SYRACUSE — The state’s budget crisis is hitting the New York State Fair.

State and fair officials plan to cut back the number of grandstand concerts from 11 to seven in 2009 to save money.

Instead, the fair will offer four more free concerts in Chevy Court.

Typically, the entertainers playing there are up-and-comers or entertainers whose greatest successes are behind them.

“The New York State Fair has been one of the few fair venues in the nation to offer eleven consecutive nights of national entertainment,” said state Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker.

“With only 10 percent of fairgoers attending these concerts and the state of the national economy, it makes sense to provide more high quality, free acts at Chevy Court, even if it means offering fewer nights of paid entertainment at the grandstand,” Hooker said.

Last year, the state budgeted $3.5 million for national entertainment acts — including Daughtry, Brooks & Dunn, the Goo Goo Dolls and The Jonas Brothers — in the 16,000-seat grandstand.

That will drop to $2.5 million next year, Hooker said, while the budget for free concerts will be increased from $450,000 to $750,000.

Hooker’s announcement came just weeks after he and Fair Director Dan O’Hara boasted the fair had sold a record 97,163 grandstand concert tickets in 2008.

About 1 million people attend the fair each year.

“Since 2007, we have been looking for ways to streamline costs and reduce financial risks associated with the state fair’s concert series,” said O’Hara. “Escalating concert costs, and the possibilities of inclement weather, low concert attendance and insurance liabilities all threaten the financial well-being of the state fair enterprise as a whole.”