Summer carnival to occupy Indiana State Fairgrounds for five weeks

  • Comments
  • Print
Listen to this story

Subscriber Benefit

As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
This audio file is brought to you by
0:00
0:00
Loading audio file, please wait.
  • 0.25
  • 0.50
  • 0.75
  • 1.00
  • 1.25
  • 1.50
  • 1.75
  • 2.00
Fair

The Indiana State Fair has been called off this year, but the fairgrounds will still feature dozens of rides and vendors selling fair food this summer.

Farmland, Indiana-based North American Midway Entertainment, or NAME, announced Tuesday that it will bring a summer carnival to the Indiana State Fairgrounds from July 31 to Sept. 7.

Fairgrounds Fun Park will feature more than 50 thrill and family rides and 40 different food vendors, NAME said. Rides will include the Star Dancer, the Skyride, the Crazy Mouse Roller Coaster and the Giant Ferris Wheel.

The carnival be open daily except Mondays and Tuesdays starting at noon. No admissions will be allowed after 9 p.m. The only expection to the closed-Mondays rule will be Labor Day.

“We are excited to bring much needed fun and excitement to Indiana for the summer,” NAME CEO Danny Huston said in written remarks. “We are uniquely positioned as an Indiana company to provide this experience for Hoosiers and we are so excited to bring back the sounds, smells and sights of summer during this challenging year.”

The company plans to implement pandemic safety procedures for guests and staff at the carnival, led by a full-time onsite COVID customer and employee safety director.

Tickets can be purchased online or on-site. Early-bird tickets purchased online through July 8 are $25. Other tickets will run from $29 to $39.

A general-admission ticket for non-riders is $10.

NAME, founded in 2004, provides rides, games and food to fairs and festivals in 140 communities in 20 states and four Canadian provinces.

The Indiana State Fair had been scheduled for Aug. 7-23 but officials called it off this year because of the pandemic.

Please enable JavaScript to view this content.

Editor's note: You can comment on IBJ stories by signing in to your IBJ account. If you have not registered, please sign up for a free account now. Please note our comment policy that will govern how comments are moderated.

17 thoughts on “Summer carnival to occupy Indiana State Fairgrounds for five weeks

    1. Since the food boths and games always seemed to be where people were the most packed together, I agree that this does seem to counter the idea of cancelling the fair.

  1. Great idea. As long as you use precautions, the risk is minimal.

    Here is what the media isn’t telling you.

    According to one CDC official, rather than being totally due to increased spread of COVID-19, the ‘spike in cases’ narrative is due in part to increases in testing.

    “Sometimes an increase [in cases] is driven by an increase in availability in testing, sometimes it is driven by outbreaks,” CDC Deputy Director of Infectious Diseases and COVID-19 Response Incident Manager Jay Butler said at a media telebriefing on June 12.

    On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence echoed that point.

    “It’s almost inarguable that more testing is generating more cases,” the vice president said at the Coronavirus Task Force. “We’re testing some 500,000 people per day.”

    The vice president even wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled, “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave.’”

    1. You should check with a non-political science based news source like, oh, say, Somebody like Dr Fauci?

      Here is one recent article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/world/coronavirus-updates.html

      And a quote from that same fairly reputable source: “The elevated numbers are a result of worsening conditions across much of the country, as well as increased testing — but testing alone does not explain the surge. The percentage of people in Florida found to be positive for the virus has risen sharply. Increases in hospitalizations also signal the virus’s spread.”

      The political spin sounds great until you need a hospital bed and they start to run out.

    2. That was on June 12. The situation is more clear now. Additional testing doesn’t account for the significant spike in hospitalizations in TX, FL, and AZ, as well as other states.

  2. I am glad this is happening but I am not sure I understand why this can be held for a total of 31 days in Aug and Sept but they didn’t feel it safe for the Fair to run for 16 days in Aug.

    1. The State Fair is much more than the Midway and food vendors in the middle. It’s the exhibits, the fairs, the shows, performances, auctions, vendor displays all staffed by State Fair Board workers. The car/derby shows, the concerts, and more. It all takes Board Staff to MC/Host those events maintain staffing, etc. That is what was cancelled. They contract out with NAME and others to provide certain food and entertainment. So if the State Fair was only food and carnival rides for your family – than this is the time to go.

  3. It exposes the hoax of how COVID 19 should be approached. Shutting down and hiding has NEVER stopped a virus; not once in human history. Until the population, as a whole gets exposure, it can’t be defeated. Indeed hiding out only increases the chance of having a more virulent form of the disease. This is plain old biology 101. Concentrate of therapies and treatment not hiding and shutting down and vaccines that only work on a very limited range and time period.

  4. Update for 7-8-20: This Fun Fair has been cancelled due to COVID 19. Apparently there were a LOT of people getting too excited about it and well, if it’s fun-it’s done. Can’t have anyone having fun!

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news. ONLY $1/week Subscribe Now

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In

Get the best of Indiana business news.

Limited-time introductory offer for new subscribers

ONLY $1/week

Cancel anytime

Subscribe Now

Already a paid subscriber? Log In