2010 New York State Fair
The end of August …. The nights are dropping down in temperature, the salmon run is just around the corner, and Labor Day is just about upon us. This means the Great New York State Fair is about to kick off. Unfortunately for my wife, this means that she’ll become a rock ‘n roll widow over the next week.
On the agenda is the Blue Oyster Cult / Kansas double bill on Friday, Styx on Saturday, Blues Traveler on Sunday, 30 Seconds to Mars on Monday and Robert Randolph next Sunday. All of this music for $30 ($36 dollars including the extra ticket for my wife to either Blues Traveler or 30 Seconds to Mars — if I can convince her to go.) Yes, I know this doesn’t include parking or food — however, that’s generally the case no matter what venue to you go to.
Now compare the entertainment value of a $36 ticket (actually 6 tickets at $6) to the $104 single ticket (high end) fee that Aerosmith is charging at the grandstand. When the show prices were announced in May, I indicated (Dream On) that Aersosmith wouldn’t even come close to selling out the grandstand. In today’s Post Standard, Mark Bialczak writes “As of close of business Sunday, 8,458 tickets had been sold to the 17,000-seat grandstand.”[2, A4] Worse is that fact that Aerosmith was guaranteed a record $1 million to perform this year[1]. Mark goes on to say “Using $94 as the average ticket price, the estimated take stands at $795,052, or more than $200,000 short of the band’s $1 million guaranteed payment.”[2, A4] What a surprise. Didn’t see that one coming.
Final exams and presentations are completed for the quarter this Thursday and then visions of fried bread dough can dance in my head.
[1] McAndrew, Mike. “Aerosmith tickets are most expensive in New York State Fair history.” Syracuse Post Standard [Liverpool] 24 May 2010: n. pag. syracuse.com. Web. 24 Aug. 2010.
[2] Bialczak, Mark. “Less than half of the available tickets for Aerosmith’s state fair concert have sold.” Syracuse Post Standard 24 Aug. 2010, sec. Local: A4. syracuse.com. Web. 24 Aug. 2010.
