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Thankfully this isn’t one of our tales. The guy involved does contract work for us quite often, and is a good operator, I think here he was just unlucky. Twice.

He was attending a funfair in Ireland with his freakout ride. A bang up to date modern thrill ride, that is both high and fast. Imaging a giant arm with seats attached swinging in a massive arc up into the sky, back down then repeating in the opposite direction.

Well, turns out that the fair he was attending, was already in operation, so he had to pull in and set up in the early hours of the morning. Which, he duly did. Unfortunately it turns out he miscalculated his footprint in the dark, and realised the next morning, in the gloom of daylight, that if he set said ride in operation, it would wrap itself around a tree. Things that collide with trees tend to come off second best.

Due to health and safety restrictions he couldn’t take it back down during the operating hours of the fair, so cue another through the night operation to derig it, move it and set it back up.

Attempt Number 2

He duly managed this with a little time to spare before daylight. Adhering to the old adage of measuring twice and cutting once, he had triple checked the swing and was absolutely sure it would miss the tree.

So, come opening hour all was good. Only sadly it wasn’t. Just as he was about to set the first ride off, another operator come running up in a panic, to point out that if his ride (the other operator) and the star of our tale were both to set their respective rides going. It would result in a massive collision of two high speed rides.

Health and safety meant that they couldn’t operate alternately, as the risk of inadvertently setting them both of together was just too great. And once again, he couldn’t derig during the operation of the fair. So our intrepid hero had to sit his second day out.

Attempt Number 3

Our hero, undaunted, worked tirelessly through the night to derig and once again set up. This time away from trees, other operators rides and anything else he could think of.

So as day three dawned he thankfully prepared to at last earn some money.

Sadly, due to rising Covid-19 rates in the area, the council chose that day to close the full event down. And then cancel it. So despite three attempts at setting up, he sadly ended up poorer, but wiser.