Tropical Storm Irene took a toll on attendance at the Great New York State Fair this year, but it didn’t stop Syracuse University students from enjoying all the fair activities throughout its two-week run.

Attendance for 2011 totaled 917,464, which is 82,381 less than 2010. The decrease, in part, was attributed to poor weather conditions. Tropical Storm Irene gave the fair its worst first Sunday attendance since 1977.

Only 27,202 people braved the weather Aug. 28, which is 51,770 less than that date last year. The second-lowest recorded attendance for 2011 was 51,607 fairgoers Sept. 5, which was Labor Day and the final day of the fair.

Jason Ryan, specialty acts associate producer and director of social media for the fair, said in addition to the weather conditions, another factor that attributed to low attendance Aug. 28 was that the New York State Thruway was closed east- and westbound of Syracuse due to weather. This made it hard for travelers from Buffalo and Albany to access the appropriate exits to the fair.

‘People would have had to take back roads, which lengthens travel time, so it made people not want to do it,’ Ryan said.

However, even though the attendance was down, Great New York State Fair official Geneanne Keegan-Smith said that she didn’t know of any businesses doing poorly because of it.

‘If they’re not doing well they will come in and say this or that, but I had no one come in and say they haven’t been doing well,’ Keegan-Smith said. ‘You have to accept that the weather is the weather, and you can’t control it.’

Liam McNiff, a freshman civil engineering major, said he enjoyed his first trip to the Great New York State Fair.

‘It was probably the best fair I’ve been to ever,’ McNiff said. ‘I’m from a small town, so it was pretty crazy.’

McNiff said the variety of food amazed him the most because it included everything from meat on a stick to fried Kool-Aid.

Ryan said the fair offers food that people can’t get anywhere else because a lot of the stands aren’t pre-existing restaurants.

‘With something like the donut burger, people aren’t going to see that anywhere else around here,’ Ryan said. ‘You’re not going to see these types of food in a lot of places.’

Jon Krouner, a magazine, newspaper and online journalism graduate student, said he went to the fair for the first time, and it was a little overwhelming. Krouner said he was there for all the fried food.

Krouner said he had a ‘gigantic sandwich’ from the New York Deli stand, although he said he wishes he had tried the fried Kool-Aid. However, Krouner said he was not impressed with the fair itself.

‘Honestly, I would only go back if I was forced to,’ Krouner said. ‘Not really my cup of tea.’

Along with the food, Ryan said the fair’s concerts are another big draw for the college and young people demographic.

‘I know one big thing when I was in college was the concerts,’ Ryan said. ‘Colleges could buy tickets in bulk and then sell them to the students for a lower rate.’

hawentz@syr.edu

Published on September 13, 2011 at 12:00 pm