Funfair-Amusement Park

A funfair or simply fair (e.g., "county fair", "state fair") is a small to medium sized traveling fair primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is traditionally held.

In North America, a fair is sometimes called a carnival or exhibition, although in Europe and other parts of the world influenced by the Catholic church, a carnival is a procession usually held around Shrove Tuesday which is sometimes accompanied by a funfair, but which is known in the United States as Mardi Gras. One strand of the medieval fair has diverged to become the agricultural show which often still has a funfair attached. Increasingly, funfairs are appearing as additional attractions alongside any large gatherings of people such as major sporting events, music festivals, and civic celebrations.


Attractions

A fair contains a mixture of attractions which can be divided into the categories of adult or thrill rides, children's rides, sideshows and sidestalls. Originally a fair would also have had a significant number of market stalls, but today this is rare and most sidestalls only offer food or games.
Many thrill rides, such as the paratrooper and the Matterhorn, include spinning people at high speed coupled with other accelerations.
Many thrill rides, such as the paratrooper and the Matterhorn, include spinning people at high speed coupled with other accelerations.

Thrill rides

There is a core set of thrill rides which are common at fairs and which most funfairs have. These include: Enterprise, The Gravitron, Booster, Freak Out, Miami and the Top Spin. However there is constant innovation, with new variations on ways to spin and throw passengers around appearing in an effort to keep attracting customers. Nevertheless, with the requirement that all rides can be packed up into one or more trailers for traveling, there is a limit to the size of the rides, and funfairs struggle to compete with the much larger attractions such as roller coasters found in amusement parks. See also amusement rides.

Roller coasters

Some fairs may feature compact roller coasters to attract teenagers and preteens. Roller coasters feature steep drops, sharp curves, and sometimes loops. Roller coasters are generally the most attractive aspect of a fair, but many people come for other reasons. Fairs usually only feature one or two coasters.

Children's rides

Funfairs are seen as family entertainment, and most include a significant number of children's rides designed for children from 2 – 10 years old. Many of these are smaller, slower versions of the adult rides, such as merry-go-rounds, teacup rides and Ferris wheels. Such rides are usually referred to as "kiddie rides". Others are simple train rides, slides, mirror mazes and variations on the bouncy castle.

Sideshows
A barker luring a patron in to the Vermont state fair sideshow
A barker luring a patron in to the Vermont state fair sideshow

In the 19th century, before the development of mechanical attractions, sideshows were the mainstay of most funfairs. Typical shows included menageries of wild animals, freak shows, wax works and theatrical shows.

Up until the 1960s, boxing shows were a common feature of British fairs, but they went into decline when in 1947 the British Boxing Board of Control ruled out appearances of licensed members in fairground boxing booths. An echo of the boxing booth remains with boxing or punch ball machines being common around fairgrounds. The very last traveling boxing booth was still making annual visits to the Great Dorset Steam Fair until 2006. Unfortunately, the owner, Ronnie Taylor, died a few weeks before the 2006 show, and the future of this unique attraction is now uncertain.

After World War II, sideshows featuring burlesque and striptease performances also went in to decline, with the general relaxation of censorship legislation.

Sidestalls and games
A traditional coconut shy, established in 1936 by Mrs E. Harris, is still being run by her son today.
A traditional coconut shy, established in 1936 by Mrs E. Harris, is still being run by her son today.

Most stalls feature games of skill or strength. The most traditional example being the coconut shy in which players throw balls at coconuts balanced on posts, winning the coconut if they manage to dislodge it.

Other sidestalls range from the trivially easy, such as hooking rubber ducks from a water trough in which nearly every player is expected to win a prize, to the deceptively challenging, which includes games which utilize optical illusions or physical relationships that are difficult to judge. In the United States, the funfair is one of the few arenas of public life in which classical hoodwinkery in the form of outright fraud can be perpetrated by the light of day. Highly profitable (and therefore timeless) games include:

* the hoopla, in which a ring can be demonstrated to fit neatly around a wooden block, but when the customer attempts to throw the ring over the block, it is nearly impossible to achieve the perfect angle which the sideshow barker (attendant) deftly demonstrates.
* ball-in-the-basket games in which the basket is presented at an angle almost certain to bounce the ball out. (The basket bottom may also be suspiciously springy.)
* basketball-shooting games in which the basket is ovoid in shape and the basketball literally cannot fit inside the rim under any circumstances, but takes advantage of the oval shape an individual expects to see when directly confronted by a circle presented at an angle nearly parallel with the ground. (The sides of such a game are walled with netting which presumably keeps the ball in play, but the netting is then typically, and ironically, coated with the many prizes the customer hopes to win, but which block any possibility of viewing the basket from the side and thus exposing the hoax.) Sometimes the basketballs are also pumped up with air to their full capacity, thus allowing the ball to bounce off of the hoop more easily.
* archery, air rifles, and paint ball guns with sometimes misaligned sights, with targets ranging from bullseyes to playing cards.

Much of the true thievery has been driven out of funfairs in the twentieth century, and combined with an increasing emphasis on the role of families and small children in such entertainment, contemporary showmen often find greater profit in pricing their games far above the value of the prizes being offered, with complex formulae for upgrading to the large prizes that advertise the game and instill desire among those strolling by. The rises in pricing of many sidestalls must often reflect the overheads of running fairground equipment - the cost of swag (see below), diesel, staff and rents.

Typical prizes change to reflect popular tastes. A traditional fairground prize used to be a goldfish in a small plastic bag, but these have fallen out of favor; partly because goldfish are no longer seen as exotic, but also because animal welfare concerns are frequently raised. Many stalls offer cuddly toys as prizes — many teenage romances are established at funfairs, where thrill rides provide ample excuse for embracing.[1] Displays of skill at shooting and winning a cuddly toy for your girl/boyfriend is a rite of passage for many young men.[1] In showland, the prizes are known as swag and are supplied by a swagman.