An Introduction to the Afton Fair

The Afton Fair will be held for the 121st year in July of 2010. It is an agricultural fair and is located in Afton, in Chenango County, New York. Afton is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Binghamton, NY, 120 southeast of Albany, NY and 27 miles south of Norwich, NY.

Afton is a small village that has a school, Afton Central School, some small businesses, a grocery store, a hardware store, a post office, a veterinarian hospital/clinic, 2 bars, 3 or 4 restaurants, and the Afton Driving Park and Agricultural Association, Inc., the not-for-profit organization that plans and manages the main event of the year, The Afton Fair. Afton is located right off of interstate 88, and the Afton Fairgrounds can be seen from the highway.

The purpose of this blog is to make as many people as possible aware of the Afton Fair exists, and to hopefully get more people to bring their families to the fair.

Our challenges include a low budget for advertising, which is the reason I am utilizing a blog to hopefully get out the word to more people. Another challenge we have is that we compete with The Chenango County Fair, located in Norwich, NY, the Otsego County Fair in Morris, NY, The Delaware County Fair in Walton, NY, The Broome County Fair in Whitney Point, NY and the Lumberjack Festival in Deposit, NY. All of these events are within 50 miles of Afton, however are spread out throughout the summer. These events seem to get all the sponsors, while we have struggled for years to get sponsors for our fair.

We have launched an extensive campaign to get sponsors this year. Sponsorships are very important to an Agricultural Fair. In order to be able to take the risk of bringing in the events and shows that people want to see, we need to have a good portion of it paid for. Charging for grandstand events will pay for part of it, however with our current attendance numbers, we cannot count on grandstand fees alone.

Stay tuned for updates about the 2010 Afton Fair as we dive into planning the event!