Cuomo: No State Fair this year without full state reopening

SYRACUSE — New York state will have to be fully open for business if patrons want to want to walk through the gates at the New York State Fair in Geddes this August.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the 2020 event — which is supposed to be expanded to 18 days from the usual 13 — won’t happen unless the entire state has reopened, along with coordination with neighboring states. 

“Can you open the State Fair unless the entire state is at a point where it’s open? I don’t believe so,” Gov Andrew Cuomo said during his April 28 appearance in Syracuse. Cuomo held his daily coronavirus briefing at Upstate Medical University. 

As the governor answered questions from reporters, he said having the entire state open would mean having parks, beaches, and water attractions open as well. 

“Breaks my heart, but [State Fair officials] can’t [open] unless it’s done statewide and unless it’s done, not just statewide, but with our neighboring states,” Cuomo explained. 

Without New York and neighboring states New Jersey and Connecticut all having restarted their shuttered economies, Cuomo fears “a massive infusion of people from everywhere” coming to the State Fairgrounds in Geddes.

“You’d have the highest attendance we ever had, that I can guarantee you,” Cuomo quipped about a prospective 2020 State Fair. “But it wouldn’t be good. Everything is about reducing density.” 

State Fair attendance has already been increasing rapidly in recent years after the state began to make more than $120 million in investments in its facilities and infrastructure. The Fair attracted 1.33 million people in 2019, according to the state Agriculture and Markets Department.

Onondaga County reaction

Cuomo’s logic “makes sense,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said in answering a reporter’s question during his COVID-19 briefing later in the day on April 28 at the Oncenter.

“If New York City and Long Island, in late August, are not really open… it would be very difficult to have a [State] Fair. I understand the governor’s perspective,” said McMahon. “It’s the State Fair. It’s the governor’s campus, a state campus … Certainly, if New York City is in position where [it’s] still shut down four months from now, that will mean this virus is very prevalent in New York state still, and that the Fair would be pretty risky.”

Still, the Onondaga County Executive says he remains “hopeful” that the State Fair will be held this year.