Masks are mandatory in NYS Fair buildings, but many faces are bare

Syracuse, N.Y. –- Masks are required for nearly everybody this year inside New York State Fair buildings, but you’ll still see plenty of bare faces among fairgoers and vendors alike.

One day this week, just under half of all vendor employees in several large fair buildings wore masks properly. Fair officials say they’re cracking down on maskless vendors, issuing citations and warning vendors they could be thrown off the grounds for repeat violations.

Fairgoers were, in general, a more compliant group, with about three-quarters of them properly masked indoors. Those fairgoers who didn’t cover their faces gave various reasons for going maskless.

“I’m a Trump supporter,” said John Adam, of Syracuse, emerging from the large Center of Progress building, where he had wandered without a mask. “I’m vaccinated, so I don’t care. Why did I bother getting vaccinated if I have to wear a mask?”

Experts say people who are vaccinated are far less likely to get sick or die from Covid-19 and are less likely to pass the disease on to others.

“It’s just so humid that it’s hard to breathe” with a mask, said Cliff Davis, of Newburgh, who carried his cloth disposable mask in his hand as he walked through the DEC Aquarium Building one hot afternoon. “We looked around and nobody else was wearing them, either.”

Vendor employees were less likely to wear masks than fairgoers, even though vendors can have hundreds of close personal interactions every day. At the Patio Pillow display, just inside the front doors of the Horticulture Building, two saleswomen gave their pitches with masks pushed down to their chins. They sat within a few feet of several fairgoers, all of whom wore masks.

“They can’t hear me if I wear a mask,” explained Cindy, a Patio Pillow saleswoman who declined to give her last name. She said the company had told her she didn’t need to wear a mask when talking to customers.

In the Center of Progress building, nearly every person at booths operated by government agencies and unions wore a mask. At other booths, though, few employees wore masks or wore them properly, including those cutting hair and hawking knives.

Fair spokesman Dave Bullard said the fair is checking buildings every day.

“We are warning vendors that we spot who are not wearing masks and are issuing violations to repeat offenders,” Bullard said in an email. “After a third violation, the vendor will be dismissed from the Fair.”

He said vendors have been warned, but no one has been cited or dismissed.

Fair officials are tasked with enforcing the mask mandate, but it wasn’t their rule. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon issued an executive order two weeks ago requiring masks at all indoor buildings at the fair for anyone over 2 years old, vaccinated or unvaccinated. McMahon said masks could help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Local Covid-19 cases have surged in the past month as the highly infectious delta variant has taken hold.

McMahon’s order allows exemptions for those who have medical conditions that prevent them from wearing a mask or have religious objections. Failure to follow the order is a misdemeanor.

Signs announcing the mask policy stand outside fair building entrances, and the policy is announced frequently over the fair’s public address system.

Fair Director Troy Waffner conceded even before the 18-day fair started last Friday that enforcement would be difficult.

“We are asking people who are unvaccinated to wear masks throughout their visit to the Fair and we’re asking everyone to wear masks inside our buildings,” he wrote in a letter to Syracuse.com published the day before the fair opened. “It is impossible to police these two mandates. There are too many of you and not enough of us. We rely, then, on people to do the right thing.”

Most fairgoers were doing the right thing. A Syracuse.com reporter wandered several buildings this week and noted that 73% of 450 fairgoers observed were properly wearing masks. The other 27% percent included those with no masks, the chin-strappers and the below-the-nosers.

A maskless man who gave only his first name, Chris, said he’s from the Scranton area, where nobody wears masks.

“I didn’t bring one,” he said. “Back home, when I go to Walmart or any big store, there’s no masks.”

Blue disposable masks are available at several locations at the fair, including the Expo Center and guest relations booths. In each of two booths this week, however, at least one employee was not wearing a mask when talking to fairgoers.

At The Eatery, the central indoor food venue at the fair, 40% of the workers serving customers or preparing foods weren’t wearing masks or had them below their nose or mouth.

Waffner said early this week that fair security staff have been handing out written information on the guidelines from the Onondaga County Health Department when they see someone not wearing a mask indoors.

“So we’re out there explaining the rules and encouraging people to follow them,” Waffner said. “But it’s a big place and we can’t cover all areas at all times.”

The fair is asking unvaccinated people to wear masks even outdoors, although that’s an honor system because the fair isn’t requiring proof of vaccination. Health experts advise everyone to wear masks outdoors in crowded settings, such as packed concerts. Few people are doing that.

So far, concerts are the only parts of the fair that have been crowded. With low attendance and many buildings partly empty, fairgoers have yet to feel cramped indoors or out.

Staff writer Don Cazentre contributed to this report.

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