CarnivalMidways.Com

Source:MarketWire

What’s your favorite ride?

Is it the Zipper that throws you around in a topsy-turvy twirl? Or the Yoyo which spins you several feet off the ground? Or is it the traditional carousel that takes you on a dizzying gallop on a make-believe horse?

Whatever ride thrills you, the BC Safety Authority (BCSA) would like to remind everyone to observe posted safety rules to ensure an incident-free experience. In 2008, there were 18 reported incidents, with 6 due to lack of rider attention.

“Rides at amusement parks and traveling carnivals are designed and built to provide a fun and entertaining experience; however we have to remember to use them properly and safely,” said Jason Gill, provincial amusement rides safety manager for the BCSA.

Last year, a serious injury happened on a waterslide due to the rider’s inappropriate behavior even after being warned by the waterslide attendant.

“Most incidents occur because users weren’t paying attention or following the rules, which is why we are urging everyone to think of their safety when going on an amusement ride.”

The BCSA regulates the amusement rides industry in British Columbia and works with operators to ensure that the rides are installed and operated according to provincial regulations and codes.

Gill points out that, “a ride must be installed and operated by a licensed amusement ride contractor.”

Here are some safety tips from the BCSA to keep in mind when going on that ride:

1. Follow the rules: The rules of operation, and any age, height or weight restrictions, are posted at every ride. Please read and follow them – they are there for your safety.

2. Stay seated, and use your hands: Take your seat as soon as you get on the ride, fasten your seatbelt, lap bar or restraining device, and remain seated when the ride starts and until it comes to a complete stop. Your hands are for holding on to the safety bar, handholds, or lap bars during the entire ride. Keep them inside the ride at all times (That goes for your legs and feet as well).

3. If it’s loose, you’ll lose it: Do not bring any loose articles – such as purses, bags, backpacks, or jackets – with you on the ride. Chances are you’ll lose them. Leave them on the ground with a trusted friend or family member.

4. Your health comes first: Many rides can aggravate a pre-existing medical condition. So if you suffer from motion sickness, seizures, dizziness, or have a heart condition, high blood pressure, or a neck or back disorder, take a pass on the ride. Do not go on a ride if you are pregnant.

5. It’s okay to be scared: Some people – whatever their age – are frightened by many or all rides. Making fun of them, or pushing them to go on a ride when they don’t want to, is a form of bullying. This is very important if you are a parent: please don’t make your child go on a ride if he or she is scared. Instead, let them enjoy the kiddies’ rides. They’ll have a lot more fun.

For safety tips that you can download and print, visit the BCSA’s website at www.safetyauthority.ca and go to Safety Information – Public Safety Tips – BCSA 10 Safety Tips.

The BC Safety Authority is an independent, self-funded organization that inspires safety excellence in British Columbia by partnering with business, industry and the general public to enhance the safety of technical systems, products, equipment and work.

Webster – Kirkwood Times

July 4th is just around the corner and the Community Days carnival is coming. With all that fun comes the “carnies,” the folks who operate all the rides, game booths and contests.

No one gets more excited about carnivals than Virginia Lee Hunter. A photographer and fine arts teacher at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Hunter traveled with carnivals for several years to produce the book, “Carny,” a sort of photo-documentary of Americana on the carnival midway.

A Kirkwood native, Hunter was inspired to capture the life of carnies, in part, because of fond childhood memories. She recalls being “amped up” on cotton candy and riding the carnival rides with her girl friends.

“My first encounter with carnies was when I was 13 at the North Junior High School,” said Hunter. “A carny whistled at me. He was probably 18. I was so excited about this attention from an older male I walked past his game over and over again to get more whistles as it seemed thrilling to me.

“Times were different in early ’70s and I would be surprised if a carny would do the same today,” continued Hunter. “There are much stricter codes of ethics all around, although I still see girls about my age, then, still behaving in the manner I did. Some behaviors never change.”

Hunter began her 10-year book project, “Carny” in 1996. Working in California for the Los Angeles Times and the LA Weekly, she decided one day to drop everything and to follow the carnies in a quest to tell their story through photojournalism.

She said the carnies were wary of talking to her at first. A few worried she might be with the FBI or family services, because some were running from a past. After sharing a beer or a morning coffee, the carnies opened up and allowed her to photograph them.

“I did get a sense in my interviews with carnies that they get a bad rap,” said Hunter. “There’s a long history of discrimination against them. An old saying is ‘Lock up your daughters and bring in your laundry, the carnival is coming to town.’

“Carnival workers work hard to make a buck, raise their families and to try to have a decent life,” Hunter said. “And a small town may have a financial boon when a carnival show sets up in their community. Think of it, a group of 50 to 200 come into a town. They shop, eat out, buy groceries, buy tires, and other parts needed for a show’s operation or just their individual needs.”

This isn’t to say that Hunter didn’t meet some sketchy carnies. For example, Melinda, who went from guy to guy or in carny lingo, became an “opossum belly queen.” Other carnies have cleaned up their acts after bouts with drugs or alcohol. Hunter said the business has cleaned up its collective act because of new regulations and increased scrutiny.

“Grampa Hack”

Among carny characters whom Hunter profiles in her book is Grampa Hack, who has made a living by selling “three dart throws for a dollar.” Hack joined up for carnival work in 1937 in Ellsworth, Kan., and never looked back. He told Hunter he “never did hanker for no regular job.”

“Hairy,” the popcorn and cotton candy maker, told Hunter that he had a miserable childhood. Hairy said he joined the carnival because it was magic to move from town to town, “to rebuild our little city” to bring joy to folks in a new location.

Walter, the Ride Jock, told Hunter that after five years in a penitentiary, there’s not much that can happen at a carnival that would scare him. He said he takes pride in operating rides and making sure the customers are safe. He has some strange tattoos.

“The carnival keeps my outta trouble,” Walter told Hunter. “I know the way I am. The way I was brought up… I got the tattoos, ‘love’ and ‘hate’ on my knuckles when I was 14. I was a lover one moment, then a hater the next.”

In case you’re wondering if those rides – the Octopus, Ferris Wheel and Tilt-A-Whirl – are safe, Hunter answers in the affirmative.

“Fair boards, such as put on the Community Days, are interested in putting on a clean, safe carnival show,” said Hunter. “As far as rides, they are inspected every week, before a show opens, usually by the local fire marshal. I would ride any ride on a carnival before I would ride a ride at a stationary amusement park.

“Most of the accidents around rides have to do with carnival goers’ errors, usually involving their own ignorant behavior due to consumption of too many beers at the beer garden. I never witnessed any one under the influence working on the midway. If they were caught with alcohol on their breath by a breathalizer, they were docked from work that day, and if it continued then they were given the boot off the show,” Hunter said.

In covering the carnies, Hunter traveled alone. She would camp or get a cheap motel. Sometimes she would crash on the couch of a carny. When she was low on cash, she might even work a ball toss or a dart game. She became a part-time carny.

Carny Film Debut

Hunter’s book inspired a Canadian filmmaker, Allison Murray, to team up with her for the film “Carny.” It had a sold-out screening this past fall at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

“A gentleman in the audience came up to me afterward and said he and his father had been in the carnival business for decades, selling trinkets and stuffed animals to carnivals,” said Hunter. “Although they were in the business a long time, he’d never seen the side of the carnival world that was featured in the film. His eyes were opened wide to a different society of folks in the carnival.”

“Carny,” the film, is airing on the Sundance Channel. The schedule can be found on the channel’s Web site. The film also is airing in Canada, UK and New Zealand this summer.

Hunter has 20 years experience as a professional photojournalist. She has worked for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, London Times as well as various magazines.

She graduated from Kirkwood High School in 1978 and continued her education with stints at the University of Kansas and Ringling School of Design in Florida, finishing at the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA in photography in 1983.

She is in the process of forming a multi-media production company. Her next project? You could say that it’s a ring toss – totally up in the air.

Frances Willick, The Windsor Star

A squabble between carnival workers and striking CUPE members brought about half a dozen police cars to the waterfront Thursday morning.

Maggie Durocher, executive director of the Windsor Parade Corporation, which runs Summerfest and leases land for the festival, said the altercation occurred when carnival employees started picking up litter on the festival grounds.

Durocher said when she arrived at the Summerfest site just east of Dieppe Gardens on Thursday morning, she saw garbage bins tipped over, trash strewn on the ground, and about 20 garbage bins tossed into a dumpster. “Someone had taken the garbage out and thrown the bins in the dumpster,” she said. “They pushed me over the edge. It was just taunting someone to come clean it up.”

She said “a lady in a CUPE shirt” admitted that striking municipal workers had dumped the garbage out and told Durocher they were now “on garbage watch.”

Durocher and some of the World’s Finest Shows workers were picking up the garbage when a shouting match began between CUPE members and carnival employees.

“A CUPE worker came up to me and said one of the (carnival) workers said something unsavoury to one of the strikers. I don’t know who threw the first remark,” she said.

Durocher wouldn’t specify the nature of the insult, but said tempers escalated. “There was a lot of finger pointing and two men right up in each other’s faces. It got really ugly, so I stepped between them,” she said.

One of the carnival workers called police to the scene, and after police arrived, the two camps separated while anger simmered. Striking CUPE workers on the site refused to comment, and CUPE leaders could not be reached for further information.

Durocher said the Windsor Parade Corporation signed a contract with the city to lease the land for Summerfest. The contract stipulates that the grounds must be clean when the event is over.

“I had to clean it up, or else they’d charge me $2,000,” she said.

Durocher said she approached pickets on the scene before the dispute to ask how she could keep the site clean and keep the peace with striking CUPE workers. She said pickets told her they wouldn’t interfere if it was just Durocher retrieving the litter.

“But it was more garbage than I could do by myself, so I asked the carnival workers to help me,” she said. “I’m sorry the whole thing happened.”

The Windsor Parade Corporation is a not-for-profit organization that co-ordinates the annual Santa Claus Parade in Windsor, Kingsville and Amherstburg.

Its sole sources of funding are Summerfest and external grants.

By Bo Poertner – The Lompoc Record

Ken LaForce sits on the steps of the Eagle 16, a Ferris wheel ride that reaches 60 feet into a blue sky, backdropped by Lompoc’s southern hills.

He wears a white construction hat, greasy jeans and yellow T-shirt that tell the story of his labor.

His face is dark, burnt and as rugged as his job.

“Me and Rick put it up,” he says, nodding toward the big wheels, cushioned seats and lights above him. “We can do it in less than five hours — up and running, safely.”

A breeze blows away some of the heat from the afternoon sun, and in the distance the clank of a hammer on metal echoes across Ryon Park.

“Me and my wife got married on this,” says La Force, who is from Copperas Cove, Texas.

“We said our vows right there,” he says, turning to nod at the platform where riders stand before they climb aboard. “We went around, and we were officially married. It was a carny wedding.”

A collection of Butler Amusements rides stretches out in front of LaForce, all with bright colors and catchy names that promise thrills, screams and laughter — the Scrambler, Zipper, Tornado, Orient Express, Tilt-a-Whirl.

Those rides and others crank up today for the 57th annual Lompoc Valley Flower Festival, a five-day event that runs through Sunday.

Entertainment and food booths open at noon. The carnival begins at 2:30 p.m.

A short distance from the Eagle 16, two young women with a little boy and girl walk past a race car ride for children.

“I wanna go on that ride!” says Tatyana Chapman, 7, dancing and swinging in half circles while holding hands with her cousin, Sherita Hill.

“Me, too,” echoes Frankie Villalobos, 5, who clings to his sister, Myranda Buck.

Near the carnival entrance, where workers are setting up a pony ride, the sounds of Travis Tritt’s version of the Eagles classic, “Take it Easy,” comes crashing from the speakers of a white pickup.

“We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again. So open up, I’m climbing in. Take it easy.”

The song is timely. An Eagles tribute band, Desperado, will perform at the festival Saturday night.

Across the park, at the entertainment stage near West Ocean Avenue, Rob Salzer of Luners Pro Sound & Lighting in Santa Barbara, is setting up the sound system, moving big, black boxes around the stage that come off a 24-foot truck packed with equipment.

“The main thing you’re amplifying is the vocals, because that’s the quietest thing coming off the stage,” Salzer says.

To the west of the stage, a row of colorful food booth signs — yellow, red, blue, green — offer a medley of refreshments and rations as diverse as Lompoc itself.

Here, between the entertainment stage and the carnival entrance, festival visitors will choose among quesadillas and tamales, jambalaya and pork sandwiches, corn on the cob and French-bread pizza. They can feast on rootbeer floats, strawberry shortcake, funnel cakes and cotton candy.

The food booths are important fundraisers for nonprofit civic groups and churches.

At the Kiwanis Club of Lompoc booth, president-elect Monika Bennett says the group raised about $4,000 last year selling cotton candy, and all of the profits went back into community projects.

“We’re not a huge money-maker; we’re honestly here for the community,” she said.

Bennett says she doesn’t expect the economy to hurt the festival financially. Instead, she says, she expects people to vacation near home.

“Small town, local. In my opinion it’ll be a good turnout,” she says.

Ray Garrett of the Vandenberg Village Rotary Club is checking out his booth’s decorations. The Rotary will sell funnel cakes and nachos.

“Most of the funds go to our scholarship program. We provide scholarships for Cabrillo and Maple high schools,” Garrett says. “Last year we raised about $13,000.

“We’re hoping for a great year.”

By Greg England – The Expositor

The midway opened at 6 p.m. Wednesday night, behind the old Mallory building, with plenty of rides, food and fun as the carnival, owned by Geren Rides Inc. of Valdosta, GA, prepares for a weekend full of family entertainment.

“It’s strictly family fun,” said Frank Sutton with the Geren company. “Everything we have is dedicated strictly to the families out there.”

Sutton, who oversees operations of the carnival, stated the fun would last through Sunday night with approximately 15 rides and a variety of games and food vendors for visitors to enjoy.

“We want them to come out and have a good time,” stated Sutton. “We have plenty of ride discount coupons. They can come out and ride all night long for $15.”

Sutton explained single ride tickets are also available for those only wanting to experience ‘a ride at a time’.

Geren Rides is in its fourth generation as a family business.

The 85 year-old company is still run by Jerry and Joanna Geren. And the family tradition continues with Glen and Diane Geren, as well as with granddaughter Hilary.

And tradition is a large part of the Geren’s philosophy.

Visitors to the carnival will notice a seat on the Ferris wheel that is covered and unavailable for rides. He said the tradition is intended to show respect to the family of a deceased woman, who worked with the carnival.

“We had a person in the carnival business die last week and part of her family is traveling with us,” said Sutton. “In true carnival tradition over the years, they will close a Ferris wheel seat and cover it.”

But an assortment of rides will be on hand for thrill seekers including The Zipper, The Scrambler, bumper cars, a Super Slide, The Hurricane and, even, the Fishy Jumper for the little ones.

“The (Fishy Jumper) is a ride that generated from the late 40’s,” stated Sutton. “It’s one of those rides that is still being manufactured today.”

Sutton described the extensive maintenance and safety checks all rides must go through.

“We have two traveling (safety) supervisors,” said Sutton. “That’s all they do is go from ride to ride to ride to ride, checking to make sure that everybody is doing everything the way that they are supposed to do.”

He also explained every bolt, pen and part of every ride is checked daily, as well as after initial set up, to ensure the safety of all riders.

Sutton invites everyone to come down and get a snow cone, cotton candy or funnel cake and enjoy a thrilling ride anytime between now and Sunday night.