New York State Fair plans to cut afternoon concerts at Suburban Park

The New York State Fair will cancel afternoon concerts at Suburban Park for 2024 due to a combination of high cost and low attendance.

The 8 p.m. concerts at Suburban Park and the 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. concerts at Chevy Court are slated to continue as usual.

State Fair Director Sean Hennessey said it was not only the most fiscally responsible decision, but that it will allow money to be diverted into some of the larger, more well-attended shows.

“We were seeing that we only had a few hundred folks attending the afternoon shows, but the amount of money that went to paying for those shows is dramatic,” Hennessey said. “It just didn’t make fiscal sense.”

Suburban Park, formerly called Chevy Park, is the largest concert venue in Central New York. The afternoon concerts at 2 p.m. most days were home to performances by Slick Rick, Rebecca Black and more last year.

In 2023, the New York State Fair booked 46 performers and two youth-oriented shows for their main concert locations. Eight of those performances were afternoon concerts at Suburban Park.

On opening day in 2023, around 53,000 people gathered to watch country singer Lainey Wilson, making it the most well-attended show in the history of the New York State Fair. Artists like Ludacris, REO Speedwagon and Yung Gravy attracted crowds of around 30,000.

“We wouldn’t have had that experience if we didn’t cut back on some of the shows we had midweek last year,” Hennessey said.

Currently, two performances have already been booked for the 2024 fair. Kidz Bop Live will be performing at 1:00 p.m. at Chevy Court. TLC, an R&B band responsible for hits like “Waterfalls,” “Creep” and “No Scrubs,” will be performing at 8 p.m. at Suburban Park. Fans attending the TLC concert are encouraged to dress like it’s the 90s in celebration of their 1994 second studio album “CrazySexyCool.”

The New York State Fair will happen at the State Fairgrounds, 581 State Fair Blvd., on Aug. 21-Sept. 2.

Nada Merghani is a Newhouse Fellow at Syracuse University and a contributing writer to syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. Contact her at nmerghani@syracuse.com.