let Court area, with stately buildings surrounding the courtyard, and the State Parks area. Erie, in contrast, contains many smaller structures, most with a plainer look. The most striking building on the Hamburg grounds is the raceway casino that dominates one side of the grounds. While New Yorkers debate the
r reveals an independent
rom the State Fair os by Michael Davis
lorious entrance to the Horti- t.
most exclusively aimed at chil- acts on the bill. Wild About g baboons and other primates
nd the Horticulture Building. ger Encounter stars 300-pound ephants. The Wild World of ok at alligators, snakes, huge and big cats on stage in the he Youth Building.
addition of a gambling facility on the Geddes fairgrounds, the Erie County Fairgrounds have invested in an expansion of theirs. “What makes our fair different is we’ve got a casino on our grounds,” says Delaney. “We’re opening up a brand new casino facil- ity during the fair this year so folks will have a chance to take a look at it. It’s a new layout, new restaurants. It’s attached to the event center, so we’ll be able to partner with some of the different consumer shows that take place in the event center. People can go over from the event center to have dinner, play some slots and go home a winner.”
Fair Thee Well Overall the Erie fair’s look, while
less glamorous than the State Fair, has its own charm. In Hamburg, the fairgrounds border a residential neighborhood with houses right
across the street from the fair’s fence. Several neighbors turn their lawns into parking lots to make a few bucks during the mid-August event. The main entrance features a spectacular antique wrought-iron front gate. As patrons push through the turnstiles, electronic scanners read their tick- ets and chime their acceptance. Numerous small, grassy areas called parks,
some with picnic grounds or gazebos, give the grounds a lovely, green look. “We did reduce the number of vendors this year by almost 10 percent to open the parks up even more,” Del- aney explains. “That’s something that our board of directors is very committed to.” Many of the vendors and family acts that have played the State Fair—the Sea Lion Splash, the Marcan Tigers of India, duck and pig races—also stop off in Hamburg, where some of them are staged at the foot of a grassy slope that affords a com- fortable place to sit for viewing. Fair patrons get a glimpse of livestock barns
The most unique of the new attractions is Euro-
bubbles, where kids are actually enclosed within a trans- parent ball that rolls across the surface of a pool in the Adventure Zone. Motorcycle enthusiasts will want to visit the colon-
nade area, where the Irish Choppers workshop will be constructing a custom-made cycle. Just a few steps away, music, dancing, storytelling and ventriloquism will be presented on a new stage overlooking Chevy Court. An Iroquois longhouse, a living history treasure
absent from the past three Fairs, was under construc- tion at the entrance to the Iroquois Village and may be finished in time to welcome visitors this year. A crew of Tuscarora workers sent by the Haudenosaunee Envi- ronmental Task Force had completed the tree-branch frame by Monday and was covering it with bark siding. Sunday’s relentless rain put the team behind schedule, so completion in time for the Fair is uncertain. The original longhouse debuted at the 2000 Fair and was a popular attraction until it collapsed in a storm after the 2006 Fair.
—KEVIN CORBETT
through the chain link fence. “We’ve just built a 72,000-square-foot livestock and equine arena that will make its debut at this year’s fair,” Del- aney says. “We’ve upgraded a lot of the facilities and the layout is going to be somewhat different this year.” Wildlife, hunting and fishing also fea- ture prominently at Erie, which boasts a conser- vation building with pens of pheasants, a Trout Unlimited exhibit, a display from the Audubon Society and a boating and fishing center. Any fair has to lavish visitors with tempting,
delicious foods and Erie is no exception, match- ing the State Fair with curly fries, hot dogs, fried dough and ice cream. While a new visitor may
Scenes from Erie County: Similarities to and differences from the New York State Fair abound at the last expo before exhibi- tors and midway operators pack up and head to Syracuse. Among them (clockwise from far left): mounted security instead of on-foot State Police, a historic marker, a wrought-iron welcome, a divine interven- tionist, a more cramped sheep barn, chow hounds chowing down and a crowded exhibit of stuffed and mounted wildlife.
expect such renowned Buffalo-area dishes as chicken wings and beef on weck to dominate the culinary landscape, food choices are more varied and hot wings not nearly as common as might be expected. On the other hand, State Fair regulars would likely miss their pizza fritte and certainly notice the paucity of sausage sand- wiches. Most food operations are housed in tents or trailers, as the grounds have fewer permanent stands like the sheds along Restaurant Row at the State Fair. There are also some different menu choices
like one stand that features coconut shrimp-on- a-stick with marmalade sauce and Maryland- style crab cakes. The Grape Guy offers concord grape pie and grape soda while Captain Mike’s seafood serves up fresh clams and lobster next to a birch beer stand. One restaurant that would likely be well-received in Syracuse is the Food Tailor Gourmet Brick Oven Pizza, where diners can custom order pies with a variety of toppings, including chicken, broccoli, alfredo style and tomato-basil. Food vendors who
stop at both fairs report a noticeable difference in their volume of business. “This fair is a lot stronger for us, busi- ness-wise,” declares Tara Christensen of Rhinebeck, manager of Butcher Boys, a business that has been serving steak sandwiches at both fairs for about 30 years. “I don’t neces- sarily know why that
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