The Fair added a waterski stunt show on a pond, moved the Asian and Latino villages to the west end, put New York potatoes in the $1 potato booth for the first time, and built the FFA a 4,000 square foot building. Here is the full accounting, with times.
Every year the State Fair announces new things, and every year most of them turn out to be a rebranded booth. This year the list is longer and stranger than usual.
This story came from public records we pulled ourselves
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There is a stunt show on a pond involving jet skis. There are racing corgis, sponsored by Micron. There is a 1,400 pound replica wheel of cheese. And the $1 potato booth, an institution, has changed hands and changed suppliers.
All of it is included with admission, which the Fair prices at $8 before fees. Everything below comes from the Fair’s own announcements, and where a time or a date is given, it is the Fair’s.
The one that sounds made up
Ski Extreme Productions is making its Fair debut with what the Fair describes as gravity-defying jet ski, waterski and wakeboard gymnastics, in a 30 to 40 minute stunt show.
It runs three times a day, at 11:00 a.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., at the pond near Suburban Park.
A waterski stunt show requires water, and the Fairgrounds has a pond, and apparently that was enough. It is the single most unlikely addition to this year’s Fair and it happens three times daily.
Corgi races, three times a day
The Fast and the Furriest Corgi Races run at 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. daily in the Exposition Center. They are sponsored by Micron, which is a sentence that says a great deal about Central New York in 2026.
The Exposition Center is indoors, which matters in late August. Circus Hollywood, sponsored by Chevy, runs in the same building at 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., with performers available for meet and greets between shows.
If you are managing small children on a hot afternoon, those two shows and that building are the plan.
A pint-sized tractor pull, and how to enter
The Kiddie Tractor Pull is new, and unlike most Fair attractions it requires signing up.
It runs in the Toyota Coliseum, starting at noon on Friday, August 28, with additional pulls on Saturday, August 29 and Saturday, September 5. Youth registrants pull tractors and the Fair measures how far they get.
Space is limited. The Fair says interested youth should register by visiting the Antique Tractor Exhibit before the show, or by contacting Jim Griswold at 607-423-6244.
That phone number is in the Fair’s own announcement, which is the only reason it appears here.
The potato booth is now a New York potato booth
This is the change most likely to matter to people who come every year.
The Fair’s $1 potato booth is an institution. It is now operated by Tully’s Good Times, in collaboration with the state Department of Agriculture and Markets’ New York State Grown and Certified program.
The change is not the price. It is the supply chain. The baked potatoes and salt potatoes are now grown in New York, the toppings come from New York State Grown and Certified processors, and the butter and dairy use New York milk.
The Fair frames it as the same value, now homegrown. The timing is not accidental either: the Grown and Certified program is marking its tenth anniversary this year.
For a fair whose entire premise is New York agriculture, selling potatoes from somewhere else was always a slightly awkward fact. That is now fixed, and it is fixed on the single cheapest item on the grounds.
The Big Cheese, which is exactly what it sounds like
Also debuting: The Big Cheese, a 1,400 pound replica cheese wheel, produced in conjunction with Great Lakes Cheese and the Dairy Farmers of America.
It is a replica, not 1,400 pounds of edible cheese. It is still 1,400 pounds of cheese-shaped object at a state fair, which is the correct spirit.
The dairy side of the Fair has more going on than that. The Fair says the Milk Bar is undergoing renovations that include increasing the square footage of the Dairy Products Building, announced by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2025. Visitors to that building can sample and buy cheeses from across the state.
And there is a Mobile Dairy Experience plus an all-new Dairy Discovery Center, which the Fair describes as a 53-foot immersive educational experience.
The milk, for the record, is still 25 cents a cup.
The villages moved, and the calendar changed
One structural change is easy to miss and worth knowing before you go looking.
The Asian Village and the Latino Village are now on the west side of the Fairgrounds. And they run six days this year rather than the full run, with the Fair saying both will run all 13 days next year.
The Asian Village operates August 26 through 31. The Latino Village operates September 2 through 7. If you are going this weekend and the Latino Village is on your list, it is not open yet.
That is the kind of detail that turns a good day into a frustrating one, and it is buried in a nav menu on the Fair’s site.
Agriculture got the biggest investment
Underneath the stunt shows, the agricultural side of the Fair had the most substantial additions.
New York’s FFA students and educators have a new home: a newly constructed 4,000 square foot FFA Building on the west end of the Fairgrounds, which the Fair says serves them year-round rather than only during the 13 days.
The Holstein Dairy Cattle Competition returns to the Toyota Coliseum on Sunday, August 30, in what the Fair calls its largest showing in nearly a decade.
On Saturday, August 29, the same building hosts the 4-H Driving and Miniature Horse Show at 10:30 a.m., where 4-H youth demonstrate driving and in-hand skills, followed by a Meet the Horses educational event at 5:00 p.m.
The Fair also says llama, meat goat and other animal entries are up this year, and that the recently constructed Goat Barn Pavilion will host goat competitions with bleacher seating.
And there is a new digital campaign called Behind the Halter, running on screens throughout the Dairy Cattle Barn, profiling the young people who show New York’s dairy cattle.
Best of Fair, and a slushie with a name
The Fair added competitions for its own vendors this year. The Best of Fair Competitions run in the Empire Room across five categories: Savory, Sweet, Fried, non-alcoholic Beverage, and Alcoholic Beverage.
That is a genuinely good idea. A fair with hundreds of food vendors has never had an easy way to tell you which fried thing is the best fried thing.
The Empire Room itself now has free daily programming, which the Fair lists as country line dancing, a silent disco, trivia and DJ nights. Harvey’s Garden’s pour-your-own beer wall is there for anyone 21 and over, with non-alcoholic options available.
There is also a signature slushie challenge, and the two competitors have been given names: the Pete Pickle and the Betty Blueberry. A pickle slushie is a real thing being offered at the New York State Fair in 2026, and you may draw your own conclusions.
The rest of the list
A few more, briefly, because they are all real and all included with admission.
The Great American Drone Show used more than 300 synchronized drones, but only on the first two nights, August 26 and 27. Those have passed.
The Chevrolet Music Series carries 41 national recording acts across Chevy Court and Suburban Park, with two special 9:00 p.m. Chevy Court shows on Friday, August 28 and Friday, September 4.
The Fair is marking the country’s 250th anniversary with a sand sculpture in the Micron Center of Progress, competitions in the Wegmans Creative Arts Center, which was formerly the Art and Home Center, and a commemorative pin available at the merchandise booth inside the Main Gate and, new this year, inside the Horticulture Building.
The Wegmans Demo Kitchen in that rebranded Creative Arts Center has added live demonstrations of wreath making and flower arranging alongside the cooking.
Tasty Tuesday, the one-day discounted sampling event, runs Tuesday, September 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with samples from participating vendors at $3 to $5. Look for the Tasty Tuesday icon in the Fair Finder section of the official app.
And the Horticulture Building has consolidated: the Maple Booth, the Arborist Association, the Honey Producers, Taste NY and the Potato Booth are all in that one space this year.
What it costs
The Fair lists admission at $8 and a Frequent Fairgoer pass at $25. Bought online through the Fair’s ticketing, those come to $8.32 and $25.70 with fees included, and parking vouchers are $12.41.
Children 12 and under and adults 65 and older get in free every day.
The Fair runs through Labor Day, Monday, September 7. Gates are open 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., with no entry or re-entry after 9:00 p.m.
One last number, for scale. The Fair was founded in 1841, making it the oldest state fair in the country, and the Fairgrounds is a 375-acre complex that operates year-round.
