Mel talked with the winners of the ultimate fair goers. David Forcucci is one of the ultimate fair goer for 2021. His wife nominated him, and says he didn’t realize he was being nominated. David is a retired Buffalo firefighter. He says since he retired four years ago, he has come to the fair 12 days out of 12 days. Another winner, Jimmy Barrett has been coming to the fair for 70 years. He has three rooms of Erie County Fair memorabilia and he says it is the largest collection in the world of the Erie County Fair. The oldest thing he has are three tickets form 1867 which was the last fair in Springville before it became the Hamburg fair. Former ultimate fair goers Sandy (2014) and Marty Brownsey (2013) talked to Melanie. For 18 years, Marty has been coming to the fair every day from before opening to after close. He says he wants to break the record. When asked what she thinks is one of the best things at the fair, Sandy says the animals, the animals are awesome. She says where else can you witness a cow giving birth? You can get the pet the baby animals, the adult animals, ask questions and learn stuff, it’s just great. The 2019 ultimate fair goer Dawn Pietras is the longest reigning, crowned by their circle, because there was not a fair last year. She has a tattoo on her arm that says The Best 12 Days of Summer. She got it as a gift to herself for her 60th birthday and tells Mel it was supposed to be a small fair tattoo.
Mel checks out some of the food and talks to Sue from Mr. Stickey’s. They have delicious sticky buns. Mel tries the cinnamon bun with peanut butter icing and chocolate curls. They are located across from Hansen’s Kettle Corn by Slade Park.
Mercedes Wilson is in search of the perfect Pina Colada at the Erie County Fair. She is at the Jungle Juice stand with Marissa. Marissa made Mercedes a special drink, a Pina Colada smoothie, which Mercedes is excited to try. It is made with fresh pineapple which they cut up every morning. Marissa says their medium and large drinks are half-price refills. Just bring your cup back and you can get your cup refilled at half price for the whole time of the fair. Some of the flavors they have are strawberry, mango, orange-creamsicle, strawberry banana, lemonade and peach lemonade. They also have cappuccino, which isn’t a fruit but still good says Marissa.
The James E. Strates Shows has provided the rides at the Erie County Fair for 96 years and Emily Lampa took to the Ferris wheel to find out about this family and why they do what they do! James Strates, from James E. Strates Shows says they were founded in 1923 and have been coming to the Erie County Fair for almost 100 years continually. When asked what rides people should definitely check out, James says his personal favorite is the wave swinger and he thinks the sky flyer is great as well and the pirate ship is a classic.
You can purchase a weekday one price ride day wristband today through Friday for $30 and ride all the rides you want.
For more information about the Erie County Fair visit ecfair.org
