IISF TRADE SHOW OPENS NEXT WEEK

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on February 6, 2009
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SUPER BOWL DELAYS SHOW ONE WEEK

By Ron Weber, MCW Editor

Gibsonton, FL – The International Independent Showmen’s Association is busy at work preparing for the 2009 Trade Show and Extravaganza. The show will be a week later this year, February 10 – 14 due to the Super Bowl’s visit to Tampa in 2009.

The club sees several benefits in the move. First, the event is after the conclusion of several fairs, including the South Florida Fair, so this will free up many people to visit the trade show. Second, the trade show will be the second week of the Florida State Fair which will give vendors, concessionaires and ride operators a chance to get settled in Tampa before coming to the trade show.

2009 posed several challenges for the IISF, chief among them a faltering economy. While the number of vendors will remain the same several are “cutting back on space because of the economy”, said incoming IISA President Steve Ianni.

Some vendors such as Wisdom Industries will be bringing new rides and attractions. Wisdom will be debuting their new Windsurfer ride along with Wade Show’s new Drag Strip Mega Slide. The ride which Frank Zaitshik, owner of Wade Show calls “breathtaking”, promises to be one of the highlights of the show.

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Family fun takes a lot of work

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on February 5, 2009
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By John Goodspeed – Express-News

Getting a fruit cup sample seems like a simple thing.

Walk up to a booth at the Family Fair during the 60th annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, which opens today at the AT&T Center, and someone hands it to you with a smile.

But a lot of ingredients go into delivering that tasty treat. A sponsor may need 40 pallets of product to hand out. Deliveries, though, must be made when the grounds are closed to avoid endangering the crowds.

PHOTOS BY JERRY LARA/glara@express-news.net Larry Williamson unloads parts of the Genesis attraction at the carnival.

PHOTOS BY JERRY LARA/glara@express-news.net Larry Williamson unloads parts of the Genesis attraction at the carnival.


“So our volunteers take forklifts to get the stuff, drive a certain route and stage the pallets behind the scenes to keep the area behind the booths neat and tidy just so you can walk up and say, ‘I’ll have a fruit cup’ — and they’re handing them out all day,” exhibit director Ellen Andrus said.

That is just the tip of the funnel cake at the festival, which helped earn several awards in December, including best of show, from the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. The honor came on the heels of the fourth-in-a-row large indoor rodeo of the year award from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

“Everybody won the IAFE award,” Andrus said. “Family Fair is a major component, but we are all slices of the pie.”

Hers, though, is a heaping serving.

Andrus coordinates activities with more than 1,000 people, including 600 commercial exhibitors, some 120 bands, the carnival, concessionaires and about 200 volunteers.

“There’s no way to do it without them,” she said of her share of almost 5,000 rodeo volunteers.

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Florida State Fair aims for fun, not so many games

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on February 5, 2009
Posted in: News. Tagged: .

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By Jessica Vander Velde, St.Peterburg Time

TAMPA — Grab your coat and step right up — the Florida State Fair is here. Today, the midway will light up, and country songs will blare as a man with a microphone promises to guess your weight.

There are 90 rides and more than 100 food stands, but expect to see fewer games this year because of the economy, fair spokeswoman Denise Shreaves said.

Scott Smith hangs stuffed animal prizes at a midway game being set up at the Florida State Fair on Wednesday.

Scott Smith hangs stuffed animal prizes at a midway game being set up at the Florida State Fair on Wednesday.

The games are hurting because visitors consider them optional at the fair, where stomach-turning rides, greasy food and free entertainment rule.

“They look at games as a luxury,” Shreaves said.

On Wednesday, colorful flags frantically flapped overhead as the clanking of metal rang out. Workers hurriedly set up stands in hopes that Floridians will brave the cold today.

Food stands with airbrushed pictures of gooey pizza, cotton candy and caramel apples sit in neat rows. This week, visitors can try the now infamous chocolate-dipped bacon.
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Michigan State Fair in Jeopardy

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on February 2, 2009
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Mark Hornbeck and Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to eliminate state funding for the 160-year-old Michigan State Fair, slash elected officials’ pay by 10 percent and slim down state government from 18 departments to eight.

The proposals, to be outlined in her seventh State of the State address Tuesday, underscore the gravity of Michigan’s budget crisis, and the impact of the national recession on this state.

“The governor will say state government can no longer be all things to all people,” Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Granholm, told The Detroit News. “When the governor says these cuts will be painful, that comes from the heart.”

Lt. Gov. John Cherry will lead a year-long commission charged with reducing the number of state departments in future years, but Granholm will propose scrapping the 226-employee, $52.2 million Department of History, Arts and Libraries this year.

The state faces a $1.6 billion deficit for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, as state revenues dwindle due to the limping economy and a jobless rate of more than 10 percent.

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Free parade comes with costs

Posted by CarnivalMidways.Com on February 1, 2009
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By BRENDAN KIRBY – Al.Com

DAUPHIN ISLAND — It was 15 minutes until 1 p.m. Saturday, and the Island Mystics Mardi Gras parade was about to begin.

For Lee Morrison and other vendors, though, the day was about to end.

She’d been working Bienville Boulevard since about 10 a.m., selling bags of pink cotton candy out of a shopping cart. With the floats about to roll, Morrison was trying to get in a few last sales before she would have to get out of the way.

Morrison, of Morrison Show Fronts, said she has been working Carnival parades for about 15 years, but her roots as an event vendor stretch much further back than that. She is a fifth-generation carnival worker and has traveled from Miami to New York for parades and fairs.

“My life’s in carnival,” the Mobile native said. “We’ve traveled all over. I’ve been traveling my whole life.”

Morrison said her family owns Diamond State Amusements, which sets up rides at state fairs. Of all the events, though, she said Carnival season is her favorite.

The family business might not live to a sixth generation, however. Her 17-year-old daughter, Ashley, was helping out Saturday. But she said her ambitions lie with nursing.

“I’ll at least go to college, and then I’ll know I have something,” she said.

The weather for Dauphin Island’s second parade of the year could not have been better, and hundreds of folks seemed to enjoy the captain-themed procession, with pirate floats and other boat floats passing by.

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