Melissa Etheridge, Third Eye Blind and Flo Rida headline Suburban Park on three straight nights. Kids and seniors get in free every day. Here is what is actually happening August 28 through 30, with the prices and the timing that matter.
The Great New York State Fair opened Wednesday and runs through Labor Day, Monday, September 7. This weekend is the first full one of the run, and it carries the strongest three-night concert stretch on the early calendar.
This story came from public records we pulled ourselves
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Everything below comes from the Fair’s own published schedules and ticket pages, checked Thursday evening. Lineups and times can change, and the Fair posts updates on its site and app.
Start with the two numbers that shape any visit. The gates are open 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. daily, and there is no entry or re-entry after 9:00 p.m. If you plan to arrive after dinner, arrive before nine.
Friday, August 28
Friday carries two designated days at once.
It is LGBTQ+ Pride Day, which the Fair is marking this year around the fifteenth anniversary of New York’s Marriage Equality Act. The day includes a Pride flag raising ceremony and a resource fair.
It is also New Americans Day, which the Fair describes as honoring New York’s immigrant communities. That day’s resource fair runs 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Expo Center.
On the music side, Friday is the busiest day of the three.
Chevy Court, which is free with admission, has three sets: Kenny Metcalf as Elton at 1:00 p.m., Brandy Clark at 6:00 p.m., and DJ Pretty Mess at 9:00 p.m. That 9:00 p.m. slot is unusual. Chevy Court normally runs two shows a day, at 1:00 and 6:00.
At Suburban Park, Melissa Etheridge plays at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 29
Saturday has no designated special day. The Fair’s own special days page skips from Friday straight to Monday, which means no themed free-admission offer on either weekend day.
Worth knowing if you were counting on a discount: the two busiest days of the weekend are full-price days.
Chevy Court has Moonlight Princesses at 1:00 p.m. and Maddox Batson at 6:00 p.m.
Suburban Park has Third Eye Blind at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 30
Sunday also carries no special day.
Chevy Court has gymclassheroes. at 1:00 p.m. and Air Supply at 6:00 p.m.
Suburban Park has Flo Rida at 8:00 p.m.
That is a soft-rock matinee and a hip hop headliner on the same set of grounds about two hours apart, which is a reasonable summary of what the Fair is.
What it costs, exactly
Fair pricing this year is unusual in that the published numbers already include fees, so the price you read is the price you pay.
Admission is $8.32 per ticket online. Children age 12 and under and seniors age 65 and older are admitted free every day of the Fair. Parking vouchers are $12.41 per vehicle for entry to any of the Fair’s public lots.
Run that for a household of two adults and two children under 12 and the arithmetic is straightforward. Two adult tickets at $8.32 is $16.64. The children are free. Add $12.41 for parking and the gate cost for the family is $29.05.
There is also a Frequent Fairgoer ticket at $25.70, sold exclusively online, which admits the holder once a day, every day of the Fair. It is non-transferable.
The break-even on that is worth knowing before you buy. Three single-day tickets cost $24.96, which is still less than the Frequent Fairgoer. Four cost $33.28. So the pass pays for itself on your fourth visit, not your third.
Tickets and parking can be bought in the same transaction online. They can also be purchased by phone through Etix at 800-514-3849, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. There are no refunds or exchanges on admission tickets or parking vouchers.
Getting around once you are inside
The Fairgrounds are large enough that the internal transportation matters more than people expect.
Trams run continuously at nine stops from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day, free of charge. If you have small children or a long walk back to a far lot at the end of the night, that is the difference between a good day and a rough finish.
For accessible parking, a shuttle runs between the Gray Accessible Parking lot outside Gate 10 and Tram Stop 3 at the rear entrance of the Horticulture Building, on the same 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. schedule.
Guest Relations operates four sites across the grounds, open from 9:00 a.m.
The Midway is open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., which is worth noting because it opens two hours after the gates do. An early arrival is a good strategy for the buildings and the animals, not for the rides.
Last call for alcohol at all vendors is 10:30 p.m. every day except Labor Day.
If you want a seat for the free shows
Chevy Court sits near the front of the Fairgrounds, not far from Gate 1, and its concerts are included with admission. That combination makes seating the constraint.
Limited bleacher-style seating is available first come, first served, and it is accessible as early as gates open at 9:00 a.m. For a 6:00 p.m. show with a well-known act, people stake out seats hours ahead. If you want to sit for Brandy Clark on Friday or Air Supply on Sunday, plan to give up part of your afternoon for it.
Otherwise, standing room is the normal experience, and it works fine.
The free stuff that runs all three days
The concerts get the attention, but a large share of what the Fair offers is included with admission and runs on a fixed daily clock. These times hold Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Circus Hollywood performs inside the Exposition Center at 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Exposition Center is indoors, which matters on a hot afternoon.
Also inside the Expo Center, the Fast and the Furriest Corgi Races run at 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. It is exactly what it sounds like, and it is reliably one of the more popular things at the Fair with small children.
The Birds of Prey show from Hawk Creek Wildlife Center runs at 11:00 a.m., 2:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., located near the New York State Park area. Its educational exhibit opens daily at 10:00 a.m.
Bandaloni, the One Man Band, strolls near the Goat, Llama and Swine Barn at 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. every day.
The Wegmans Creative Arts Center, which holds the art and craft exhibitions, is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
One scheduling note worth flagging so you do not go looking for it. The Great American Drone Show, from Electric Sky Drone Shows, was scheduled for approximately 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26 and Thursday, August 27, viewable from the area around Suburban Park and the Midway. Those are the Fair’s opening two nights, not this weekend.
Building a day around the fixed times
Put the daily schedule together and a workable plan falls out on its own.
Arrive at 9:00 a.m. when the gates open. The buildings and the animal barns are calm, the parking is closer, and the temperature is survivable.
The first fixed thing is Birds of Prey at 11:00, which is also when the Corgi Races start and when the Midway opens. Pick one.
Circus Hollywood at 12:30 slots in before the 1:00 p.m. Chevy Court set, though not comfortably. If the 1:00 p.m. act is one you care about, skip the 12:30 circus and take the 3:30.
The afternoon has the most overlap: Corgi Races at 2:00, Birds of Prey at 2:15, Bandaloni at 3:00, Circus Hollywood at 3:30, Birds of Prey again at 4:30. You are not seeing all of that. Choose two.
Then the evening is straightforward. Chevy Court at 6:00, Suburban Park at 8:00, and the Midway until 11:00.
Where to park, and the part people get wrong
Parking vouchers at $12.41 cover entry to any of the Fair’s public lots, and they are sold online in the same transaction as admission.
The mistake people make is treating the lot as the destination. The Fairgrounds are large, the public lots are spread out, and the walk back at 10:30 at night with tired children is the part nobody plans for.
That is what the free trams are for. Nine stops, running continuously from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., no charge. Note where the nearest stop to your lot is when you arrive, not when you leave.
If anyone in your party needs accessible parking, the Gray Accessible Parking lot sits outside Gate 10, with a shuttle to Tram Stop 3 at the rear entrance of the Horticulture Building, running the same hours as the trams.
Guest Relations has four locations across the grounds, open from 9:00 a.m., and they are the right first stop for anything that goes wrong.
The cultural villages, and a timing note
The Fair runs several cultural villages, and two of them have date windows rather than running the whole Fair.
The Asian Village runs August 26 through 31, which includes all three days of this weekend. The Latino Village runs September 2 through 7, which does not. If the Latino Village is on your list, this is not the weekend for it.
The Haudenosaunee Village and the NAACP Van Robinson Pan-African Village are also part of the Fair’s cultural village programming.
A practical plan
If you are going once and want the most out of it, Friday is the strongest single day this weekend. Three Chevy Court sets instead of two, Melissa Etheridge at Suburban Park, two designated days with their own programming, and typically lighter crowds than Saturday.
If you are bringing young children, arrive at nine when the gates open, do the animal buildings and the Center of Progress before the midday heat and the crowds, use the trams rather than walking the grounds twice, and understand that the Midway does not start until eleven.
If you are going for a headliner, get there well before the set, and remember the 9:00 p.m. entry cutoff. A Suburban Park show at 8:00 p.m. is fine. Turning up at 9:15 for anything is not.
And if you think you will go four or more times before September 7, buy the Frequent Fairgoer rather than paying at the gate each visit.
The Fair’s full daily schedules, the interactive Fair Finder map and the official app are all on nysfair.ny.gov. Hours, prices and the entry cutoff quoted here were verified there Thursday, August 27.
