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The Funfair News & Discussion Thread

Shaggy_Dog_

Shaggy_Dog_

TS Member
I thought it might be nice to have a thread on here dedicated to travelling fairs. Whilst we are community of enthusiasts that love our themed immersive parks a travelling fair can offer a very different experience which some people absolutely love. Whilst I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of funfairs myself they do offer a chance to try some excellent flat rides for example and can help scrathch that thrill itch if you don’t have a theme park near you or for when it’s the off-season. We are lucky that we have some nice big fairs in the UK (KLM, The Hoppings, Nottingham Goose Fair, HPWW, Hull Fair) that are real institutions and we have some great machines on the travelling circuit). I thought that this thread could place to talk about rides and events and to post mini-reviews.

I’ll start off with my current top 10 UK travelling rides to celebrate the first day of this year’s Hoppings. What are your favourite rides and events?

1 - Ice Jet
2 - Atmosfear
3 - Danter’s Air
4 - Take Off
5 - Break Dance *
6 - Void
7 - Top Spin (Clayton Hackett)
8 - Super Bowl
9 - Exciter
10 - Top Star

*Formerly at Ocean Beach, now on the travelling circuit in 2023.
 
The UK scene has been dire for me. Kings Lynn was poor, Hull had an unbelievable about of duplicates. Nothing even comes close to say Kinzler's Breakdance #1 or Hanstein's Commander.
 
Poisson said:
The UK scene has been dire for me. Kings Lynn was poor, Hull had an unbelievable about of duplicates. Nothing even comes close to say Kinzler's Breakdance #1 or Hanstein's Commander.
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That’s definitely true that the European scene in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands is much more vibrant! The theming on some of the rides there is superb and they run some pretty wild cycles from what I’ve heard. I’d love to do Deca Dance some day.
 
I only recall very standard rides ever attending my local fair, run by Mannings. It used to be pretty big but has dwindled considerably, although they now have a couple of larger machines including a freak out and a super star the number of rides overall means it is much less of a draw as an event and seems stuck in a cycle of decline. Its now done a Blackpool and offers a one price offer for entry only, which I hate and must be a huge blocker to custom for a setup that size. Offer me a wristband option but don't force with an all or nothing on entry.

I camt really talk avout individaul machines, but for my money you can't beat some of the classics; waltzer, dodgems, breakdance hearts and diamonds/round up, dive bomber, eggs. These seem to have fallen by the way side to bigger more visually impressive options that are a lot less fun to actually ride as they are entirely controlled and predictable (like most variations of swings) of so big they become lumbering (like Air)

Other than the overly predictable Winter Wonderland we don't seem to have any big fairs down south, certainly mot near me. I am jealous when I see things like Nottingham Goose.
 
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I'm not really fussed about going to my local fairs anymore as it's nearly always the same rides every time. Still kicking myself for not doing David Taylor's Booster Maxx when it visited earlier this year though (although that was mainly because it opened late and I was short on time).
 
Used to love the Moon Rocket (Shaw's?) at Blackburn Easter Fair.
Fastest ride on the fair, every year, wonderful beast.
The ride, and fair, seemed massive.
Thirty or so good flats, and always new stuff every year.
Now the whole fair is a shadow of what it used to be.
There used to be a covered pot fair to the side of the main one, for both cheap and expensive crockery and pottery...many Staffordshire stalls.
One guy used to pull a crowd by spreading a whole dinner service in one hand, adding bits with the other hand into a massive rose shaped pile of crockery.
Once in a while, he would smile and simply drop the lot!.
 
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The fairs in my area are struggling money wise, last fair I went to the average number of guests on each ride was 5 despite being a Saturday night. It really doesn't help that most fairs don't have a website and rely on posters and Facebook groups to spread the word.
 
Did a stand up pirate ship in Lille last summer and it was tremendous. Trying to time a jump at the apex of the swing so you were weightless for a brief second.
 
I cant believe in as little as 10 years how depressing our fair scene has become. We have lost so many of our unique rides and now every showman owns the same rides.

Literally with the new outwards facing freakout now has about 3-4 on the Uk scene its like they all just copy each other.

You can count that visiting a large fair such as hull or goose you will get 3 Miamis , 3 Frog Hoppers, 3 dodgems and about 95 waltzers.

Funfairs is what got me into being obsessed with the amusement industry as a young kid and its upsetting to see how backward the UK circuit has become compared to the rest of Europes progression.
 
I've been down a rabbit hole of Google searching my childhood this evening, and found one of my favourite rides, a Matterhorn called Ghostbuster owned by Mannings that used to come to my local fair. It was an incredible machine, or at least felt it to me back then. I'm sure one year they ran it with a canopy just over the back half.

I've been trying to work out if this is still in use somewhere under a different guise, but I don't think I can.

sheffield.contentdm.oclc.org

Paul Angel photograph, Hull Fair, 1985.

Manning's Ghostbusters Matterhorn - MH17 - photographed October 1985.
sheffield.contentdm.oclc.org sheffield.contentdm.oclc.org
 
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Wandered through The Hoppings yesterday, looked to be a pretty strong line up. A bit of a Booster convention but I guess that is somewhat predictable.

How long has Air only had four seats per arm ? Looked odd.
 
Rick said:
Wandered through The Hoppings yesterday, looked to be a pretty strong line up. A bit of a Booster convention but I guess that is somewhat predictable.

How long has Air only had four seats per arm ? Looked odd.
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Not too long, it was refurbished and each arm had a seat removed in order to reduce weight-related wear and tear.
 
Rick said:
Wandered through The Hoppings yesterday, looked to be a pretty strong line up. A bit of a Booster convention but I guess that is somewhat predictable.

How long has Air only had four seats per arm ? Looked odd.
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The three boosters there I can understand as they are popular rides and have quite a limited capacity but it’s the duplicate rides having half a dozen waltzers, three sticky wall rotors, two roundups, and three dodgems that makes me laugh. You’d think that the showmen must really be competing against each other for people’s money.
 
Seen north-west funfairs page saying the usual summer fair in Barton (I think) will be taking over the old Camelot site for the summer holidays.
 
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IDB said:
Anyone ridden Rocket yet? Maybe it can be retrofitted to the Flying Machines at BPB.


From: https://youtu.be/o5vyGEd4Mkk
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I visited the Hoppings twice and it wasn’t running on either day which was a pity I’d have liked to see it in action. From what I’ve though whilst it’s a great looking ride it’s not the most comfortable, apparently it hurts your shoulders somewhat every time it inverts which would be quite a lot.
 
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