Live music is one of the pillars of the New York State Fair.
Each years thousands of music fans attend concerts there.
In the years before the St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater and Chevy Park, concerts, featuring some of the biggest acts in music, occurred at the Grandstand.
Tastes in music vary, and it’s difficult to say one year was greater than another. But the 1992 lineup could make an argument as the biggest in State Fair history.
During nine Grandstand shows, the attendance was 71,295 people, which might have been much larger if the weather had cooperated more.
Three concerts eclipsed 10,000 people and one set an all-time attendance record. The concerts generated $2 million in revenue, the highest gross in fair history at the time.
On a negative note, the lack of diversity in the lineup is very apparent.
So, let’s take a look back at the Grandstand concerts of 1992, the hits, the misses, and the stories from that year.
Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Grandstand during the 1992 New York State Fair. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
LYNYRD SKYNYRD AND DELBERT MCCLINTON
Veteran rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were no strangers to the State Fair when they hit the stage on Aug. 27, 1992. They had performed there in 1988 and 1991.
Their 100-minute set featured 13 songs, starting with the anti-gun anthem “Saturday Night Special” and ending with “Sweet Home Alabama.” “Freebird” was the encore and got just as loud a reception as ever from the 3,662 fans.
Herald Journal music critic Brian Bourke said that the band lost some of its steam midway through their performance, but their fans did not.
“At one point, Johnny Van Zant moved to calm some folks pushing and shoving in front of the stage,” Bourke wrote. “‘Y’all chill out, we’re not here to fight.’”
Opening act Delbert McClinton, on crutches and relegated to sitting on a stool through his 70-minute performance, stole the show.
His set “ran at full throttle from the moment he hit the stage,” Bourke wrote, who later gave the artist credit for having the best single set of the entire fair.
Just over 71,000 music fans went to the nine concerts at the Grandstand during the 1992 New York State Fair. There might have been more if the Fair had not been so rainy. Here are crowds near the Coliseum during a shower.Syracuse Post-Standard
REBA MCENTIRE AND VINCE GILL
Sometimes musical magic happens when you least expect it.
Country music star Vince Gill had just closed his 50-minute set on Aug. 28, 1992, finishing a song with the lyric “tears falling like rain,” when a great, hour-long storm started.
Accompanied by a stiff wind, heavy rain turned the grandstand infield to a bog. Trips to the concession stands or restrooms were nearly impossible.
Reba McEntire’s show would go on -- the 10,338 fans were promised -- if the stage would dry. It didn’t. Nothing did.
With her fans chanting her name, McEntire appeared on stage and delivered “one of the most inspired, moving performance in recent fair history.”
In an improvised four-song set, with no musical accompaniment, she gave an unforgettable performance.
She thanked her fans many times for hanging for waiting and apologized she would be unable to meet her fan club because of the mud.
Instead, she sang her favorite song, “Sweet Dreams” by Patsy Cline, which she hadn’t performed since March 16, 1991, when seven members of her band were killed in a plane crash. She had thought she might never sing it again, but thought the Fair crowd deserved something special.
“Since you’ve all been so kind, I want to sing my favorite song for you tonight,” she said.
“What a great lady Reba McEntire is,” announced poncho-clad Fair Director Wayne Gallagher.
“She was Queen for a Day at the New York State Fair,” Bourke wrote.
Richard Marx at the 1992 New York State Fair. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
RICHARD MARX
There might be fewer odd couples to share the same stage on the same night at the fair than rocker Tom Cochrane and 1980′s ballad singer Richard Marx on Aug. 29, 1992.
Cochrane’s opening set was “energetic” and “dished out rock with a darker side.” His set included “Lunatic Fringe” and “Get Back Up,” which dealt with keeping a drug addict “on her feet both figuratively and literally.”
Post-Standard critic John Rivito preferred Cochrane to Marx but the 4,224 fans were most happy to hear the ballads they remembered of the latter.
Former number one hits like “Hold onto the Nights” and “Right Here Waiting” got big reactions.
David Crosby sings one of Crosby, Stills & Nash's older crowd favorites with the rest of the group in 1992 at the New York State Fairgrounds during their acoustic tour. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
CROSBY, STILLS, AND NASH
“At the State Fair on Sunday evening, 6,272 fans took a break from the 1990s to visit three old friends,” wrote John Rivito after Crosby, Still, and Nash’s performance.
The “cozy” two-hour performance was mostly acoustic and featured the group’s traditional harmonies, familiar classics, and seldom performed songs.
The group was probably the most political of any fair act that year, bashing President George H. W. Bush and encouraging its audience to register to vote.
The crowd’s enthusiasm rose most when they sang songs like “Southern Cross,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Carry On.”
“Looks like Woodstock,” said Nash to the crowd as they back for their encore, “Teach Your Children.”
JAMES TAYLOR
Perhaps no performer had a more personal connection with its fair audience than James Taylor.
During his well-over two-hour performance, the singer/songwriter had conversations with his 10,964 fans, taking song requests and telling stories.
“His unassuming manner were as enjoyable as his music,” Rivito wrote. “Performing under a simple lighting, Taylor and his band produced a clean sound which closely resembled the singer’s recorded works.”
Color Me Badd were the not the favorites of newspaper reviewers but their teenage fans loved them during the 1992 State Fair. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
COLOR ME BADD
Not every act at the 1992 State Fair got a great review. Pop group Color Me Badd was much more popular with the mostly teenage girl audience than the newspaper reviewers.
“They performed for just more than an hour,” Brian Bourke wrote. “And they grabbed their crotches 55 times.”
Bourke liked their harmonies but thought the group spent too much time “mugging, teasing, and eliciting high-pitched screams from the audience.”
The group’s top song was “I Want to Sex You Up,” so he should not have been surprised.
Garth Brooks gives the record crowd a thumbs up at the New York State Fair in 1992. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
GARTH BROOKS
How big was Garth Brooks in 1992?
His Sept. 2 concert at the State Fair sold out in an hour, the fastest sellout in fair history. The 16,172 tickets sold set a record, surpassing Loverboy in 1983. Traffic backed up for more than two miles on Interstate 690 an hour before showtime.
His newspaper review ran on the front page of The Post-Standard, not buried in the back.
Brooks’ 80-minute set featured hits from his three albums, plus new songs from his forthcoming record.
“Fun country sing-alongs such as ‘Friends in Low Places’ and ‘Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House’ alternated with serious ballads like ‘The Dance,’ about living life with no regrets, and the tale about domestic violence, ‘The Thunder Rolls,’ " wrote Rivito.
His performance was even better than the year before and Brooks knew it.
“This kicks the hell out of last year,” he said. “This is great. What are you guys doing tomorrow night?”
Martina McBride was the opening performer.
Travis Tritt performs at the State Fair Grandstand during the Country Rock Jam in 1992. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
COUNTRY ROCK JAM
Four hours and 40 minutes seems a bit long for a Grandstand concert but that is what 6,409 country music fans did on Sept. 3, 1992.
Country Rock Jam featured five acts, Mark O’Connor, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Marty Stuart, and, fair regular Charlie Daniels.
Bourke appreciated each of the performances but wished there was more collaboration between them.
Tanya Tucker was his favorite.
She “lit up the place” with her 30-minute performance and she “offered a bit of the old with music from her recent hit albums.”
The crowd took over lead vocals on the chorus of her 1972 hit “Delta Dawn.”
The Beach Boys were regulars at the New York State Fair. Band Al Jardine did not need to wear Syracuse University apparel in 1992 to win the local hearts, but it did not hurt.Syracuse Post-Standard
BEACH BOYS
“In 1841, the New York State Legislature appropriated $8,000 for an annual fair ‘for the promotion of agriculture and household manufactures in the state,” Brian Bourke wrote in 1992. “That done, they hired The Beach Boys to perform.”
Clearly a joke, but at the time The Beach Boys were as much a part of the State Fair as fried foods and the butter sculpture.
But judging by the 6,971 fans on Sept. 4, the band were just as much fun as ever.
Favorites included “Little Surfer Girl,” “Good Vibrations,” “Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” “I Get Around,” and “Dance, Dance, Dance.”
Lead singer Mike Love joked with his audience that the cars mentioned in their “car song medley” were now all outdated and “environmentally incorrect.”
TV fans might have noticed that star of “Full House,” John Stamos, played guitar, bass, and percussion.
Chet and dad, Larry DeCicco, left, from Cicero and John and son J.P., 11, Vico, from Trumansburg, New York, competing at "Double Dare" at the New York State Fairground in 1992. Host Marc Summers, is in back. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard
“DOUBLE DARE”
OK, technically not a concert, but if you grew up during the 1980s and early ‘90s, chances are you loved Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly game show, “Double Dare.”
A live tour of the popular show, including hosts Marc Summers and Robin Marella, took the Grandstand age on opening day and provided the same fun as the TV version.
Kids and their parents, about 5,000 of them, stood on their chairs, waved and cheered throughout, despite the 85-degree heat.
It is not every show where one can hit their mother in the face with a whipped cream or watch their father crack ten raw eggs on their bald head during the physical challenges.
Summers, the “fast-talking, joke-cracking master of ceremony, ran up and down the aisles of the Grandstand with a cordless microphone.
“Here I come, folks,” he said, disappearing into the bleachers, before selecting contestants from the front row, the back row and both sides of the stadium.
“Hang tight, there’s lots of stairs.”
The show would appear on local public access TV (remember that?) during the Fair.
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