The Great New York State Fair!

Another one bites the dust...or another drop in bucket....whatever saying you want to put with it I'm now half way through my 'Mud and Dust Tour' of 2010!!  After the past one I think I can do anything.  For those of you that followed me around the country last year you know that I was at the New York State Fair.  Fortunately, my co-worker, Clay, was also there and was "shadowing" we'll say at the grandstand.  When they had dark days there we swapped up and he would produce the show at Chevy Court (the stage I was at).  Since we were granted the bid this year to produce the grandstand this wasn't possible.  So that meant 12 days straight of two shows daily for me at Chevy Court. 

Two days after finishing at Iowa I flew to NY and celebrated my birthday the next day while "moving in" to the fair.  We kicked off the run on the 26th.  We worked with acts like EnVogue, Kool & The Gang, Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas, Styx, Lady Antebellum Keith Sweat, Little Big Town and many MANY more!  Working 14-17 hour days can be exhausting...working 12 of those in a row...well let's just say it sucks.  :)  I finally hit rock bottom about the 31st.  Somehow the fuel of the following day, with Lady Antebellum, pushed me through and continued until the end. 

Things ran as smoothly as they could, considering we were loading in and off two different bands onto a less than large enough stage.  Huge crowds poured in for both 2:00PM and 8:00PM shows.  Across the way, Clay was having a few more hiccups than we could hope for.  Justin Bieber had decided to postpone his show from Sunday to Wednesday.  Any other night it wouldn't have been as caotic but this was the same night Lady A was scheduled to play Chevy Court.  One of the hottest acts today was playing on a free stage!  We knew the numbers were going to be huge and now we had to figure out how to spread the resources of security, catering, vehicles, etc. between the two largest shows of the fair.  And it couldn't have gone smoother!!  Clay ended up with a little over 17,000 in the grandstand and the show with Lady A was estimated at 29,800!!!  I have never seen so many people squeezed into that small of an area. 
Here's the link to the time lapse video they did.  This started at about 7:30AM, about when people started getting there to save seats.  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1274200755640 

Lady Antebellum

I was basically on autopilot through the rest of the fair.  Great shows...even got to dance a little during Keith Sweat.  I got out to see some of the fair as well.  Played the lottery, gave blood for the first time, went Christmas shopping :).  They have a ton of animal exhibits there.  The closest I got to see them though were the tigers and elephants right outside the grandstand.  Spent a little time hanging out with Troy Gentry (Montgomery Gentry) and Justin Moore and crew one night....talking about home (Kentucky).  

We did create a new fried item!  Someone mentioned there was fried chocolate chip cookie dough.  To our disappointment and treking across the grounds only to find fried chocolate chip cookies, we decided to have our own made.  One of the security guards took a roll to the fried vendor and they cooked it up for us.  It was heaven!  Turns out it will be at the fair next year. :)  I can't wait!!

After wrapping up the 12 days, I spent the next day returning keys, doing laundry, running around town to Walmart and UPS and packing for the next trip.  I got to hang out w/ friends and had a wonderful sushi dinner (sushi on a conveyor belt...what a concept!) wine, and more wine.  Great times to wrap up a successful fair. 

One hilarious tibit that I picked up---those of us that aren't from or have spent a lot of time in NY think of the entire state to be just like the city.  Fast paced, heavily populated, rude people (for those that haven't been there and seen that it's not).  The funny thing is that outside of the city it's just like anywhere else.  Syracuse for example is very small town, country, "hick" like environments.  The greatest part is when they refer to the city they call it "New York".  Even when I was flying from Syracuse to New York City, the flight read "New York".  That's like everyone outside of Louisville, KY calling Louisville; Kentucky. :)

Here's the crowd comparison for the past two years.  A 15% increase!
                             2009         2010


2 PM shows total 48,500      50,500

8 PM shows total 105,500   127,300

Total attendance 154,000    177,800

A break down of each individual show

2:00PM


En Vogue 2,500

Blue Oyster Cult 7,000

Adam Richman 9,000

Trailer Choir 2,000

Steve Lippia w/ CNYJO 4,000

Herman's Hermits 5,000 HOT

Mario Batali 2,500 HOT

Eli Young Band 2,000

Justin Moore 3,500

Mitchel Musso 4,500

Katharine McPhee 4,000

Jackyl 4,500

50,500

8:00PM

Kool & The Gang 6,000

Kansas 16,000

Styx 18,500

Blues Traveler 7,500

30 Seconds to Mars 7,500

1964 The Tribute 8,500

Lady Antebellum 29,800 RECORD

Little Big Town 7,000

Coheed and Cambria 8,000 drizzle rain right after show

Robert Randolph 5,000

Keith Sweat 12,000

Marc Broussard 1,500

127,300



Total Chevy Court 177,800


Next I was off to the beautiful city of Salt Lake.  Last year I was able to leave NY a few days early and have a few days at home.  This year I was there longer and decided to split the two days off between NY and UT.  What I didn't comprehend when booking my flights was that that would mean a 5 hour flight from NYC to Salt Lake City.  That was just a small form of tourture.  I arrived safely though and have the beautiful views of the mountains.  We kick off the Utah State Fair shows tomorrow with Boyz II Men.  Looking forward to another great run!