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Fritter worked the midday State Fair crowd in front of the Center of Progress on Aug. 31, 2011, the Muppet-like monster playing for laughs with antics and posing, hugging kids against his furry orange body, his huge eyes bulging. The metal benches at nearby Chevrolet Court were nearly filled with the mostly youthful fans of crooner Bruno Mars staking out their spots for the evening show, many teen girls decked out in hand-decorated, bright blue T-shirts paying tribute to the singer.
The collateral effect of Mars enthusiasts occupying the benches, many arriving as soon as the gates opened, is that fairgoers who were there to see the afternoon cooking show with Buddy “Cake Boss” Valastro found seating scarce. It’s a common occurrence at the court since the two-performers-a-day plan was instituted in 2009 and it’s created its own issues with fans, not to mention those in charge of keeping order in the court, like the trooper who laid down the law to the crowd at 12:27 that afternoon.
“I’m saying if you get up you lose your seat,” he told those in the first few rows. “From this moment forward, anybody gets up, you lose your seat. I can’t be babysitting.”
Fans have always rolled through the turnstiles early to get prime seating for the free-with-admission shows. But when the same act was playing both afternoon and evening, there wasn’t the added issue of dueling fan bases. “If you heard one complaint last year, it was about the number of people who would show up at 8 in the morning and sit there until 8 at night to hear Big Time Rush or Bruno Mars,” reports Fair assistant director Troy Waffner. “Something we’re talking about this year is how do we better handle that. The idea is for somebody to not be able to camp out there. This year we’re actually looking at how do we politely sweep people out of those seats.”
Barring some official policy change, smart fans hot for the evening performance may be able to hang back as the afternoon show winds down, waiting to swoop in to take the seats of those who leave, thereby shortening their wait by several hours. You may not get front row, but for the more popular acts, any seat will do.
Still, there will always be fans who are willing to put in a long day for their favorites. “We’ve been here since about 8:03 this morning,” said Cale Curtis of Liverpool, while waiting for Mars just after noon. “It’s a beautiful day.”
Curtis’ contingent included his 14-year-old daughter Alexis, his motivation for the rushing through the morning in preparation for an agonizing wait. “I’ll do anything for my kids,” he confessed. “My kids are my heart. My kids went to the bathroom and to get something to eat. I’m going to give them a break. We’re taking turns.” Curtis admitted that he couldn’t think of any performer he’d sit for 12 hours to hear if not for his youngsters.
Nearby Jacqueline Gleason of Auburn waited with her cousins. “I’ve been here since 8 this morning, she said. “I like the Boss-Man, kill a day. It’s worth it.” For Gleason it’s tradition to come early for acts she likes, having done it for Keith Sweat, Boys II Men and Lady Antebellum. “When I come it never rains. I’ve been lucky.”
Fans who can’t arrive early or choose not to wait for hours face their own challenges as such phenomenally popular acts as Shinedown, Lady Antebellum, Foreigner and Trace Adkins amassed such large crowds that there was nowhere left for later arrivals, at least no spot to stand where seeing and hearing the show was possible. It’s a great deal to hear such major attractions for the price of Fair admission, but not so much if you can’t get within range of the stage. Mars’ record-shattering throng, officially estimated at 35,000, provided a powerful example.
The early history of the free stage, originally Empire Court, includes some names many of today’s fairgoers wouldn’t recognize. Those years included performances by the Chief Billy Thunderkloud Show, the Mike Curb Singers and Happy Louie as well as local favorites including Sandy Bigtree, Jimmy Cavallo, C.R.A.C. and the Soda Ash Six. Fair musical director Stan Colella, for whom the stage was named in 2002, following his death earlier that year, brought his band there frequently.
But the lineups were sprinkled with such big names of the day as Sha Na Na, the Statler Brothers, the Four Aces and Engelbert Humperdinck. The famous people taking the stage weren’t always entertainers. An undated photo by Al Edison, published in Henry W. Schramm’s Empire Showcase, shows Robert Kennedy shaking hands with fairgoers from the stage.
The Price is Right
In 1981 the court, under the guidance of Joe LaGuardia, the State Fair’s longtime marketing director, adopted Miller Beer as a sponsor to provide a bigger budget with which to pay for more popular acts, with Cole Muffler succeeding Miller in 1996 and Chevrolet taking over in 2005. Periodic renovations to the stage and technical improvements helped it cope with its burgeoning success. Although a few acts weren’t willing to play two shows in one day, such major names as the Four Tops, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, the Supremes and the Righteous Brothers performed afternoon and evening sets. Sha Na Na’s Bowser and the Charlie Daniels Band returned so often they were essentially regulars through the 1990s and into the 2000s.
The draw of the free shows developed into one of the Fair’s strongest assets and current director Dan O’Hara kicked it into overdrive in 2009 by bringing in two different acts each day. Although hosting two acts costs more than repeating the same show—the 2012 budget will approach $1 million, a 25 percent increase over 2011—Fair brass sees a tangible benefit in presenting more variety.
“Part of the reason Dan went to two shows a day is you get the changeover in crowds,” Waffner explains. “On Senior Day you put the Midtown Men or the Frank Sinatra Band on, then you put on a different band at night to bring in two different crowds.”
The payoff comes with not only more patrons rotating the turnstiles, but also with a steadier flow of business for vendors. “If you look at our advance-sale numbers, those have increased,” Waffner asserts. “You look at the restaurant sales around Chevy Court, those have gone up. If you look at some of that ancillary information, at the end of the day, our paid attendance is skyrocketing. That’s kind of how we judge success at Chevy Court.”
With no ticket sales or turnstile numbers to tabulate, crowd estimates are a collaboration of submissions from state police, booking agent Triangle Talent, and the Fair’s own staff. “Last year we estimate about 206,000 people attended a concert at Chevy Court,” Waffner says. “Twenty-two to 23 percent of the people who walk through our gates are going to see a free concert. I think it’s huge in terms of driving up our advance sales and paid attendance numbers.”
At the same time, the Fair has reduced the number of musical Grandstand shows, which require a separate admission charge, booking seven nights in 2011 and five this year instead of up to 11 as in previous years, thus increasing the entertainment focus on Chevy Court. With significant growth has come the challenge of accommodating throngs of more than 30,000 fans in a finite space, that measures about 139,000 square feet. Crowd control techniques have been tweaked to assure emergency access, and a new, more technologically advanced sound system performed well last year. More fan space came with the construction of brick patios on both sides with table seating, an improvement made at the cost of tightening up on vendor space flanking the courtyard.
Video projections have become critical in allowing more people to see the performers, with one 13-by-17-foot screen near the stage broadcasting every show at a cost to the Fair of about $20,000, including an operator, for the entire 12 days. Some acts bring additional projection equipment as part of their own productions, while smaller screens are located around the court.
“We did find if you went out and looked during some of the big concerts where people couldn’t get close enough to the stage, they were watching on the Jumbotrons,” Waffner points out. “This year we’re going to put one on the southeast side of Chevy Court down near the restaurant where WCNY and CNY Central are located. There will be another one down by Art and Home and another in the Times Square area that people can see concerts on as well.”
Fair administrators are looking at improvements that would provide better sight lines for fans while also accommodating the larger sets and glitzier production of some of the top touring acts playing the court. “There’s people now all the way back to the State Parks area watching the show, so if it was higher up or angled differently it could make it better,” explains Jason Ryan, specialty acts coordinator. “We have built-in rafters that are black and come down in the front and extend the stage out. When the bands come on, that helps us because they can push the 2 p.m. show up a little and start building the set for the 8 p.m. show {behind it}. We try to make the stage a little bit bigger without permanently changing it.”
As concert ticket prices rise, music fans jump at the chance to see a show or two with $6 advance-sale admission tickets while using the cash left in their pockets as spending money on the grounds, good news for Strates operators, food stands and hawkers. “If somebody’s coming for a $70 show, they’re coming to see the show and they’re probably not bringing a lot of discretionary money to spend at the vendors.” Waffner theorizes. “If they’re coming to Chevy Court, they’re bringing in discretionary money. It gets to be a balancing act.”
On evenings with no show in the Grandstand, staging a free concert there could be an option in future years. “We’re not doing it this year,” Waffner notes. “We would probably have to really sit down and lay it out. We estimate the cost of opening up the Grandstand at $200,000 per show—the ushers and we have to bring in all of our security. The other problem is it would be general admission seating and you just don’t want to create a rush.”
Staging two dozen Fair shows at Chevy Court has sparked fairgoer interest that continues throughout the year. “I think Chevy Court gets a buzz going that people like,” Waffner says. “In terms of the acts we book, I can’t believe the number of suggestions we get through Facebook and email. We actually go through those and try to get some of those acts. People probably think we throw them away, but we go through them.” o
Counting the Crowds
Looking out over the mass of humanity that sometimes hits Chevrolet Court like a tsunami, putting a number on how many are in attendance can be a fun guessing game. For the Fair, however, it’s serious business. Fair administrators have developed a counting system that divides the area into grids, each section assigned an approximate maximum occupancy number.
For most crowds, the Fair estimates the capacity of Chevrolet Court to be 24,940, according to specialty acts coordinator Jason Ryan. “We estimate one person per square yard,” Ryan explains, “except when it’s really crowded, then we estimate 1½ persons per square yard.”
The capacity count starts with the approximately 1,920 fans that can be seated on the coveted benches. Beyond that, the areas counted include the brick patio in front of the Colonnade and its twin in front of the Center of Progress building. They then add in counts of fans standing in the surrounding grass and the paved areas flanking the benches on each side up to the ramps in front of the buildings. The entire courtyard, stretching as far back as the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que stand in one corner and the pavilion/restrooms opposite, is included in the survey.
Although the official capacity doesn’t include fans standing as far as the roadway on the far side of the Dino or the State Parks area beyond that, the most massive crowds have necessitated adding approximate numbers in those areas, as well as boosting the headcount in sections where fans are packed in more tightly than one patron per square yard. While it’s not possible to pin down exact attendance numbers at Chevy Court, this system makes estimated counts more consistent and allows relative comparison of crowds for various acts.
Fair News You Can Use
Hundreds of fluttering butterflies, a daredevil bicyclist and exotic wildlife highlight the new entertainment this year at the New York State Fair.
But first, good news for Grandstand concert ticket holders: They can enter through any gate using their concert ticket for admission. Originally it was announced that they would have to use gates 1 or 10 because new ticket provider Etix needs to process them electronically, but something has been worked out to circumvent that issue.
The Monarch Madness Butterfly Garden will bring beauty and elegance just inside the main entrance of the Horticulture Building, allowing visitors to interact with the graceful insects and even take one home.
Nine-time BMX champion Mike Steidley will get his bike airborne with a fast-paced show featuring daring jumps and stunts in the Adventure Zone, daily at 1:30, 4:30 and 6:30 p.m..
Also in the Adventure Zone, the Bixby and Friends Rainforest Rescue, a live-action wildlife adventure that features both costumed performers and actual exotic critters, will come to life daily at 11 a.m., and 3:15 and 5 p.m. There will also be 1 p.m. shows on weekends as kids are educated painlessly on endangered rainforests with conservation in mind during a colorful show that features a toucan, a Burmese python and kinkajous.
An agricultural extravaganza will close out the activities in the Coliseum on Labor Day, Sept. 3, with farmers bringing their livestock to interact with fairgoers.
Chef Guy Fieri, Food Network’s road warrior host, brings his big appetite and bigger personality to Chevy Court on Aug. 29 at 2 p.m. Maybe he’ll sample some Fair cuisine, including the newest contribution to making Syracuse a great spot for cardiologists to practice: the new hot dog doughnut, which is, remarkably, worse than it sounds. The Big Kahuna stand’s pairing of two of the most unhealthy foods you can eat also has bacon on it to complete the trifecta. Where is Michael Bloomberg when we need him?
Frequent visitors will notice that the Empire Room has been expanded with more space indoors and a classy-looking new brick patio and pergola-style roof, giving it a European sidewalk café feel.
Returning favorites include the sand sculpture, sea lions, the Walker Brothers Circus and the juggling antics of Hilby.
All events and exhibits at the 2012 Fair are listed on the newly redesigned website, nysfair.org.
