'The Voice'-If I Die Young

I've been looking forward to this day for a long time.  Not only because it means we only have one more today left at the New York State Fair but I was looking forward to working with both of these groups.

Jermaine Paul was our 2PM show.  If you're a fan of 'The Voice', the new, performer competition with Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, CeeLo and Christina Aguilara as judges you'll recognize his name.  He's the Season 2 winner.  He had the genuine, crisp voice on and off the stage.  He traveled from the city with his family and two kids.  His sister actually performed as a backup singer with him.  It was fun to see them all having fun at the fair.  I'm usually a fan of the more organized, on time groups.  This was not one of them.  I didn't advance the show until 3 days ago, neither the tour or production manager were coming with them but were sending replacements.  They ended up doing a 75min show and going on 10mins late.  I'm sure once they have a little experience the show will be great.  He has a great voice and definitely has those entertainer qualities. 

I honestly didn't think the crowd tonight was going to be super big.  When we booked Band Perry we thought it would be a slam dunk.  Judging by some of the hard ticket sales (where you have to pay for a ticket) I thought this show would be a little light.  Good grief was I wrong!  Traffic on the fairgrounds was backed up all day.  We had to route the bus through the troopers so they could get into the grounds and through traffic.  I knew there would be a huge problem trying to get the Perry's bus through at 6PM so we arranged for an escort to bring them in from the interstate and in to the venue.  The crew has always been such a pleasure to work with.  Today was no different.  I overheard the production assistant say "We haven't been home since the end of June.  We've been washing our clothes in the sink!"  That just proves that it's not all glitz and glamour! 
The people sitting in the front row somehow got in the fair at 1AM and staked out their spot.  They sat there all day long in the blazing heat on metal bleachers.  That's a dedicated fan!  It was a few hours before showtime that we knew it was going to be a monster crowd.  When I made it up in the trooper tower I instantly knew it was the top 3rd crowd we've had in the 4years that Triangle has been here.  After a couple of walkthroughs, getting up in the tower on the opposite side we set the estimated count at 26,000!!  Just a few thousand short from Lady A's record two years ago.  The most amazing sound was hearing the crowd belt out the beginning of 'If I Die Young'.  I'm pretty sure I would have teared up had I been them up on that stage. 

They ran off stage, jumped on the bus and were gone within 10mins. 

It's now been an hour, the truck is packed and everyone is showering.  Pretty sure we'll be out of here by 11P!  Good thing because we're headed to karaoke with the staff and troopers.  Could get interesting!