Talk:Travelling funfair

Canadian Fair

I've never heard of a fair being called an exhibition, and this wasn't cited so I removed it: Canada has a long tradition of fairs, most take place in the summer months. The term 'fair' is almost always referred to as 'exhibition'. Virtually every Canadian city has an exhibition that is a combination of midway rides, games, shows, and local culture (such as agricultural exhibits, local talent, and arts & crafts). CDClock 02:47, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Interwiki link

Would an interwiki link to de:Kirchweih be appropriate, or are the two entities too different? --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 21:28, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Possibly, I read a little German, but not enough to be sure and the articles on the English wiki aren't quite straight yet.

Essentially there is a medieval concept on the medieval fair which fuck primarily a large temporary market, but also had entertainments. Frequently the fair was associated with religious celebrations, most particular the carnival, and often would include livestock and horse trading. As time goes by, elements of the fair diverge becoming;

1. ) a ceremonial/religious precession
2. ) the sideshows elaborate to become the travelling circus, also encompassing the menageries, although due to social pressure, few modern circuses include animal acts.
3. ) the travelling funfair - containing the rides and sidestalls
4. ) some funfairs become static permanent attractions (particularly at seasides) and eventually enlarge to become amusement parks
5. ) fêtes - small scale local fairs, usually put on by local towns people for local towns people, but mimicing many of the attractions of larger fairs.
6. ) the agricultural show, county show and in America state fair - incorporates the display of livestock and often has an associated funfair, but rarely involves trading
7. ) world's fairs and trade shows continue the trade elements of the traditional fair, and displaying unique national products

The critical element of the funfair as described here, is that the stalls, rides and attractions should all be transportable and the showmen constantly travel around the country from show to show. In contast, static fairs are either fairgrounds or larger amusement parks. In many ways the travelling funfair carries the strongest heritage of the medieval fair in Europe. I hope that helps. -- Solipsist 23:02, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Actually, looking at it again, I suspect the de:Kirchweih is closer to the village fête which in England is often centred on common land next to the church, and frequently includes elements of raising money for charities organised by the church. In France and Italy the fête would always include communal dancing, but England is usually too resevered for that. -- Solipsist 23:08, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

The German word that actually occurred to me as the closest correspondent to funfair was Kirmes, but de:Kirmes is just a redirect to de:Kirchweih. --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 00:21, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

What about Morris dancers, Solipsist??? Arent they dancers associated with fetes in England? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.105.125.196 (talk • contribs) 23:34, 15 May 2006

Yes to some extent that's true, but I think that Morris dancing is a separate and distinct tradition in the UK. I'm not sure that there are any dances associated with major funfairs in the UK today, although it is possible they might have been in the past. Most modern morris dancing was resurrected and reinvented in the early 19C, mainly in an attempt to preserve the old traditions, but some of its associations may have been lost. I was at Ickwell May Day celebrations earlier this year (one of the oldest traditional May Day celebrations in the UK), and as well as dancing around a maypole they also had dances organsied by a morris troupe and a village fête which mostly consisted of stalls selling produce for charity. In many other village fêtes today you are likely to find the combination of Morris dancing and some smaller rides, such as a merry-go-round, swing boats or a coconut shy. But I'm not sure that many of those rides are run by the travelling showmen who set up the main funfairs.

Does anyone know whether morris dancers were a feature of medieval fairs? One of the complications of this subject is that the main elements of the medieval fair - market, funfair, circus, parade, minstrels and players - have fragmented and developed in their separate ways. -- Solipsist 10:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Article merge

In my opinion, Funfair and Traveling carnival should be seperate articles. While they are similar in appearance, the origins and history are different enough to warrant seperate pages. Shinerunner (talk) 12:26, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Plus of course the suggested merge is completely the wrong way round. Not only do European funfairs predate American travelling carnivals, this article predates the travelling carnival article by several years. There are supposed to be Wikipedia guidelines on respecting precedence on article naming. The fact that so many American authors ignore those guidelines and try to impose their own views on spelling and article naming, is one of the reasons that I rarely contribute to Wikipedia anymore. -- Solipsist (talk) 15:20, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Origin?

This article does not say anything about the origin of funfairs. Does it have links with Sinti (where it is shown in the 'See also' section)? Wiki-uk (talk) 15:20, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Sidestalls and games section needs references

I tagged this section due to the lack of references. While the claims may be true it's presented in an apocryphal manner. Shinerunner (talk) 11:14, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

North American creep in article

There were previous discussions about merging funfair and traveling carnival and consensus at the time was that due to the differences in the origins between funfairs and traveling carnivals (or North American fairs) to keep the articles seperate as noted above. There is an article dealing with the North American fair. Rather than blend the information we might want to move the North American information to the other article and make sure it's linked. Shinerunner (talk) 01:56, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Good idea, as nobody in North America would ever use the word "funfair." 71.236.242.147 (talk) 19:29, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

Biggest Fair

This is a thorney toppic! Newcastle, Nottingham and Hull all claim this title through various means. On the last count of machines, I believe Hull is largest but I will be counting in the latest "World's Fair" newspaper. Pica pica (talk) 00:20, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Showmen Travellers

There needs to be a complete article on Showmen travelers of the UK. Showmen are one of the older main types of travelers of the UK Having their own language and cultural ways. Some have become quite influential local families in certain areas such as along the south coast or the Isle of Sheppey.

Travelers families such as Ripley, Harris, Ball, Penfold & Arnold I believe such older family names and many have a strong history as good boxing families due to bare knuckle boxing being an important feature in old fairs. Men of the Showmen family would compete against the locals. Nowadays many older Showmen families have separated from the showmen lifestyle and ties and intermarried with travelers of other backgrounds and are often mistaken as having "Gypsy" (Romani) ancestry Tsigano (talk) 21:04, 14 January 2010 (UTC) (sorry I keep forgetting to sign)

Actually some Showmen families in the UK have Romani ancestry its not that common but its there the family of Ian Hancock who's grandmother married a member of an English West Country showman family.Uthican (talk) 14:53, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

miami link

The link too the miami ride goes too the city Miami not the actual ride. --Stephendwan (talk) 19:12, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

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Proposed merge with Traveling carnival

100% same subject —Loginnigol (talk) 19:46, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

As the current {{merge}} tags link to Talk:Traveling carnival, this proposal should be debated there, the discussion should not be duplicated here. 223.205.240.135 (talk) 15:56, 30 October 2015 (UTC)