Upstate NY'ers - potential tractor show

About 2 miles from our place in Balston Spa N.Y. (Sp add an L to Balston) is a cafe-convenient store, and while having lunch there on Friday, the owner introduced me to some of the town officials, of Charlton N.Y. Both the owner and these people were discussing putting on a small, local, informal show, at this place, in conjunction with another local town event scheduled and themed "Explore Charlton", whereas, I believe from the discussion, some of the local farms, businesses etc. will be open to the public for touring etc.

The town officials and the store owner were looking for suggestions, contacts, and ways to reach out to people, to promote such an event. The event is informal, not of a competitive nature and primarily for fun, as I do not believe there are fees involved for exhibitors. The store owner just held a car show, about 50 exhibitors, and proceeds from that were for charity, so I'm not totally sure about the details, just wanted to get the word out, and mention same here for anyone local or interested. This is in the planning stage, so suggestions are certainly welcome.

The town officials were really interested in promoting this event, so I mentioned anything helpful that I could think of, one of which was to post here.

The location is on NY RT 67, Harmony Corners, adjacent to the fire house, 10-15 miles east of Amsterdam, planned for September I believe, so if anyone has any interest or any small local clubs have any interest etc, by all means let me know here, as I am just trying to help them out on this.

Billy, what major town or city is Charlton near? This is a big consideration for folks planning to travel any distance in a day trip or if lodging is needed for overnite. Upfront if you say it's near say Buffalo, I think of family in Silver Creek and plans are immediately being made in my head.
This is important for any event planner, folks just don't take the time initially to look it up on Google maps.

Sounds like you are off to a good start! Keep it informal, no fees, {I found that a donation box works best], have a registration desk and dash plaques, {I bought them out of my own pocket} registration gets you next years mailing list, make it participant friendly as much as possible. Word of mouth grows most shows. If folks have a good time, they will be back. Try to keep the politicians OUT of it. Do the foot work yourself. Don't involve more than 3 people in the running of the show. Do not let local groups move in and take over for a money making event. Believe me, if you build it they will come { and those who wish to take over to fill their own pockets too} Remember the bicycle salesman in "Butch Cassidy & the Sundabce Kid. If you do it right, it will double in size every year.

Charlton is about 1/2 hour west of Saratoga Springs. 20 Minutes east of Amsterdam. North and west a bit, 45 min? from Albany.

I wouldn't call the Balston Spa area "upstate" by any stretch of the imagination - unless the person saying it is a New York City dweller. Balston Spa is in central New York and barely half-way "up" the map of NY.

In my opinion, there are way too many tractor shows in this area already - unless somebody decides to pick a date that doesn't interfere with the others. Shows here in the central NY region were much better years back when there were less of them. "Less" means "more" since more people and tractors can attend the same show.
I've had to skip many since when there is one going on, there is usually 2 or 3 more on the same weekend.

jdemaris: it's a running joke around here that you can tell someone's from downstate NY when they say they're from upstate NY! Of course, most people from northern NY use Syracuse or thereabouts as the delimiter between "upstate" and "downstate", whereas most people from downstate use (roughly) Westchester County....

I wish we could rename either all of rural New York State, or the City. In fact, I wish we could separate the two completely. I'm sick of paying taxes to support New York City, considering I live in a rural area 200 miles north in "central" New York.

But, considering that all of New York City's drinking water is up here and is piped down to them, I wonder what they'd do? Drink the ocean water they've been throwing trash in maybe?

How did rural New Yorkers wind up being controlled by NYC Chucky Shumer and having a governor from Harlem?

(quoted from post at 07:06:03 07/26/10) I wish we could rename either all of rural New York State, or the City. In fact, I wish we could separate the two completely. I'm sick of paying taxes to support New York City, considering I live in a rural area 200 miles north in "central" New York.

But, considering that all of New York City's drinking water is up here and is piped down to them, I wonder what they'd do? Drink the ocean water they've been throwing trash in maybe?

How did rural New Yorkers wind up being controlled by NYC Chucky Shumer and having a governor from Harlem?

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gree and how about our new senator? She sure has changed her tune since leaving state office for national office.

Jd I think these details are beyond my intent of posting here, say capitol district LOL I know what you are saying, all they are looking for is any interest might just be better suited for any local interest merely for fun if so desired by any interested parties.

Yeah, there was such a show that started near me maybe 10 years ago in Roseboom, NY (about 50 miles from Albany). Started small and mainly just for locals. For whatever reason, it balooned and is now huge. I suspect it did (and does) so well simply because it WAS small and simple. Now it's large and still growing, so who knows? Nice thing though is they schedule it late summer and not at the same time as the many other shows that pop up around Father's day.

Amen to that!!!

We have 2 great shows that have been going for 30+ years in upstate New York. One is in Canadaiqua, New York and Alexander, New York.
One is in August and the other is in September and they are weekend plus long.