Things to do, places to eat, shows to see, places to stay in Madison County, NY      

Coming off of a highly successful 2011 Madison Bouckville Antique Show, the shops in and around Madison and Bouckville have decided to have a pre-holiday open house event in November. 
Friday, Saturday and Sunday November 4-6th over 15 shops will be open special hours for your shopping delight.  You will find art, furniture, antiques, cut glass, handmade items and more. 
The shops will be open from 1-7 on Friday and from 10-6 on both Saturday and Sunday. 
For more information on the event visit the promoter's website. 

It was a very busy week in Madison and Bouckville for the 40th annual Madison Bouckville Antique Week.  The show received good reviews from dealers and visitors and the hotels and restaurants of Madison County had a very successful week too.  Be sure to mark your calendar for next year's show August 13-19, 2012 Here is a recap of stories from around the internet.
Madison Bouckville Antique Show in Full Swing (WKTV) This WKTV story tells about the 35% of the antique show that is inside the festival gates.
Antique Future Bright in Bouckville (Oneida Daily Dispatch) A nice look at the future of the Bouckville Antique Week.
Plenty to see, do and buy as antique extravaganza in Bouckville  celebrates 40 years (Syracuse.com) A good overview of the show from one end of town to the other.
Madison Bouckville (maya*made blog)This blogger was looking for and finding crates at the show
Madison Bouckville Antique Festival Slideshow (The Utica O-D) The OD credits the Festival Field with these pictures, but they were taken all over the town inside and out of that field.  Great times!
Madison Bouckville Review (52 Flea) This blogger had a great time and took outstanding pictures
Stormy Hen Living's Review (Stormy Hen Living) Another fun review of a successful trip to Antique Week
Treasure Hunting at Bouckville (Jen Spends) They spent most of their time on the festival field and enjoyed the experience
550 Dealers at Madison-Bouckville Antique Show (CNY Central) --They miss the mark on the number of dealers, but there is good video of the show.
Vintage Junk in My Trunk (VJiMT Blog) They spent a ton of time in Bouckville and were happy.

A great day for golf here in Madison County.  Weather today looks like it is headed for the low to mid 80's.  Summertime is such a nice reward for our sometimes brutal winters.  There are a few links and stories out there this morning to share with you, so without further ado, here we go:

A good story and some nice video of the Peterboro Civil War Weekend (Oneida Daily Dispatch)
The Madison County Courier is celebrating local business this week (Madison County Courier)
The Barnwell County, SC paper has a blurb about local residents who attended Oz-Stravaganza! in Chittenango (The People Sentinel)
I Love NY wants to know what your summer vacation plans are (I Love NY Facebook Page)
The Chittenango Rotary will be hosting a Brazilian Dinner (Madison County Courier)
Boxing Hall of Famer Larry Holmes will get his diploma (The Morning Call)
Plans continue for 40th annual antique show (Auction Central News)
The Red House will be performing Shakespeare in the park Sunday in Cazenovia. (syracuse.com)

The Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes Madison Bouckville Antique Week will continue with its 40th  year.  This year’s show week will be   August 15-21, 2011.   Madison Bouckville Promotion was formed in November 2010 when it was announced that the original promoter of the Madison Bouckville Antique Show, Jock Hengst, was retiring and had sold is show field to a local farmer.  The future of the New York State’s largest outdoor antique festival was in jeopardy and in need of new leadership and a community wide effort.  Over the 40 years ago the original show promoter and a handful of others started the show in a small airfield on Rt. 20 center in the towns of Madison and Bouckville. During these four decades the show grew from that small field to what today is the largest outdoor antique event in New York State.   Today Madison Bouckville Promotions is proud and pleased to announce that this year’s show will continue in 2011 and for years to come.  Over the last 7 months the organization held monthly meetings, worked with local governmental leaders and sought new sponsorship for the events continuation.  We are excited to announce that Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes have come on board as the official Title Sponsor.  The association members are greatly appreciative that Nice N Easy President and CEO John MacDougall agreed to come on board.  We are extremely pleased that Nice N Easy, a Madison County based business with 80 stores across New York State.  This is an important partnership as

The Nice N Easy Madison Bouckville Antique Week’s economic impact for Madison County and the entire region brings over 45,000 visitors to the county each August.  This economic impact brings benefits to local retailers, hotels, restaurants and business from Utica & Rome to Syracuse and Central New York.  In addition both Madison County and New York State benefit through the sales tax revenues generated by our over 2100 vendors on site at our over 35 antique show fields. 

Answer: Over 1,200 antique dealers in a two-mile stretch of US Route 20. Question: What can I expect to find at the Bouckville Antique Week this August?

The demise of the Madison Bouckville Antique show has been greatly exaggerated. Plans for the 2011 edition are coming together nicely, and at this early point, it looks like the annual show may be better than it has been in years. New this year, all of the show field promoters along US Route 20 have come together to coordinate a better show for all involved. This year's show will officially start on Tuesday the 16th of August and run through the following Sunday, but you will find dealers setting up in town and selling as early as Saturday the 13th. There will be plenty of free admission to the show and even free parking in places.

To find out how to rent a space at the shows this year, contact the Madison Bouckville Antique Promoters Association. They will be able to point you to the field that will best suit your needs. For information on spending the night in Madison County during the antique show, contact Madison County Tourism at 800-684-7320.

Everyone loves a good rumor.  Especially when it includes the failure of a private business to pull off something special.  The rumor of the week seems to be that the Results Group of Syracuse does not have a signed lease on the antique fields along US Route 20 in Bouckville. Or another version seems to be that they do have a lease, but they have not paid any money towards that lease.  We are here today to tell you that to the best of our knowledge those rumors are FALSE. 
Madison County Tourism, Inc. has independently confirmed with both the legal owner of the show fields, the Carharts of Hamilton, and with the Results Group, the promoter renting the fields, that yes a lease is in existence and yes the required down payment has been made on time and in full by TRG to the Carharts.  
The 2011 Madison Bouckville Antique Week is full speed ahead.  We expect that it will be bigger than it has been in years with signed vendor contracts, not only on the main field, but on the ancillary fields pacing ahead of the past few years.  There is a good buzz in many sectors about the show.  It is unfortunate that someone, or a number of people would rather spread unfounded rumors about the demise of the show than embrace the growing success of the biggest visitor attraction in Madison County.  We here at Madison County Tourism are thrilled at the efforts put forth by all of the individual show field owners and we look forward to our best show ever. 
On a side note, you better book your hotel rooms now, as they are going fast.  See you in August in Bouckville!

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity surrounding the annual Madison Bouckville Outdoor Antique Festival.  It came as a surprise to many when longtime promoter Jock Hengst sold the fields to a local dairy farmer.  Well last night good news came out that that farmer would be leasing the fields to a Syracuse based events promoter who desires to put on an Antique Show similar in size and scope to the long running Madison Bouckville Outdoor Antique Show.  That promoter is the Results group and they sent out a press release this morning:

During an organizational meeting of the Madison Bouckville Antique Dealers Association on Wednesday evening it was announced that The Results Group, a Syracuse, NY based event marketing firm, has signed a multi-year agreement to lease the site of the former Madison Bouckville Antique Show.
Tom Tarry, President of The Results Group said “we are delighted to be a part of such a first class event.  I am originally from Madison County, having been born in Oneida, New York, and I feel very lucky to have this opportunity.  The residents of Madison County owe a debt of gratitude to Ed and Tori Carhart, the new owners of the show site.  I am convinced, though they would never admit it, that there were other, more financially rewarding options for this property but they chose to use the land to further the development of the week-long antique event.  We must also tip our hat to Cindy and Jock Hengst, the founders of the Madison Bouckville Antique Show, for their tireless commitment to creating and nurturing this very important event.  We wish them well in their well deserved future endeavors.”
Jim Walter, Executive Director of Madison County Tourism said “We are very excited to learn that the Results Group will be promoting an antique festival as part of the overall Madison Bouckville Antique Week in August 2011 on the original Outdoor Antique Show fields.  The annual antique week has an economic impact on our community of well over $1.5 million.  It accounts for over $360,000 in hotel sales in Madison County during that week, and fills our restaurants, not to mention the boutique stores in places such as Hamilton and Cazenovia along route 20.  In fact the show has a regional impact selling hotel rooms from Utica to Syracuse and Rome to Norwich.  The Results Group’s involvement ensures that Antique Week will continue to provide the best outdoor antiquing experience in all of New York State and will continue to help drive our local economy.  We are looking forward to working with them and all the show promoters to grow the festival in the coming years.”

The Results Group is a Syracuse, NY based event marketing firm producing events including Empire Brewfest, the Taste of Rochester, the Syracuse Golf Show, the Long Island Golf Show and many others.

Much has been made around here over the past few weeks about the premature end of the Madison Bouckville Antique Show.  As we said in an earlier Blog post, the show must go on.  The Oneida Daily Dispatch's Matt Powers filed this story this week:By MATT POWERS
Dispatch Staff Writer

BOUCKVILLE – Local antiques dealers say they will continue on with a show in 2011 despite the organizer of the old Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show pulling out.
Dealers have suggested a show tentatively scheduled for Aug. 18-21 along state Route 20.
Last week it was revealed that the 90-acre plot used for part of the show was sold to a new owner, who intends to farm it.
The Antique Pavillion Manager Monica Dinitto said the show must continue.
“I just think that we need to get the word out that the show is still going to go on and the dealers are still going to be here,” she said. “It’s just not necessarily in that spot.”
She said vendors have always set up along State Route 20 during the week leading up to the show on the large field.
She said she knew many people who avoided paying to get into the main field show to instead focus on all the antiques available from shops and vendors in the heart of town adding that many of the vendors from the main show will now likely rent space from the shops.
Dianne Luft, of Verona, runs the vendor tent Luft Antiques with her husband at the show.
She said the change is not the end of the overall antiques show.
“That show is just one portion of it,” she said. “That’s only two days that the gentleman had that private field where people came there. But the other part of town, that’s all a different story.”
She said each year “every yard, every backyard, every place along the road, every big field has tents in it.”
“I think everybody is going to have to work together more,” said Don Mann, Stone Lodge Antiques owner.
He said the antiques dealers are organizing a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the future of the show.
“We’re going to try to get all the people that have all the stores together because it affects everybody,” he said.
Two of the bigger issues the group will tackle are advertising for the show and parking.
Madison County Tourism Executive Director Jim Walter said the show is vital to the region.
“It’s a huge economic impact to the area with well over $1 million dollars a year,” he said. “People from all over the east coast spend their money to buy antiques, stay in hotels and eat in restaurants. It’s a very important part of our whole economic picture.”
He said the loss of the field and the organizer of that part of the show will mean changes to how it functions.
“They did a lot of advertising and marketing for the show,” he said. “So we’re going to lose that marketing impact. They would advertise all up and down in antique journals in the northeast. So we’ve got to find a way to make up for that.”
He said Madison County Tourism will continue to do all that it can including “promoting it with our events, our blogs, high visibility in our travel guides and on our website.”
“We’re actually going to work with these dealers directly,” he said. “I’ve got a meeting next week with the town supervisor to talk about what our role is going to be in that.”
He said hopefully the organization can use its marketing expertise to help the dealers get the word out about the show.
He said 2011 will be an important year in determining the future of the show.
“I think 2011 is still going to be a strong year but we’ve got to make sure that we provide the visitors with the best quality experience that they can get,” he said. “So when they talk to their friends about the 2011 antique show it’s all good things that they say.”
He said he wants people to say they had a good time, found good deals and a good selection.
“If we don’t provide that quality visitor experience then it’s going to start to slip,” he said. “That’s where it’s going to be incumbent on us to make sure that the experience remains strong.

By now the word is out and many are concerned about the end of the annual Madison Bouckville Outdoor Antique Show.  Owner Jock Hengst decided to sell his property after putting on one of the biggest events in Central New York for 39 years.  While this marks the end of a well known event and summertime tradition.  It by no means end the annual festival of antiques, which we like to call Antique Week. 
On August 14, 2011 dealers will once again begin to set up shop in the fields and in front of the shops along US Route 20.  Yes there will be changes and yes change can be a scary proposition.  Sometimes change can be good.
Every year I speak with visitors to the show who say they never made it on to the "big" field.  They spent the entire time shopping at fields like Quaker Acres, East Expo, Butternut Hill, the Cherry Valley Antique Barn and at Bono's field.  These fields all will be back in 2011. 
It is incumbent upon us who live here, and work at promoting the area, to make sure the visitors who come here in 2011 have the best possible show experience.  It is also important to make sure that we get out in front and promote this experience.  For many years the dealers and promoters rode the coattails of Jock Hengst and the advertising he did for his show.  We must now get out and promote the show ourselves, both traditionally and by other means.  The impact this show has on the community cannot be underestimated, the show must go on.
Over the next couple of weeks we plan to take the lead in rallying the local antique community and coordinating a marketing effort.  We hope they rally behind us and we are looking forward to a strong 2011 antique week.