also include some coupons and the updated Fair website which includes lots of interactive information
Chesbro also tells us there are lots of signs in the animal exhibits, reminding to wash hands--especially important around the pigs, because of a new strain of swine flu that's been hitting midwest fairs. Pigs, and the always popular piglets, will remain on display.
The hot, dry summer is having an effect on exhibits: Chesbro says there will be fewer beef cattle and swine, in part because higher prices for feed (the drought in the midwest) have farmers selling off more of their livestock and having fewer to exhibit.
She says dairy numbers are good. Garden and flower entries come later, so there's no tally on that yet.
New this year: in the Horticulture Building, a butterfly exhibit that you can go in and 'fly' with them. Also, a fish and plant growing exhibit that shows how both can be done as crops. And, Labor Day fairgoers who complain that many of the animal exhibits leave the fair early, can see an animal expo in the horse coliseum this year, with people who will explain about what they're exhibiting (something hard to get if exhibitors are getting ready to compete on regular fair days).
Getting to the Fair: CENTRO is again running bus service from downtown Syracuse and several suburban and outlying communities.
Need we remind you, the Fair runs Thursday until Labor Day.
