Fairground: Thrill Laboratory - Do you want to go faster?
Fairgrounds have always been the places to experiment with, and experience extreme emotions. It all began with the first mechanical roundabout, described by contemporaries as a ‘monstrosity of steam, sound and power’ in 1861. Past and present fairground showmen have worked with ride designers/manufacturers to create a transitory experience that is as part of the mystique of the travelling fair as is its temporary status - there is only a limited amount of time to drink in the atmosphere, ride on the roundabouts and abandon yourself to the surroundings.
Throughout the twentieth century, different types of mechanised rides have offered to take the audience faster and higher than ever before. Rides became an expression of modernity and progress, reflecting the era in which they were built. Themes and rides became linked to popular culture through technological revolution, with the audience encouraged to test their limits of endurance. The latest sound systems were utilised to heighten sensation, with the motion of the ride and the cacophony of competing music creating a cauldron in feelings both physical and sensory, all experienced for three brief minutes.
One observer in 1893, commenting on these ‘beasts of technology’ that had taken over the local fair, observed the ‘endless array of faces, smiling faces of all ages whirling around, some laughing outright and some trying to keep up a little dignity’… And concluded that ‘people enjoyed themselves with utmost variety, threw dignity to the winds and abandoned themselves fully to the occasion’.
The abandonment of the senses, and the carnivalesque atmosphere associated with the fairground is part of the carefully manufactured environment created by the showmen. A new reality is created, one in which it is completely normal to be turned upside down, and spun around faster and higher than ever imagined or contemplated. The rides themselves are an advertisement for the emotion that the punter will experience both physically and psychologically - the Ultra Max, the Booster, Bounce Around, Chaos and Crazy Shake – just some of the names found on the attractions. Even the 1930s ride the Waltzer, has metamorphosed from its original incarnation as Mr Jackson’s Waltzing Cars to modern scream machines such as ‘Hellraiser’, ‘Dominator’, ‘Ministry of Sound’, ‘Earthshaker’, ‘Revolution’ and ‘Atmosphere Creator!’
The fairground ride is a marriage between technology and popular culture creating a social arena of new sounds and fashions, expressed through an autonomous zone of pure thrill-seeking and high adrenalin risk. Spectacle, showmanship and technology are brought together by the experience of the showmen in providing the latest high-tech, high-thrill attraction to an audience eager to be pushed to the limits.
The fairground is a place to hear the latest music on massive sound-systems, to get blitzed by dynamic strobes, smoke machines and huge lighting sets, to integrate with the technology of pure thrill to a pumping soundtrack. From the 1890s to the 1990s the emotional experience has been created by incorporating the modern, utilising the popular and casting off the unfashionable by constantly taking the audience on the ride of a lifetime.
By Dr Vanessa Toulmin
Research Director, National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield Library