This year’s NYS fair broke all-time attendance records in addition to many issues such as fighting and parking concerns. The first four days of the fair broke attendance records for each day with increasing numbers. The largest day of attendance was Saturday, September 1st with 134,115 people in attendance. The total number of attendees increased this year by 117,097.

New acts to the Chevy Court brought thousands to the stands to watch them perform. Some of the performers include Ludacris, ZZ Top, Maren Morris, Niall Horan, and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. One of the biggest performers of the Experience Stage include All Time Low. Rounding out the acts at the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview was Pentatonix.

The large increase in crowd size this year is credited to Midway upgrades and the brand new Exposition Center which featured the sand sculpture and the ice skating rink.

However with these well known acts, there were many logistical issues throughout such as parking and crowd control. The new Orange parking lot has both positives and negatives as it provides ample parking spaces but each space tends to be really narrow and tight. After complaints, the transportation department stated that the remaining spots left to be painted were to be made bigger than previous spots. In addition to that, larger vehicles such as trucks were directed to the larger parking spots and the compact cars were directed to the older lot.

The larger crowd size led to many fights and issues throughout the entire fair. The A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie concert drew in over 40,000 fans, so fights were rampant throughout and state troopers had to call in for backup to help control the situation. Solvay Fire Department stepped in to get over 30 teens off of the roof of the Chevy Court restrooms as they had climbed up in order to see the concert better from afar.

A fight out by Restaurant Row led to two women being hospitalized on Sunday, September 2 when the two women fell through a glass display case outside of a food stand. Many other individuals were charged with disorderly conduct. One teen was stabbed in the chest and had to be rushed to Upstate by AMR medical services. Another fight occurred outside one of the lemonade stands with two employees getting into a brawl as bystanders watched.

Future plans include reviewing the traffic issues from this year and seeing how the traffic flow can be improved upon to reduce congestion and to improve safety. One improvement includes increasing the amount of troopers there are to help with directing traffic. There were shuttle buses that ran from Orange Lot to the main gate to help with congestion and overall according to many worked well and ran right on time.

Overall, it was an interesting year at the NYS fair…so make sure you’re safe while you have fun next year.