On the final day of the fair, State Fair director Julie Lafave said there were some ups and downs but ultimately, it was a great fair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeather sometimes is a little tricky. This year was a little more tricky than normal, but I think we made the right call,\u201d Lafave said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve had a lot of sunny skies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The State Fair had to close temporarily one day last week after flooding from heavy rainfall occurred on the grounds and then closed early due to evening storms that same day. However, attendance numbers were higher than average.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw one day with the highest number since 2019,\u201d Lafave said.<\/p>\n
Prior to the start of this year\u2019s fair, they implemented new safety protocols which restricted parking and vehicles on the grounds during the fair\u2019s operational hours. Lafave said they could make adjustments next year based on feedback they\u2019ve received.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told [our partners] that we\u2019re starting somewhere, be patient with us but also don\u2019t be silent. Call us. A lot of times our partners had passes or needed special assistance called us so we could make arrangements for them,\u201d Lafave said.<\/p>\n
She said they will send surveys out following the fair and will conduct conversations and debriefs to inform what policies will be for next year.<\/p>\n
One longtime vendor, James Hasbrouck, who owns deep fried specialities, said he welcomed the security changes for this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so glad Julie stepped up and they did something, and it\u2019s done. You can\u2019t wait until something happens to do something,\u201d Hasbrouck said.<\/p>\n
Other new things that fairgoers can look forward to for 2027 include a new milk bar, and permanent homes for the Asian and Latino villages.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext year, where the cookie stand is, they will not be there. That\u2019s where the new milk bar will be however, don\u2019t get upset. The cookies will be across from where the cream puffs are now,\u201d Lafave said.<\/p>\n
Fairgoers will be able to get all three flavors of milk for the 13-day fair next year and won\u2019t have to wait till Labor Day weekend to get the strawberry milk, she said.<\/p>\n
The Latino Village will remain toward the west end of the fairground where it is now, but the Asian Village will have a new permanent home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsian Village will be in the area behind the DOT worker memorial by the Villa Pizza Fritte at the original stand,\u201d Lafave said.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, while there were challenges, Lafave said they are grateful for all of the visitors to the Great New York State Fair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe greatest reward always for any of us that work the 12 months to see this fair come into completion is seeing the kid happy with their blue ribbon, or seeing a large concert crowd or seeing someone try something new,\u201d Lafave said. \u201cThe rewards are all around us all of the time, you just have to stop to see it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the final day of the fair, State Fair director Julie Lafave said there were some ups and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3478,288,257,8255,9,11,10,49,51,50,12],"class_list":["post-340387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-central-ny","tag-emily-kenny","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}