The 2025 edition of the New York State Fair is in the books. Attendance for the 13-day event was just shy of the one million mark, with 925,989 people passing through the gates, even though there were a couple of rainy days during the fair’s run.
“We probably could have hit that coveted quote-unquote million mark this year, but we had a few rainy days,” said State Fair Director Julie LaFave. “But again, that does not mean anything about the success of our fair. You know, weather keeps people away. It doesn't mean that we didn't have a really quality experience out there for anybody who came through the gates.”
LaFave said one of the things this year that worked well was a new emergency warning system that could alert fairgoers of dangerous weather or other security issues on the fairgrounds. She said it worked seamlessly to get fairgoers inside after a dangerous thunderstorm blew through the fairgrounds one afternoon. And she expects the concept to be expanded.
“There are very large events outside, Blues Fest, Syracuse Nationals, the Food Truck Rodeo, you name it,” she said. “We intend to offer it to those events as well for their patrons when we know weather is coming in, because it's in our best interest for them to be safe as well. So yeah, we have a long-term plan for this use.”
LaFave also noted an increase in novelty food vendors, like the very popular cookie dough stand, whose operators came from North Carolina. She said there’s been an uptick in interest from out-of-state vendors lately.
“I think somewhere word is spreading that the New York State Fair is the place to be,” she said. “We love having our New York businesses, but we still have vacancies. So it's great to see that other areas are attracted to us.”
Now that the fair is over, work begins on the cleanup. The popular butter sculpture will be dismantled Tuesday, and the 800 pounds of butter used to make the sculpture will be sent to Noblehurst Farms in Livingston County, where it will be recycled and turned into energy.
