Eugene Cassidy jokes that he supports the diary industry any way he can.
Eastern States Exposition President Eugene Cassidy, center, heads down the giant slide, with Elizabeth R. Benoit, marketing department assistant, left and Greg Chiecko, director of sales at the Big E Monday.WEST SPRINGFIELD – Not many people are stirring at 6 a.m. when Eugene J. Cassidy, president and chief executive officer of the Eastern States Exposition, arrives at the Big E grounds to start his workday.
But invariably he’ll spot the Future Farmers of America members on the way from their dormitory to the sprawling Mallary Complex where their livestock are housed. Those animals need to be fed, watered and cleaned up after just like they were home on the farm.
“I’ll just see all these blue jackets,” he said.
Cassidy, a 50-year-old father of two who lives in Longmeadow, said think about those early-morning encounters later each day as he watches those same young people show their livestock under the scrutiny of judges.
“I try and come over and watch the judging every morning, sometimes in the afternoon,” Cassidy said. “It’s my favorite part of the fair.”
Other favorites include the thick, rich milkshakes from the dairy bar a few steps away from the show ring and the deep fried cheese curds available from a food trailer a few hundred feet away.
“I tell people I’m supporting the dairy industry in a number of ways,” Cassidy joked.
He took some time on a recent afternoon to show off some of his fair favorites. Other stops included a ride down the giant slide and a stroll through the commercial offering in The better Living Center.
For Cassidy, there is always plenty of work back at the office especially during fair week. but he finds it important to try and experience the fair from the visitors perspective, be that at the slide or the food concessions.
“It lets you see the fair from their perspective,” he said. “I like the people. I know a lot of professional, lawyers and accountants, don’t work in places where people smile. People don’t go the bank or the hospital to smile. But if you look around the Big E, everyone is smiling.”
Cassidy took over from G. Wayne McCary who retired after a 36-year career with the fair in various capacities. McCary became CEO in 1991.
He said sometimes agriculture can get lost in promotion and advertising needed to draw people and dollars to the fair. But he watched as crowds gathered for a sheep-sheering demonstration in the Mallary Complex. Those people, mostly families with children, will learn something during their day at the fair, he said.
“It’s all about improving Agriculture and farm technology,” Cassidy said. “We are here to help people learn and to promote new industries and new ways of doing things.”
The Big E added an area focused on wines from New England a few years ago. With a resurgence of hop growing in the region, the Big E will add new England beer in a few years.
“I’d also like to add at least two more show rings,” he said.
Those rings would make livestock judging easier to see and they would have multimedia displays to better explain what is happening to the general public.
Money is always the issue though. The Big E has an annual budget of $18 million. Of that, it takes $16.4 million just to put on the fair.
The 17 day fair is also responsible for 80 percent of the entities income.
“We are dependent on weather, just like the farmer,” Cassidy said.
He’s also dependent on watching every penny. That means the fair has had to tighten up on free admissions over the past 20 years or so. A West Springfield native, Cassidy said he never paid to get in. “In order to d generate that revenue you can’t have little Gene Cassidy hopping over the fence every day,” he said “It just can’t work that way.”