Most people don’t think about the New York State Fairgrounds until the 13-day run of the NYS Fair. But Julie LaFave, the fair's new director, works to ensure a smooth experience for events year-round. This may be Julie LaFave’s first summer as fair director, but she served as the operations director last year and previously worked for Syracuse's Parks, Recreation and Youth Programs.
“Now in this role, one of my favorite things to do is just to sit and watch all the people, because there's a lot of gratitude in watching what we've created, and we get to see first-hand the joy from people who get to experience what we've put together,” said LaFave.
She says one challenge of the role is balancing the novel with the nostalgia.
“Finding the best way to make the mix happen. We don't want to get rid of the tradition and the nostalgia and the things people love about the fair, but we want to create something that's also new and unique and gets them excited to come here. So, the challenge is always finding that balance,” said LaFave.
As director, she says she wants to be as open as possible.
“Try to be very transparent. I try to be very approachable. I try to be really receptive to people's ideas. We can't always promise that we're going to make everything happen. But I want to be the type of director that, we can walk and have a relationship, and you can tell me your ideas and we'll tell you if we can make it happen, or we can tell you why we can't make it happen,” said LaFave.
One of her visions for the future of the fair includes a focus on agriculture.
“The fair started as a five-day agricultural fair, and it's very exciting the concerts we have and the food we have and everything that's happening. But we need to get people to come and see the goat competition or the llama jumping, or see what kind of flowers there are, or the braided garlic. We want people to really start coming and experience that too because, at the end of the day, we're agriculture and markets,” said LaFave.
