East Aurora Advertiser

Online Fair Tickets Upsets Some in Marilla



County fairs in the summertime often stir up a sense of nostalgia. They bring us back to an earlier time of prize livestock, blue ribbon pie recipes, fried food and parades, and they are a reminder of when life was simpler. But for some people, trying to get into this year’s fair is nearly impossible.

For the first time, the 182nd Erie County Fair is not selling admission tickets at the gate. They are not being sold at local grocery stores or anywhere else. The fair is attempting to go paperless and tickets for admission are only being sold online. The fair website says to purchase tickets you must have a credit card and an email address; but this method is leaving out a portion of the population, and they are speaking up.

Helen Bourgeois is the event coordinator for the Marilla Senior Citizens Group, of which there are around 125 members. As the Aug. 11 start date for the fair was approaching, she said that she started hearing from the group’s members that they didn’t know how they were going to get admission tickets this year. They don’t have home computers, therefore they don’t have an email address, but even if they did, they don’t have a smartphone that will “carry” their ticket so it can be scanned by fair officials at the admission gates.

Some of them don’t even have a credit card to purchase a ticket online because they pay for everything in cash.

“I don’t have a smartphone and I don’t use a computer,” Bourgeois said. “One woman said that her daughter ordered tickets for her using her phone, but she also needed that phone to get into the fair. Well, her daughter needs her phone. She can’t give it to her mother to take it to the fair.”

Bourgeois took the concerns of her senior group to a recent town board meeting in Marilla. She said that several people in her group were wary of using credit cards online, even if they did have access to computers, because they know that senior citizens are often the target of online scams and they don’t want their information to be compromised.

Supervisor Earl Gingerich, Jr.  said this is discrimination against older people and people who do not have credit cards. He sent a letter to the Erie County Fair Board of Directors along with Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw. The fair does not receive direct payments from the county, but it does receive assistance from the sheriff’s department, county health inspectors, and other logistical support for traffic control.

“They responded and said they are not changing their policy,” Gingerich said.

The Erie County Fair is run under the Erie County Agricultural Society. The letter said that the decision to implement such a policy was made for several reasons, including “reducing ‘touch points’ for our guests, personnel staffing challenges and, if needed, contact tracing.” 

The letter noted that other venues, such as the New York State Fair, Buffalo Bills and movie theatres have also made the decision to adopt an online and non-cash ticket sales policy this year. 

“I can share with you that we plan on placing personnel at each gate that will be able to assist patrons with the online purchase of their admission pass with a credit card,” the letter read.

Gingerich and town board members told Bourgeois that the town hall would purchase tickets with the town’s computer system and hold them for any senior citizen who would like to go to the fair this year but does not have the capabilities to purchase tickets. Bourgeois met with her group on Aug. 11 and shared this news with them. She said that there were 61 seniors in attendance at the meeting, but only a handful took the town up on this offer.

“The seniors just aren’t going. They are upset about this,” she said. “You don’t [need to pay admission] for Eden Corn Fest or the Niagara County Fair. People were willing to purchase tickets at the gate, but now you have to go online to get anything. It’s too much of a hassle.”

The 182nd Erie County Fair runs from Aug. 11 to Aug. 22 in Hamburg.

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