Debuting in 1841 as America’s first state fair, the Great New York State Fair is a summer highlight in Upstate New York. Staged at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, a 375-acre site featuring numerous year-round group and event rental options among its 110 venues, the Fair, scheduled for Aug. 25 to Sept. 5 this year, is a ready-made agenda booster for groups.
In its continuing celebration of New York’s agricultural heritage, the Fair is also emblematic of the wealth of annual Empire State festivals and events offering easy tie-ins for delegates visiting for other business.
Here is a sampling, by no means exhaustive, of the myriad events populating the state’s annual party calendar.
Simply Wonderful
Birthplace of the national Women’s Rights Movement and home to the tour-capable National Women’s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls is popularly believed to be director Frank Capra’s inspiration for the setting of the 1946 Jimmy Stewart classic It’s A Wonderful Life (2016 is its 70th anniversary year). Marketing itself as “The Real Bedford Falls,” this former mill town created a museum, 5K run and festival in the film’s name. Taking place in December, the three-day event includes music, exhibits and plenty of Christmas cheer.
Pleasing lovers of jazz and improvised sounds since 2002, the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival ranks among the nation’s signature music festivals. Scheduled for June 24 to July 2, 2016, the festival’s 15th edition includes headliner shows at the famed Eastman Theatre’s Kodak Hall; 220-plus Club Pass shows at 13 venues around town; 90-plus free shows on six outdoor stages; and nightly jam sessions at the Rochester Plaza Hotel.
Rochester’s festival schedule also includes the long-running M&T Bank Clothesline Festival in September, for six decades the region’s largest fine-art and crafts festival.
Cooperstown is another melodious destination. Running from July through August, the globally renowned Glimmerglass Festival is among the world’s top opera series. With Otsego Lake as the backdrop, programs include meet-the-performers, tours and seminars. Other events include the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival; Cooperstown Lakefront Concert Series; and long-running Cooperstown Concert Series, which includes performances at perennial group favorite The Otesaga Resort Hotel.
Music lovers also have the seasonal concert series at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the performing arts venue and museum located at the 1969 Woodstock festival site.
The annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival is one of the longest-running jazz events in the world, having featured the likes of Miles Davis, Ray Charles and B.B. King, and is based in June at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
For delegates looking to stop and smell the roses, floral feasts include Rochester’s Lilac Festival, and running six weeks from June to August throughout the Buffalo Niagara area, the National Garden Festival.
Putting Greater Buffalo at the forefront of garden tourism, this celebration encompasses walks and tours of the area’s nearly 1,000 private gardens, plus seminars, special events and more. Venues include the event-capable Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens from 1900, its design inspired by London’s famed Crystal Palace.
Extending from Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Delaware Park to downtown Buffalo, the two-day Garden Walk Buffalo the last weekend of July draws visitors to some 350 urban gardens. The self-guided experience is the nation’s largest garden tour and largest free event of its kind.
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Taste Makers
Led by its dairy industry, New York is among the nation’s top agricultural states, at or near the top in total production of milk, yogurt and cheese. With abundant other bounty—and strong support from the state’s highly successful “Taste NY” marketing campaign, which routinely places food and beverage producers at events—groups can get the full flavor of New York at a number of culinary celebrations.
Binghamton’s hometown spiedie sandwich is featured as part of the Spiedie Fest & Balloon Rally during the first full weekend of August. Founded in 1983 as a spiedie cooking contest and officially organized in 1985, the festival now attracts around 100,000 visitors.
Held each August at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, the day-long New York State Food Festival showcases New York producers, specialty products and beer. Featuring around 100 food vendors, the event includes live music and the popular Farmers Market.
Preceding the annual National Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival, the city’s hot-draw international event each Labor Day weekend, Taste of Buffalo in July is the largest two-day food festival in the nation. Featuring tastings and demos from 50-plus restaurants along with food trucks, wineries and a beer tent, the downtown event, drawing more than 450,000 visitors, showcases cuisines from around the globe.
Ranked third in the nation for both wine and grape production and distilled spirits, the state’s liquid assets provide abundant opportunities for tours, tastings and events.
Also home to the nation’s fourth-ranked craft brewery industry, New York is for beer lovers. According to the Rochester-based New York State Brewers Association, growth is surging, up from 95 breweries in 2012 to 220 in 2015. Syracuse-area groups can tap into the annual Central New York Brewfest event, held each February in the Horticulture Building at the New York State Fairgrounds.
Fair Play
Opened in 1944 on working farmland dating to 1813, the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown pays living tribute to New York’s rural heritage. Offering authentic venues for group events, including the Bump Tavern and Cornwallville Church, both from the 18th century, this national historic register landmark also produces seasonal events, including the annual Harvest Festival. Celebrating its 38th edition in September, this regional favorite features live music, artisan demonstrations, and activities, including rides on the Empire State Carousel.
With its own deep roots in New York’s agrarian past, the Dutchess County Fair, originated in 1842 (one year after the first Great New York State Fair), is a regional draw the third full week in August. The six-day event is staged at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.
Located 100 miles north of New York City in Rhinebeck, where the conference-capable Beekman Arms is America’s oldest continuously operated hotel, the complex also hosts antique and classic car shows, September’s Hudson Valley Wine & Food Festival, and in October, the NYS Sheep & Wool Family Festival.
South of Buffalo, the 266-acre Hamburg Fairgrounds is the setting for the historic Erie County Fair. Established in 1820, this 11-day fest is a premier Western New York summer event, attracting more than 1 million people last year.
In the 1000 Islands region, Harborfest is a free four-day festival held annually during the last full weekend of July in Oswego, on the shores of Lake Ontario. Now in its 29th year, the event features music and an acclaimed fireworks show.
