The last week of June our organization made a difficult decision that was sure to be polarizing for some: pausing the event known as Empire Farm Days for our upcoming August 2024 dates. However, no decision like that is made in a vacuum and it’s important to give some context to the how and why and to lay some foundations for our plans for 2025.

First, some history: As most anyone who has any connection to Northeastern agriculture knows, EFD has been in existence for decades. Prior to its location at the Seneca Falls property, the show used to rotate around the state, remaining in each location for a duration of three years. Due to a variety of factors, the show remained at the Seneca Falls property for about 30 years. During those three decades, there were significant changes to the New York State agricultural scene – including how ag equipment manufacturers viewed regional farm shows, leading to many withdrawing their corporate presences. Country Folks had a subscription booth at Empire Farm Days for over 36 years and in that time saw foot traffic drop to a point that our booth could easily be handled by two people. Twenty years ago, we needed a minimum of four people manning the booth and they were busy assisting customers from before the start of the show until after it closed each day. The end of this timeframe is when corporate manufacturers began to pull out of the show. All of the dairy equipment manufacturers had departed years prior, and in 2019 – the last show at the Seneca Falls location – Case, Mahindra and John Deere all announced that they would no longer be exhibiting corporately. The number of exhibitors had decreased enough that long-time attendees began to notice the empty spaces, now filled with large antique tractor exhibits, food trucks or other non-ag exhibits. The New York Potato Growers owned the show, but with the departure of their long-time show manager, were faced with the certainty that they couldn’t produce the show themselves. When we reached out to them to offer assistance in selling exhibit space they replied by saying “Do you want to buy it?”

So we “threw our hat into the ring” when we purchased the show in January 2020, knowing beforehand that we faced an uphill battle attempting to return the show to its “former glory.”

Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the 2020 event was cancelled. With that unanticipated time of respite, we looked toward what needed to be done to attract enough attendees to be successful long-term, as well as how to downsize the show grounds to more accurately reflect current exhibitor needs. The decision was made to relocate the show to the center of the state, at a venue that had previously hosted the show on six different occasions. Owner Dan Palladino and the team at Heritage Hill and Palladino Farms were eager to work with us to host the show in 2021 and have been great partners in this venture. There was a lot of immediate pushback and concern from previous attendees who wished to see the show continue to reflect their experiences of the last 30 years, but the industry has changed exponentially and in many ways, refusing to evolve is not an option. The equipment dealers are now the ones footing the bill to exhibit, staff the booth, transport the equipment and feed/host their personnel. Rising operational costs for everyone in the industry have made that more and more challenging. We had to make necessary moves to continue to keep the show competitive and cost-effective for all involved. We are proud of all of the shows that we produce and we want them to be enjoyable and productive for exhibitors as well as attendees. If the attendees have a negative experience, they are less likely to return the following year. We had hoped to push forward with the 2024 event, but it became increasingly obvious that we were not going to be able to produce an event that we could be proud of. 

Watch for details coming from us very shortly about this re-named and revamped event that will be inclusive of all aspects of agriculture and rural living in the great State of New York.

Empire Farm Days is owned by Lee Newspapers Inc.