At Jordan’s 80th Fall Festival, teams climbed a greased pole for bragging rights and a shot at glory.
JORDAN, N.Y. (NCC News) – Picture a 28-foot pole slicked up and down in grease. Now imagine five roofers stacked on top of one another, trying to reach the top before their arms — and their will — give out.
This would be a Grease Pole Climb, or Albero della Cuccagna, an old tradition rooted in Italy where teams compete for prizes, bragging rights and glory.
Really, everyone just wants to see who can get the highest up that pole.
It’s what drew me last Sunday to the Jordan Fall Festival, held 30 minutes outside Syracuse in the village of Jordan.
This particular weekend marked the 80th annual edition of the festival, and the occasion drew a strong crowd.
Kids raced to amusement rides while stocky, middle-aged men who looked the part showed off their rigs at the car show.
The festival leaned into its milestone, with fireworks returning after several years and a community contest inviting residents to design a commemorative anniversary pin.
But the pole is still the main event. It was introduced to Jordan in the 1990s and has been a fixture in the community ever since.
The pole itself stands 28 feet tall and is roughly 18 inches around.
Teams of up to five members get two chances each to reach the top.
If nobody makes it, podium placement comes down to the height reached by each team’s top climber.
This year’s competition came down to three teams: two squads of three, the Misfits and Apple Roofing, going up against Matthew A’s crew of five.
Matthew A, average-sized and the youngest-looking, went first.
The group made an honest effort and managed to get about 13 feet up the pole.
Then came the Misfits. They had noticeably more height than their competition, drawing comments from the crowd before they’d even touched the pole.
The tallest among them was Josseff Kommissarr, a graduate student who said they picked the name “because we were an impromptu team who did not know each other.”
The Misfits made a strong effort, and on their second attempt, Kommissarr reached the 18-foot marker. He came down with a grease-stained shirt, black feet and the grin of a man who knows how it feels to look out over hundreds of spectators from up that pole.
Then came Apple Roofing. You could tell this wasn’t their first dance.
The team of five looked like the ’90s Chicago Bulls walking up to the pole with confidence and matching yellow shirts.
Their attempt started slowly, but as climbers four and five entered the equation, they got high enough that I heard gasps around me.
People started calling out for them to be careful. Yelling at them to come down.
Then they did.
Their man on top slipped and brought the whole crew with him. There was something moving about seeing the five bodies clunkily fall down the pole into the arms of helpers.
The most beautiful human-Jenga tower I’ve ever witnessed.
Apple Roofing didn’t make it to the top of the pole, but for a moment, they were closer to the sun than the rest of us.
They came down fast, but unlike Icarus, they were smiling.
It was a dominant performance, I thought, but Jake Clark, a winner and roofer, said, “We did OK, we’ll do better next year.”
I guess the first test of a truly great man is his humility.
For all the cruelties and complexities in our world, it was nice to stand around with a couple hundred Central New Yorkers and watch 11 men risk it all on the pole.
Eighty years in, the Jordan Fall Festival stands strong on the same ideas it started with.
Show up for your community, and something good will happen.
You might even find a greased pole.