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Every year since 2003, Marie Pelton and Jim Victor receive between 800 and 1,000 pounds of butter to create their butter sculptures for the New York State Fair. The Philadelphia couple use their backgrounds in fine arts to create the fair’s butter sculpture, spending about 20 days preparing it.

“It’s always a unique experience creating something for the fair and American Dairy,” Pelton said. “People always seem to be very excited and very interested in what it’s going to be.”

In 2020, when the New York State Fair was canceled due to the pandemic, the couple displayed their butter sculpture on a virtual livestream. But they will return to the fairgrounds in August to display this year’s creation to fairgoers.

In April, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a plan for the 2021 Reimagined New York State Fair in a press release. Admissions each day will be restricted to half capacity for social distancing, and the state will be monitoring public health conditions to adjust capacity and screenings as needed, according to the release.

“This celebration is a unique reward for New Yorkers, who have made so many sacrifices during this pandemic and will allow visitors from across the state and the country to enjoy some of the best attractions the fair has to offer with all necessary safety guidelines in place,” Cuomo said in the press release.

The fair — which hosts vendors, amusement rides and music performances — will last 18 days from Aug. 20 to Sept. 6. There will be live music, featuring performances from artists such as Oak Ridge Boys and REO Speedwagon, and several vendors from Taste NY, a program designed to support New York-based food and beverage businesses.

For many vendors, the fair is their biggest event of their year. Jeffrey Brick, owner of Big Kahuna’s Fair Foods, has been attending the fair since 2001. His company sells food such as Greek gyros and Italian sausages. Brick said his company is “ecstatic” that the fair will be held in person this year since the fair has always been an important revenue stream for his business.

In past years, Brick has attended several other big fairs, including the North Carolina State Fair; The Big E in West Springfield, Massachusetts; and the Rochester Lilac Festival. But Brick keeps coming back to the The New York State Fair.

“Nothing compares to being at the New York State Fair,” Brick said. “It’s an incredible attendance, and people are wonderful.”

Since 2003, Marie Pelton and Jim Victor have sculpted the fair’s butter sculpture based on the theme provided by the American Dairy Association North East. Courtesy of Marie Pelton

Another vendor that will be returning to the fair is Ashley Lynn Winery, which has sold wine slushies at the fair for the past 20 years. The winery specializes in apple wines, and its blackberry sangria slushie won Best Wine Slushie at the fair in 2016. Michelle McFarland, the manager of the winery, said that it offers free samples at the fair, and it attracts hundreds of thousands of customers to its booth each year.

Though the winery hasn’t done many events in the last year or so, McFarland is excited to get the company back out into public spaces and to return to bigger events like the New York State Fair.

“We’re just ready to get out there,” McFarland said.

Published on May 10, 2021 at 11:24 pm