Fuel, Shipping Costs Driving Carnivals Out Of County Fairs

[Purveyor]

HAMILTON, N.D. - In the heyday of the Pembina County Fair, about two dozen carnival rides filled up the fairground midway. The Ferris Wheel. The Tilt-A-Whirl. The Octopus.

Neil Fleming saw it all in his 55 years as fair organizer: from food to farm animals, clown shows, girlie shows, freak shows.

"It was really something," he reminisces.

The aroma of funnel cakes, the barnyard odor of fattened farm animals, the resplendent beauty of fancy quilts will still exist at the three-day fair July 10-12. But for the first time in 115 years, there will be no carnival rides on the quarter-mile-long midway.

"The population is dwindling, and add that to the extra costs, and it's difficult to get a carnival," Fleming said.

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"Our fuel costs are four times as much as it was 10 years ago, and we haven't raised our prices in 10 years," said Lon McWhorter, owner of Woonsocket, S.D.-based Mac's Carnival & Attractions, the sole carnival company based in the Dakotas.

It cost McWhorter $22,000 to move his dozen-ride carnival from South Dakota to Louisiana this year, more than double last year's expenses. McWhorter's grandfather started the company in the 1920s with a three-minute photography booth and some advice: Keep the carnival on wheels.


---EOE---

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-fair0616,0,3569685.story

[Parche]

1. Carnivals

If they could plug into the electricy supply, which they use anyway converted from their generators

why cant they do that????

:hi:

[Warpy]

3. They're talking about hauling costs

It takes a lot of fuel to haul all those heavy rides from fair to fair. Apparently they've reached a point where they can't charge enough for the rides in a bad economy to make it all profitable.

State fairs will probably have midways. Smaller county fairs probably will do without unless there's a down week between state fairs and they're on the route.

[blue cat]

2. sad

just sad.

[kestrel91316]

4. If we see the hoped-for resurgence in LOCAL agriculture,

county fairs will go back to being what they started out as: AGRICULTURAL fairs. I always went to them (and state fairs) to see the livestock. Well, and eat cotton candy and cheap hot dogs......