The 2026 New York State Fair, up close
The New York State Fair, up close
From corgi races and cow barns to newlyweds, drum circles and kangaroo, NewsHouse reporters capture the people and small moments that give the New York State Fair its character.
The New York State Fair knows how to go big, with music acts drawing tens of thousands of fans to stages at opposite ends of the sprawling fairgrounds, nearly three-quarters of a mile apart.
But much of what makes the fair memorable happens on a smaller scale, like when an 11-year-old discovers exactly where a horse likes to be scratched. When newlyweds toast with plastic cups of wine under the fairground lights. When farm kids put aside blue ribbons for a water-soaked race of their own, or a musician spots a band T-shirt in the crowd and changes the next song on the spot.
NewsHouse reporters combed the fairgrounds looking for those moments and capturing the funny, tender, and unexpected scenes that unfold between the headline attractions. What follows is a collection of snapshots from the fair, told one encounter at a time.
A gold-medal performance
In front of the goat, llama and swine barn, a crowd of enamored children dance to AC/DC’s “T.N.T.,” plastic gold medals dangling from their necks. Their parents stand behind them, recording as Paul David, who performs as Bandaloni, strums his guitar and blows his harmonica.
David is a one-man band who charms state fairs around the country with his stripes on stripes outfit, jukebox speaker system and backpack of instruments.
On his shoulders he carries a contraption consisting of a kick drum, a trombone, a snare drum, a harmonica and a high hat. He plays his all-black electric guitar while singing and ad-libbing. While singing “T.N.T.,” for instance, he mentions the state fair’s Restaurant Row and the audience roars.
For David, band life began 30 years ago, after a sculpting career where he crafted large- scale dinosaurs for museums. He built a large wooden jukebox with gold detailing and antique knobs to serve as both his sound system and performance backdrop.
Now he stomps around the circle, one red and black striped knee-high sock in front of the other, singing into the kids’ faces and hamming it up for the cameras.
Once the song ends, David disappoints the crowd by saying he won’t be back until tomorrow, prompting the jazzed-up kids to grab a gold medal from the yellow can next to a stack of $1 autographed photos.
“I love to light up the kids’ faces and inspire them a little bit,” David said. “They’re either freaked out or they get it. And if they get it, they’ll dance.”
Harper’s sweet spot
Melissa Kershner shifts from side to side, angling her phone toward her daughter, Harper.
Click. Click. Click.
The 11-year-old girl, back to the camera, doesn’t seem to notice. Her attention is fixed on Stella, a 9-year-old brown quarter horse standing quietly inside the state fair’s horse barn on Friday.
“I’ve loved horses all my life,” Harper said.
For about 10 minutes, Harper stays beside Stella, stroking her mane and forehead. Her three older siblings are somewhere else, wrestling with each other, but Harper has little interest in joining them.
Instead, she studies Stella’s features.
The horse’s left eye is blue, while her right is brown.
Harper runs her hand gently over Stella’s head. When she scratches the center of the horse’s forehead, Stella’s eyes slowly close. Harper smiles. She’s found Stella’s sweet spot.
“I always saw pictures of them, and I’m always like, ‘Oh my God, I want a horse,’” Harper said.
After a few hours of exploring the fairgrounds, Harper had found a place where she wanted to stay.
Click. Click. Click.
Harper keeps petting Stella, while her mom keeps snapping photos.
Hot dog slices and high jumps
With a run-up, a jump, a spring off a back, over the 8-foot hurdle, and into the arms of her caretaker, Shazam!, the rescue border collie, clears the jump.
Three sets of bleachers brim with people of all ages. Children lean over the blowup barrier for a better look as dogs big and small run, leap, and dance about the makeshift arena.
Whitney McNatt, a trainer with the stunt dog group The Canine Stars, watches the performers do spin flips for hot dog slices.
The group features dogs from all over the world, rescued from streets and shelters and trained to dive, jump and chase frisbees.
After the show on Friday evening, the crowd lines up for a meet and greet. Swooning quickly commences.
Dua Lipa, a 4-year-old rescue pit bull from Raleigh, North Carolina, grins up at fair goers as they line up to pet her and pose for pictures. It’s unclear if she’s happy with the attention — or the hot dog slices.
The Canine Stars promote adoption and help people build strong relationships with their dogs.
“Adopting a dog,” McNatt said, “will truly change your life.”
Newlyweds find their “happy place” at the fair
Plastic cups filled with white wine clinked under the lights at the New York State Fair on Friday. Platters of Villa Pizze’s fried dough helped welcome the marriage of Thomas and Kristi Murlin at the fair.
“Cheers!” The wedding party chimed in unison as the plastic cups raised against the backdrop of Friday night fair lights.
“This is my happy place. So to be here right now and to be married is quite surreal,” Thomas Murlin said.
Strangers called “Congratulations!” as they passed. Some stopped for a quick photo of the couple or simply smiled at the sight of a bride in an elegant white dress strolling through the Syracuse fairgrounds.
Thomas and Kristi Murlin, both teachers in Cazenovia, have visited the fair together almost every year of their 15 years together.
Kristi said she has fond memories of playing fair games with her son since he was 2 years old. The baked potato stand is a staple for the pair along with other favorites they visit every summer.
The Murlins held the wedding ceremony at their house a few hours earlier and made their way to the fairgrounds to celebrate with close friends.
“This is sort of like next-level fair experience,” Kristi Murlin said.
As the sky dimmed, the Murlins planned to head toward the Ferris Wheel to capture photos together under the glowing lights.
All’s fair in love and reubens
Steam curls from thick slabs of corned beef sizzling on the grill. Sauerkraut, dusted with black pepper and garlic, is piled on the meat, the stack topped with melted Swiss cheese. Thousand Island dressing, made with smoked ketchup, seeps between the layers of the finished sandwich.
A sign at the Redneck Reuben food truck reads: “You don’t need no teef to eat our beef.”
Among the smells of funnel cakes and crowds of hungry fairgoers, Redneck Reuben’s owners, Christian and Erin Felix, bring a Southern twist to the fair’s food scene.
Twenty-one years ago, Christian’s car broke down in a pizza parking lot. Looking for a phone, he walked across the street to a bar, where he held the door open for a young woman. It was a small gesture that would change the course of his life.
“I married her,” he said.
Years later, after opening a restaurant, Christian’s Reuben became an unexpected hit. During a food truck association meeting, someone suggested the couple open a truck. Christian jokingly tossed out a name: Redneck Reuben.
Erin heard him from across the room. “YES!” she exclaimed.
As a child, Christian remembers stopping at a Pennsylvania truck stop and eating a Reuben he still remembers — one big and juicy enough to drip down his arm. Now, that childhood memory is piled high at the New York State Fair.
“When I had a chance to have a restaurant,” he said, “that’s the thing I sought to build.”
For first-timers, Christian’s recommendation is simple: Try the Reuben.
Wrestling, defeat and corndogs
They pull off their neon green shirts and tuck them under their sweaty elbows. They surround their teammate and coach, waving their arms up and down.
The coach dials in with his wrestler about to take to the mat. A sweaty singlet, drenched headgear and the smell of corndogs. Welcome to the Northeast Freestyle Dual Meet Championships at the state fair.
It’s a big, open stage for the event, but Bill Dawson isn’t worried about his grandson, William, getting nervous before his match on Friday.
“It’s not too big for him,” Bill Dawson said, noting that William has been on bigger stages before.
William squared up against his opponent, the sun peeking from over the Horse Show building behind them. The aroma of fried Oreos mixed with manure hung in the air, crowds rumbled past, and bleachers of onlookers sat ready to watch.
The referee gave them the go-ahead. With a few quick moves, William was taken down to the ground.
The kalimba man
The sound of African djembes and congas rumbles around the tent, ba da bum, boom boom boom, getting faster and faster, ba da bum, boom boom boom, led by an instructor beating kente-patterned congas. The tempo grows faster with each progression, echoing around the block of the Van Robinson Pan-African Village, drawing dancing newcomers to the sidelines.
Larry Lott walks up to the tent carrying a red Wegmans bag and sits down next to the instructor. He pulls a wooden kalimba out of his bag and plucks its metal keys, accompanying the pounding drums as the crowd shouts and dances.
When the song ends, Lott, an instructor for the village’s daily African drum circle, takes out three more kalimbas. Most of the crowd disperses, but he shows two people how to use the instrument before they leave.
Lott continues to pluck his kalimba with a rendition of The Whispers’ “Rock Steady.” His dimples and grin shine as he turns to perform for passersby.
“We begin to rock steady, steady rocking all night long,” he sings, moving his shoulders from side to side.
A 20-year veteran of the fair, Lott enjoys playing the kalimba and drums in the village and even makes his own small kalimbas for children to take home.
“Everywhere I go with [a kalimba], it just brings me good luck,” Lott said. “It brings me good fortune, brings you good people.”
Corgis take the track
A siren of corgi barks drowned out the excited screams of children in the Exposition Center at the New York State Fair on Saturday. The seats were full as the crowd waited for the final contest in the Fast and Furriest Corgi Races show to begin. Among them was Mackenzie Drum, who had come to watch the dogs race down the track.
The MC introduced the four racers, who waddled into their starting gates. The music quieted and the countdown started. When it hit zero, the gates dropped and the corgis burst onto the track, laser focused on that finish line, their short legs moving as fast as they could.
Jango, a young speckled corgi with a tan face, bounded across the finish line first, claiming the title of champion.
For Drum, the event was more about the spectacle of the corgis’ comically short legs moving than about which dog won the race.
“Definitely fun and playful,” she said. “A couple of the corgis were here to win, but definitely more of a playful race.”
Farm kid fun
In the Dairy Cattle pavilion, amid cows in stalls lined up by breed–Jersey, Brown Swiss, Holstein–an unusual race is beginning. Water sloshes out of feed pitchers as tweens and teens race across the hay floor toward mop buckets.
Normally, the show ring is where farm animals up for sale are shown, but at 6:40 on Friday evening at the fair, it’s used for farm kid entertainment.
It’s a simple game: On one end of the ring the teams line up, each with its own pail. Whichever team fills up its bucket across the ring first, wins.
Johannah Bossard stands along the fence line with the rest of the mothers videoing the tournament.
“It’s barnyard Olympics,” said Bossard, owner of Barbland and White Eagle Dairy in Fabius.
There’s no trophy or medal, just the winning team drenched in water.
Tomorrow the kids will be up early to prepare and show their cows while other fair goers eat and ride till they’re sick. But today they’re not interested in blue ribbons — friendly competition is enough.
Drumbeats and dance celebrate Haudenosaunee culture at the fair
Rhythmic drumbeats and whoops resound in the Haudenosaunee Village at the New York State Fair. In a copse of trees away from the main walkways, families, couples, and friends sit together to witness the dances.
Women wearing bright, flowing dresses and men in traditional headdresses move in intricate patterns across the stage, stomping their feet and waving their arms. The infectious music has the audience clapping with the beat and children jumping to the rhythm.
On a stage shaped like a turtle to symbolize the Turtle Island creation story, members of the Six Nations share their traditional social dances and Haudenosaunee Earth Songs, said jewelry vendor Rachel Schindler.
These annual performances “show everyone our social dances that we like to do to show gratitude to all of our harvests, to the people, our visitors, basically everyone in our creations,” said basket weaver and vendor Jared Shonenrhiio Jock. Opening with the welcome social dance and closing with the friendship social dance, the Haudenosaunee performers show the audience their culture.
“When people step foot in this part of the fair, they see a different part of themselves come alive here,” Jock said. “It’s beautiful to be here.”
Turning T-shirts into tunes
Rachel Dara seems to know a song for every band T-shirt she sees. Last Friday in the West End drinks tent, the 19-year-old American-Quebecois singer-songwriter nodded and swayed her hips as she sang, fingers dancing across her guitar strings. A silver fleur-de-lis dangled from a bracelet on one wrist, reminding her of home.
Her eyes moved around the tent as she played and sang, seeing audience members — and their T-shirts.
“Is that a Nirvana shirt?” she asked, then launched into “Heart-Shaped Box.”
A Noah Kahan T-shirt caught her attention next, sending her toward “Stick Season” after mentioning she’d seen Kahan in concert twice.
Then she moved onto “Linger” by The Cranberries. She pointed toward a dancing audience member and smiled.
Her guitar reflected blue sky, hanging green plants, passersby parading with food bowls and inflatable hammers.
The she saw someone sporting a Rachel Dara T-shirt — the first American she saw wearing one, she noted.
At the end of her set, she pulled out a stool, sat her guitar on her lap and finished with Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” She then packed up her guitar and large blue backpack, preparing for the road to Pennsylvania for her next performance.
Japanese culture, American style
The three little girls picked up the bright-red Japanese necklaces, eyeing them in amazement as they asked their parents what the name of the business meant.
It’s moments like these that inspired Crystal Jourden to travel over 6,500 miles to expand her business to American audiences, setting up shop in Buffalo. Jourden’s company, “Iyasaka,” was one of the many vendors at the fair featuring Asian items.
Her business focuses on Japanese jewelry and accessories. The term “Iyasaka” translates to “eternal prosperity and continued flourishing.”
Bethany Joy Hertz, Jourden’s partner in the small business, said Jourden’s inspiration came from visiting America and finding Japanese culture underrepresented.
“There’s so much beautiful art and tradition in Japan that people here, especially young people, crave,” Hertz said.
An “Udderly” delightful time for a family
Dozens of cows lay on their sides, udders bulging.
Jose Vazquez and his soon-to-be stepson share a cardboard tray of ice cream as they gaze at the spectacle of these huge animals. Wearing a Puerto Rican flag as if it was Superman’s cape, Vazquez, his fiancée and her son drove two hours from Cooperstown for the fair and its many animals: corgis running around an indoor racetrack, hawks catching their prey in the middle of the air and baby goats with soft white hair waiting to be pet.
The family chooses to linger with the cows at the milking station.
The couple has been engaged for five months and are set to be married in October of 2027. With their wedding more than a year away, the family relishes trips like this one, playing fair games, waiting in line for the tiny roller coasters and sharing their fair snacks with each other.
When they left the dairy barn, smiles stretched from ear to ear.
“We will definitely be coming back next year because we enjoyed it, and I feel like there’s not enough time in a day to explore everything,” Vazquez said.
So you want to be a correction officer?
The men on the screen sit at metal tables in a circular room, talking and playing cards. One lays down a 10 of spades. Another approaches and starts asking the supervisor questions. A flash of white appears and disappears suddenly: A package has changed hands.
Options pop up on the screen, asking the audience to categorize the contraband: Was it “received,” “passed” or “used?” The operator clicks “received.”
“Congratulations, you got it right,” said Officer Quantae “Q” Davis.
Davis is demonstrating virtual reality training videos in SI Hall at the fair, hoping to recruit applicants for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
“All of our training is done through virtual reality,” Davis said. VR lets trainees experience scripted correctional different scenarios safely.
Davis presents another scenario. This one takes place outside in a prison yard. An inmate dismounts the roman chair exercise machine, and with a cup in hand, he wobbles and stumbles into the fence. The same options pop up on the screen, and an audience member shouts, “Used contraband.”
“You’d make a great correctional officer,” Davis replies.
At the Guerilla Queer Bar
Revelers gathered Friday at the Syracuse Guerilla Queer Bar during the state fair’s LGBTQ+ Pride Day. The bar scene sported a DJ, but no dance floor.
Open from 6 to 10 p.m., the bar, hosted by Harvey’s Garden, featured a curated cocktail menu with drinks like Lavender Tom Collins and a Limoncello Spritz. Most people, however, drank draft beer.
The DJ remixed songs like “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and myriad Usher songs. In the outside seating area, the DJ music was muffled by Brandy Clark’s performance at the Chevy Court Stage. At one point, you could hear her cover of “Follow Your Arrow” by Kacey Musgraves.
Later that night, the crowd thinned as people left to watch DJ Pretty Mess, aka Erika Jayne from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” perform.
Who’s hungry for kangaroo?
A turkey leg is nothing unusual at the New York State Fair, but how about kangaroo?
At Stix & Things, Phil Galuppi created a menu that pushes beyond traditional fair food. Along with kangaroos hopping on the grill, the 60-year-old vendor offers alligator, elk, wild boar, shark, camel, ostrich and buffalo.
Galuppi had a booth at the fair for 23 years. He started with shrimp and turkey legs, but noticed fairgoers gravitated toward the unusual.
“People wanted to try something different when they came to the fair, rather than the typical foods they always got every year,” he said.
So around 2005, he added alligator from Louisiana to the menu. A few years later, he brought kangaroo from the land down under to Syracuse.
Because of the unusual options, Galuppi said getting customers to try them is often the hardest part. But once they take a bite, Galuppi said that uncertainty often disappears.
“Some of them are a little skeptical, and after they eat it, most of them go, ‘Oh my God, that was delicious,” he said.
Galuppi loves watching that transformation. “If they’re having a good time at the fair because of this stand, that makes it worthwhile,” he said.
Crochet among the llamas
Tucked between llama stalls, Barb Kurzowski sits hunched over, focusing on the blue lump of yarn on her lap.
“I’ve crocheted all my life,” she said inside the Goat, Llama and Swine Barn at the fair on Friday.
She learned the art from her mother and started making blankets for charity in 2018. Using inexpensive yarn she finds on Facebook Marketplace, she has made over 600 blankets since.
“A friend of mine has something to do with a Buffalo homeless shelter, so my next group of blankets is going to them,” she said.
Kurzowski, who owns the We Be Crazy Llama Farm in Holley — a village of less than 2,000 people west of Rochester — brought seven of her animals to the fair. Several had ribbons on display for awards won at the fair’s llama show.
Crochet keeps Kurzowski busy when there’s less to do.
“Shows have a lot of downtime,” she said. “So I just sit and crochet. It’s relaxing.”
Inside the mind of the fair
At center stage, Jon Stetson peers out at the audience through dark-rimmed glasses that match his black shirt and pants. “Put those phones down,” he admonishes the crowd. For the next 50 minutes on this Friday afternoon at the fair, Stetson asks the crowd to do something harder than simply watch: think. He asks everyone to choose a two-digit number. Keep it private. Don’t say it aloud. “Thirty-seven,” Stetson says. A ripple moves through the room. Some laugh and applaud. Others glance at their neighbors, seemingly wondering if Stetson had somehow gotten inside their heads. The audience soon becomes part of the act. Stetson, who calls himself “America’s master mentalist,” brings volunteers onstage to think of numbers, words and playing cards. Five volunteers eventually stand in a line, staring toward a box high on the back wall. Stetson tells them to picture their cards. The volunteers concentrate as Stetson begins calling out cards. “Ace of clubs. Four of hearts. Seven of spades. Ten of diamonds. King of clubs.” One by one, the volunteers sit down. The crowd responds with laughter and applause. Stetson’s act is less about cards than about people, their reactions, glances and body language. “The look on people’s faces when they connect,” he says, “is really fun for me.”
Syracuse band The Mid Daze rocks Bosco’s
The temperature fell into the 50s, a breeze slicing through Bosco’s Village Pub Friday night at the fair. The pub’s food and drink help the crowd ignore the chill, as does the thrum of bass guitar blasting through The Mid Daze’s amplifiers.
The Syracuse-based band specializes in ’90s and 2000s rock anthems. Lead singer Sam Vecchio sings into a microphone, and the crowd cheers.
Amy Flowers nods along as the band switches songs to Dishwalla’s “Counting Blue Cars.” A self-proclaimed ’90s girl, she was up close to the band and dancing for the previous song, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away.”
“This is my music,” she said.
Post competition feels
Daisy, a massive 3-year-old cow who just won third place in a cattle showing event on Friday morning, has captivated a growing crowd as she’s attached to the milking machine. “I like people walking around,” said Darah Peck, a farmworker at Jerry Dell Farm in Freeville, near Ithaca, as she operates the machine. “We get to show off what we do and what we raised.” Peck notices Daisy beginning to reject the milking machine and switches her attention to the cow standing still before her while continuing to answer questions. She says this is the farm’s first year at the fair. Standing by, Peck’s cousin and fellow farmhand gives Peck a white bottle of Biofreeze. Peck squeezes some of the gel onto her palm and begins rubbing Daisy’s sore udders. Daisy produces a few pounds of milk during the session before being given a chance to rest.
