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

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!

Attention, all spinners, weavers, felters, and knitters!  Plans are underway for a new event in Central New York that will be of great interest to all textile artists, as well as to families, animal lovers and anyone interested in supporting local agriculture and art.  The group behind the event is the newly-formed CNY Fiber Artists and Producers, Inc.  Their first “Annual Showcase – From Animals to Art” will be held on June 11th and 12th  at Butternut Hill Campground in Bouckville.   Butternut Hill, on Route 20 in Bouckville, has been home to antique shows for many years and offers a beautiful rural setting for a weekend festival.

The new event will be patterned after fiber festivals such as the annual NYS Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.  Fiber animals, including sheep, alpaca, llamas, cashmere goats, Angora goats, and Angora rabbits, will be on display.  There will be educational exhibits, and spinners, felters, and weavers will be available for demonstrations. A wide array of vendors will offer raw fleece, skeins of yarn, pelts and hand-spun, hand-knitted, and hand-felted products, along with other locally-produced farm products.  Children will have a tent full of activities to explore, and there will be workshops for both beginning and experienced crafters.   

CNY Fiber Artists and Producers, Inc. is actively recruiting participants for the showcase.

Animal exhibitors, textile craft exhibitors, vendors, and workshop leaders are all welcome.  Do you know anyone who does tatting or rug-hooking?  Do you have a collection of antique spinning wheels or looms for display or sale?   Do you sell supplies for knitters or spinners?   Anyone with an interest in the event can contact the group through Pamela.Haendle@bnymellon.com .More information will soon be available on the group’s new website, www.cnyfiber.org and you can look for them on Facebook as well.  Spinning, weaving, or knitting guilds are welcome to participate as a group, as are 4-H clubs.      

Although this is the first year for an independent event celebrating the fiber arts and fiber animals, many of the festival organizers participated in an exhibition called “Focus on Fiber” at the Madison County Fair in 2008 and 2009.   The “fair within the Fair” included many of the attractions planned for the new festival and was very well received by fairgoers. 

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.