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[News] Do you go the funfair?



bhafc99

Well-known member
Oct 14, 2003
7,845
Dubai
The most unsurprising revelation ever. Funfairs are a rare anachronism, that’s somehow hung on for the past 30-40 years, when most people assumed they no longer existed. Imagine most of the kit and all of the practices date from those times too - they were unregulated and dodgy back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, can’t see why anything would have changed.
 






Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
9,771
Brighton
Used to get excited when the Hassocks 6-a-side tournament came around, generally 1 or 2 weeks before the season started.
Back in the late 60's early 70's and still at school it meant Harris's fair was coming to town. Bumper Cars, Galloping Horses Carousel and my favorite, the Waltzer.
Oh we were so 'hard' standing on the waltzer with our hands in the air, and they always played a Rolling Stones track that will come back to me later. Whenever I hear it it takes me back to those days.
ps met a girl there as well.
 


Brovion

Totes Amazeballs
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
20,345
Used to get excited when the Hassocks 6-a-side tournament came around, generally 1 or 2 weeks before the season started.
Back in the late 60's early 70's and still at school it meant Harris's fair was coming to town. Bumper Cars, Galloping Horses Carousel and my favorite, the Waltzer.
Oh we were so 'hard' standing on the waltzer with our hands in the air, and they always played a Rolling Stones track that will come back to me later. Whenever I hear it it takes me back to those days.
ps met a girl there as well.
I know exactly what you mean. Great days.

I understand the concerns, and no, obviously I wouldn't want to see my grandson (or anybody else) maimed or killed, but I do think it would be a very sad if the days of the travelling funfair were ended by Health and Safety and the "If it saves one life ..." mentality.
 


The Antikythera Mechanism

The oldest known computer
NSC Patron
Aug 7, 2003
8,477
Used to go to the one at the Level when I was a kid. Some of the rides were a tad rickety, especially the big wheel which didn’t benefit from the twats rocking the cars. Never did pluck up the courage to go in the spinning drum thing where you got stuck to the wall when the floor dropped.
 




dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Mar 27, 2013
58,445
Burgess Hill
Multi-million dollar coasters - yes please, all day long. Rip-off funfairs can **** right off though. Always full of scrotes (ride operators and their feral kids, and a % of the punters), rides are utter crap and usually in a muddy field.
 




pasty

A different kind of pasty
Jul 5, 2003
31,775
West, West, West Sussex
Used to love the annual Dolphin Fair in Victoria Park in Haywards Heath as a kid in the 70’s. The Waltzer was always my favourite. No idea if Dolphin Fair is still a thing though?
 






Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
39,561
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Multi-million dollar coasters - yes please, all day long. Rip-off funfairs can **** right off though. Always full of scrotes (ride operators and their feral kids, and a % of the punters), rides are utter crap and usually in a muddy field.
Yeah this is where I am. Absolutely love the rides at big theme parks. My daughter is an adrenaline junky and I was delighted when she progressed from the mini coaster to the Dragon at Lego Land. Now she goes to Thorpe Park once a year with her mates and wouldn't be seen dead riding with Dad but I still managed to get a coaster fix in a couple of years ago in Vegas on the New York New York Big Apple.



I, however, don't trust fairs for all the reasons you state but, sadly, she does. She was at the fair at Victoria Park this weekend with her mates and apparently went on all the ones that make normal people sick.
 






Flounce

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 15, 2006
7,233
Took my grandson to one in Windsor last year. Only went on the dodgems. Three nights in a row. Three times each night. By the end we were both on freebies to bring the punters in :ROFLMAO:
Random fact, as a 16 year old I went hitchhiking in France with a mate and got a pull from a pretty young French girl who was impressed with my dodgem driving at a fun fair near our Le Touquet camp site, which involved avoiding being smashed into by other dodgems. Nothing went any further but it was fun evening!
 


WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
29,495
I used to love fairs from when I was a kid all through my teenage years. At first it used to be Southwick Green and Buckingham Park and then the Level in town as I got older. The excitement of walking through a pitch black Buckingham park towards the back where the lights, the shouting and screaming and distorted music were, was one of the highlights of my childhood. The Whist, Rotor, Octopus, Bumper cars I loved them all and me and my mates would spend every evening there when they were in town, even if we had no money for rides. IIRC when I was young they still had Boxing booths where you could win money if you beat one of the regular 'boxers'.

Took my kids to Chessington, Alton Park, Thorpe Park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach 😲 etc, but they were never really hooked and could take it or leave it.
 
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Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
9,771
Brighton
Yeah this is where I am. Absolutely love the rides at big theme parks. My daughter is an adrenaline junky and I was delighted when she progressed from the mini coaster to the Dragon at Lego Land. Now she goes to Thorpe Park once a year with her mates and wouldn't be seen dead riding with Dad but I still managed to get a coaster fix in a couple of years ago in Vegas on the New York New York Big Apple.


You'll never catch me on one of those big things, BUT, somehow the wife got me on the NewYork NewYork coaster not once but twice. It was about 15+ years ago and we'd been into what was the sports brew pub next door for a good while first. The latter has now gone sadly.
 


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