The New York State Fair had its best first Saturday ever. 115,324 people attended eclipsing the old record of 94,959 set back in 2003. Yes, it was crowded but added to the fun of the Fair. Nikon D700/50mm, 1/200s, f/8, ISO 400, EV +0.3.
Me and over 115,000 of my friends attended the New York State Fair last Saturday. It was a perfect Fair day. Blue sky, temperatures in the 80’s, low humidity and a full day of fun events, entertainment, displays, vendors and food.
Speaking of food, I ate through the Fair. Enjoyed a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and home fries at the Grange’s Ox Roast restaurant which is something of a tradition. Later, I had a lobster roll and root beer for lunch, dinner at Baker’s Chicken Coop (see below) followed by a piece of raspberry pie and ice cream and ended my Fair day with a late night snack of a hot meatball sandwich from Danny D’s food stand on the Fair’s restaurant row.
The half chicken dinner from Baker's Chicken Coop featuring salt potatoes, a roll and Baker's famous marinated BBQ'd chicken.
For those of you who were interested in salt potatoes, here is what they look like. Served hot with melted butter.
No visit to the Fair is complete without a trip through the barns and animal buildings. Here a friendly llama and his handler check out my camera.
A curious llama and his handler stop to check out my camera at the New York State Fair.
As the hot day turned into a very comfortable evening. I took advantage of the concert at Chevrolet Court included with admission to see one of my favorite bands from my college days as Saturday night’s entertainment was the band Styx. Styx was popular back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I even saw them at the Carrier Dome back in 1981. They played all their big hits to the delight of the crowd.
Tommy Shaw of Styx jamming on the Chevrolet Court stage to the delight of the thousands at the New York State Fair.
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You know, Scott? I don’t think you really need to go to the Big E! From what I’ve seen here, it looks almost the same! Definitely the same huge crowds. That’s what I do when I go – eat my way through, though I haven’t been for many years.
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Hey, you don’t want me to visit the Big E? I know, you want all that food and photo ops all to yourself. 😉 It won’t be this year but I like the idea of a blogger/photo summit there in the future.
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Maybe we should start planning it now for next year! It is so difficult to get a group of people together on the weekends!
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Hmm that chicken makes me hungry. And I love the Llama! Too cute!
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That chicken still makes me hungry. Might have to go back for some this week. The llama was being worked out but he kept stopping to visit with people. She was a good sport about it.
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What a crowd! If that were here, the attendance would represent one of every nine residents of the whole state! Any more I go to our local fair mainly for the 4H exhibits and really enjoy them.
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I toured the 4-H building but it was around lunch time and most of the exhibitors were on break. My daughter did get to hold a baby chick so my string of daughters holding baby chickens is still in tact.
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What a great day you had, Scott! Yep, I agree with Karen – looks totally like the Big E! You ate good!
Ah, Styx…’Come Sail Away’….’Lady’… man those songs take me back. Damn, I’m old! 🙂
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Sniff…nobody wants me to come to the Big E? Hey, do you have salt potatoes there? I could bring some.
Styx was great and you are not old. 😀
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I never said I didn’t want you to come to the Big E! I’d think you’d get a kick out of it! I think the state buildings are unique…perhaps the big slide, too.
Not sure on salt potatoes. We usually stick with the baked potatoes sold at the Maine building. They’re kinda famous and sooooo totally not good for you with all the added toppings!
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Our fair is this week starting this Wednesday but nothing like yours. That is some crowd you got there.
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It sure was. Crowds like that usually don’t show up until Labor Day weekend. Didn’t deter me from enjoying the day. It was a lot of fun.
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It’s great to see that many people at the fair. I’ve always thought it was an important way for farm kids and city kids to each learn something about the other’s lives. And there are the excellent treats, of course.
That is a very fine band photo. It reminds me of an album cover. I remember those. In fact, I think my son may have had some Styx albums . . . 🙂
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Hey there — nice pics. I noticed your grab from the Styx concert on flickr and a few clicks later wound up here. Curious – you have the same body as me (D700). My wife & I have tickets to see Rush @the fair. I’d kind of aleady decided to NOT take my camera with me as I’ve just “assumed” that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring it into the concert area. I know that the Styx show was a freebie and the Rush one is not… maybe thats a difference. Do you know? Also – unless you were very close I’m guessing that you used longer than a 50mm for the shots of Styx? Should I bring mine with a 200 or 300 mm lens?? {shrug shoulders} ( the damn thing is heavy… lol! )
Just curious & thanks…
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Jim,
You will not be allowed to bring a dSLR into the Grandstands. However, a pocket P&S is allowed as well as phones which can record video and post to youTube during the performance. Go figure?
If you check out the Exif data on flickr you will see I used a Nikon 70-200VR f/2.8 lens at 200mm for this photograph. I used spot metering so as not to blow out the performer’s faces. The D700 ISO capabilities are fair superior to my old D70, this was taken at ISO 1800 and I did not use any noise reduction on it. Just got the D700 a couple of weeks ago so I am still learning how to use it.
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Thanks for the info Scott. Ditto on the P&S’s (w/video to boot!) being allowed – that has always, and continues to, dumbfound me…
You’ll love the 700 – it is a beast of a camera. Mine has been out in rain and snow storms (HS Football), covered in mud and/or buried in dust (motocross and hare scrambles motorcycle racing), and just used in other ways which really make me cringe sometimes… ( recalling what I spent on the thing ) but it just keeps right on trucking and I have had zero issues with it. The high ISO capability is amazing too… 🙂
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Wow, that’s a LOT of people!! Wouldn’t call it fun, fighting my way through the crowds (maybe if I was by myself, but not with a couple of kids in tow, afraid that the little one will get trampled 😉 )
Looks like you had a fun day, with lots of good food (no deep fried candy bars??), and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect either.
Did you get any pictures of the rides?
The Texas State Fair is starting sometime in September. We’re NOT planning on going. It’s just too expensive, and growing up in Germany, and FREE admission to events like this (Oktoberfest, etc.) I think it’s just wrong to charge a small fortune just to walk through the gates.
Oh, and Styx? Greg would be SO jealous!
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Your glistening potatoes and chicken look SO tasty. It was kind of you to not torture us with an image of the raspberry pie and ice cream too.
You should submit your llama photo to the makers of the Llama Song just in case an even newer version of their mind-numbing masterpiece is in the works 🙂
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Great series, the food looks yummy. I’m getting hungry again.
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