ALBANY, N.Y. – During his press conference Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the New York State Fair is canceled for this summer.
Cuomo said the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution,” following several other local and county fair cancellations.
"We are not going to open the State Fair in Syracuse. This is a really tough one. Fairs all across the nation are not reopening," he said.
The @NYSFair is officially cancelled.
This one hurts — I love the State Fair. But the risk is too high to hold it this summer.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 6, 2020
In February, prior to the pandemic, Cuomo had said the state was adding five more days to the fair's annual run, scheduling it from Aug. 21 - Sept. 7.
"We have a fantastic State Fair in Syracuse. We've invested a lot of money. We've had record attendance, 1.3 million people last year, we broke the attendance record. We invested money, we redid the whole State Fair. We built a new expo center, 110,000-square-feet, it's really amazing. It's been an economic boon for the whole region. This year we're going to have to cancel it and that makes me personally very unhappy, but that is where we are," said Cuomo.
Cuomo also said casinos and movie theaters will remain closed at this time while