fairground Archives

Showmen, Covid and The NHS

3 May 2020

Showmen Thank The NHS. Like many business’s at the minute, the funfair industry has pretty much ceased to exist. With events cancelled up until the middle of the summer and beyond. Indeed some Christmas events are now being cancelled, we are not sure when we will be allowed to operate again.

The common opinion is that it will be next year before events start to come out of the lockdown. We can’t see all the sacrifices made during the lockdown period being swept aside by letting major festivals go ahead. And rightly so. The important thing at the minute is saving lives, hard as it sounds, business will need to take a back seat.

Showmen are an enterprising breed, many have rapidly started small food delivery business’s to keep some income rolling in. There must be a massive market in home delivered fruit and veg. If the amount of showmen who have turned greengrocer is any indication.

Saying Thank You

The showmen however, in the midst of seeing their livelihoods disappear, and with no real idea when they will be allowed to work again, have found time to say thank you to our heroic front line NHS staff and key workers.

We have all stood and clapped to let them know how we feel, but around the country, groups of showmen have raised funds to show their appreciation in a practical way.

Many hospitals put calls out for toiletries and such like. As patients were ending up on Corvid wards, with no supplies. Because of the current visiting rules, their families couldn’t come to see them and bring what they needed.

In short order groups of showmen have raised not inconsiderable sums to purchase toiletries, bottled water, things like pot noodles and other snacks to help alleviate the hospitals shortage.

Showmen’s Guild

In my native North East, the funfair trade body made a donation to start the ball rolling. A number of showmen also took it upon themselves to raise funds.

One member donated a vehicle to be used for delivering the items. Another who runs a small sign making business, lettered the vehicle up free of charge.

They made delivery runs to a number of Northern hospitals. Other showmen added to this and covered smaller centres such as care homes.

I have touched upon the Northern Section of the industry, purely because I come from the area. But the same thing has taken place in most parts of the UK. North East local press reported on the story.

It just goes to show, “There is no business like show business”, and the Showmen thank the NHS to show their appreciation.

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Fun Story, funfair events, General

Man Lost His Car After A Night Out In The Town

21 April 2019

A man from Ripley lost his car after a night out in the town. He found it the next day surrounded by a fairground. After driving into town for a night out, and having one too many drinks he then made a conscious decision to leave his car parked and find an alternative way home. He did not however expect to go back the next day to pick his car up and find that the fairground had come into town and was setting up in that exact location. Much to everyone’s amusement the car was found in the center of the fairground and the rides had been built up around the parked car.

There is nothing worse than waking up after a heavy night drinking to the worst hangover, the kind where you want to lay in bed all day and pop paracetamol to shake the headache off and eat your body weight in junk food to make you feel better but for poor forty five year old Martin Ross he had to get up and trek back into town to pick up his white Lexus and bring it home.

I could only imagine the fear you must feel when you drag your hungover body to town to walk down the street to find your car parking spot has turned into a full funfair. He said that after the initial scare had worn off he actually found it quite funny. When he was walking down the street and realised the fair was there he said his first thought was that his car had either been clamped or towed away. So once he located the car and realized it was still there and untouched he began to laugh.

Funfair workers find it funny

The fair workers found it a very funny situation but helped watch him out with the car. The car managed to escape by mounting the kerb and squeezing in between a tree and bus shelter.

Martin did manage to snap a quick photo of the cars situation to send to his friends and family. One of his friends immediately posted the funny photo and story to a social media page. ‘Spotted in Ripley’ Facebook page and received a lot of attention. One comment said how they thought it was absolutely brilliant, how a man from Ripley lost his car after a night out in the town. They also added how it made their ribs hurt from laughing so much when finding out.

Moral Of The Story of man from Ripley lost his car after a night out in the town

I think the moral of the story here is to make sure that when you’re parking the car for a night out make sure to check any events in the area the next day!! There’s nothing worse than a hangover, losing your car and having a fairground playing loud music around you.

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Event Planning, funfair events

Carousel With A Twist

12 March 2019

The longstanding and traditional carousel has been given many different face lifts since the first one was built by the Danish carver, Charles I.D Looff in 1876, but all follow a typical form of a revolving platform and wooden seats often carved in the shape of decorated carved horses. This is a standard American and Europe design however this is not the case in China. There has been news reports of how a shopping center has created a Carousel with a twist.

A carousel in China has been filmed, going round with real horses rather than the standard wooden ones and has come under fire by many organisation who have viewed this. The bizarre twist of the traditional fairground ride was found in the Shunagliu Wanda Plaza shopping center in the city of Chengdu and features four live horses harnessed to metal frames around the center pole of the carousel and made to walk around on the motor driven platform. Consumers are charged £5.60 for a four-minute ride.

The ride is advertised as “Different from traditional wooden horses, you can really experience the fun on horseback and let your child indulge. Let you and your child be brave.”

Backlash

The ride has reportedly received criticism from a number of animal cruelty organisations who have said that it is unethical to use the horses for this. However according to the Equestrian Club who owns and operates the ride they have trainers onsite at all time and the horses only ride for four hours which gives them plenty of exercise. The horses are harnessed correctly to ensure peoples safety and ensure the horses don’t run wild.

The carousel has received mixed reviews with some shoppers saying that its worth its money and the experience of riding actual horses makes the fairground ride come alive. Some however have reacted in horror stating that you shouldn’t normalise animal abuse and justify it to make money out of mistreating animals and that if you want to experience riding a horse then you can go to a professional riding stable where the animals are treated freely.

This is similar to the uses of horses back in the day when they were used to pull horses and carts and in the agricultural field. Horses are a lot stronger than we imagine and can be trained to carry out a heavy workload, so maybe allowing them to be rode for four hours a day isn’t too strenuous on the horse, as long as they are being cared for properly and given the opportunity to be free and have space to run around outside of their carousel duties. Alternatively the traditional carousel with wooden horses has always been more than popular and maybe this real makeover is not needed and due to the backlash this has received I feel that other carousel owners will not be adapting their ride to using real horses.

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