Author: Jarm69

Event Planning, funfair events, Funfair Rides

Yoyo set up, Tales Of Misadventures

16 January 2021
Truck Collides With Tree

Thankfully this isn’t one of our tales. The guy involved does contract work for us quite often, and is a good operator, I think here he was just unlucky. Twice.

He was attending a funfair in Ireland with his freakout ride. A bang up to date modern thrill ride, that is both high and fast. Imaging a giant arm with seats attached swinging in a massive arc up into the sky, back down then repeating in the opposite direction.

Well, turns out that the fair he was attending, was already in operation, so he had to pull in and set up in the early hours of the morning. Which, he duly did. Unfortunately it turns out he miscalculated his footprint in the dark, and realised the next morning, in the gloom of daylight, that if he set said ride in operation, it would wrap itself around a tree. Things that collide with trees tend to come off second best.

Due to health and safety restrictions he couldn’t take it back down during the operating hours of the fair, so cue another through the night operation to derig it, move it and set it back up.

Truck Collides With Tree
Truck Collides With Tree

Attempt Number 2

He duly managed this with a little time to spare before daylight. Adhering to the old adage of measuring twice and cutting once, he had triple checked the swing and was absolutely sure it would miss the tree.

So, come opening hour all was good. Only sadly it wasn’t. Just as he was about to set the first ride off, another operator come running up in a panic, to point out that if his ride (the other operator) and the star of our tale were both to set their respective rides going. It would result in a massive collision of two high speed rides.

Health and safety meant that they couldn’t operate alternately, as the risk of inadvertently setting them both of together was just too great. And once again, he couldn’t derig during the operation of the fair. So our intrepid hero had to sit his second day out.

Attempt Number 3

Our hero, undaunted, worked tirelessly through the night to derig and once again set up. This time away from trees, other operators rides and anything else he could think of.

So as day three dawned he thankfully prepared to at last earn some money.

Sadly, due to rising Covid-19 rates in the area, the council chose that day to close the full event down. And then cancel it. So despite three attempts at setting up, he sadly ended up poorer, but wiser.

Fun Story

FC Fabbri Group, A Manufacturer Profile

9 January 2021

We get asked quite often where funfair rides come from. Everyone seems to think they are homemade, and to be truthful, there are a lot of children’s rides on the circuit that have been. In fact some of the most successful ride manufacturers started life this way.

For the bigger stuff though, this is beyond their scope. Thrill rides are becoming higher, faster, more daring. The engineering required for this is beyond the DIY market.

Over time a number of high tech, highly regarded companies have developed to design and build these types of rides. Sadly little of this industry remains UK based. The major players being Italian, Dutch, German and Spanish.

Over the course of the year we are going to take a look at the major players, and some of the now defunct former giants of the industry.

An Italian Entrant

The first of our spotlights falls upon FC Fabbri Group. Founded by Romolo Fabbri in Bergantino, an Italian village in 1950. The village actually became the home of a number of Italian ride producers after World War II.

The initial ride was the Avio, an aviation based ride that allowed the riders to fly their little aeroplanes up, as they rotated around the ride.

Fabbri Avio
Fabbri Avio

This eventually evolved into the popular Telecombat. An aerial ride that allowed the planes to rotate and face backwards towards the following car. You could then fire your guns and ‘shoot’ the opponent down. Not literally of course, what happened was the ride controls would drop his plane back down to ground level.

Telecombat
Telecombat

A New Direction

As the 1970’s rolled around, Romolo’s son, Licinio took over, and expanded sales beyond their traditional home market and into the rest of Europe and the Middle East. By this time they were producing a number of rides, including the Tagada, Kamikaze and crazy Dance to complement their Telecombats.

This expansion continued, and in the 90’s they founded FC Fabbri Park Srl, to spread the company into the world market.

Kamikaze Ride
Kamikaze Ride

Roller Coasters

By 1998 they had launched their first roller coaster. The Wacky Worm type ride

wacky worm coaster fabbri
wacky worm coaster fabbri

As of 2019, the group has built 24 roller coasters around the world ranging from the original Wacky Worm type through to the newer Spinning Mouse coasters.

Power Mouse coaster fabbri-1
Power Mouse coaster fabbri-1

Thrill Rides

Of late the company has found success with pendulum type thrill rides such as the booster, selling over 50 of these since 2000. This is loosely based on an old type of ride called the dive bomber, only much higher and faster. Other companies produce similar rides such as the KMG Speed and Zamperla Turbo Force.

booster fabbri maxxx
booster fabbri maxxx

FC Fabbri Group Giant Wheel Division

In 2002, the giant wheel division was founded with the manufacture of their first wheel over 40 metres in height.

They now possess the capability to produce wheels upto 100M in diameter, and pro actively seek out sites suitable for erecting wheels. Their engineering prowess make them the only European company to have installed a giant wheel on top of a large building.

Fabbri Wheel
Fabbri Wheel

The Fabbri Group have the design and production capabilities to undertake unique and one off commissions taking their funfair rides in a totally new direction. These include an aerial restaurant and a monorail system.

sky walking tourist attraction-fabbri-2
sky walking tourist attraction-fabbri-2
fabbri monorail
fabbri monorail

From the humble beginnings of the Fabbri Group with the Avio, the company now encompasses a complete range of attractions from Children’s rides through to the largest of travelling giant wheels. It sells its products throughout the globe and is definitely an Italian success story.

Fun Story, Funfair Rides

Exploding Fire Extinguishers

3 January 2021

Tales Of Misadventures

In my younger days, I often played Russian roulette with the fuel in my vehicles. Many of them I knew to within about 500 yards how far the fuel would take me. I remember once my dad taking my sister out for a driving lesson. I was laid under a small lorry I owned repairing something when I heard my dad walk up the drive.

Seems he ran out of fuel about 4 mile up the road, there wasn’t mobile phones in those days, and he didn’t have any money on him for fuel, so he had walked all the way back to get some. Hearing him shout to my mother ‘Where is the little bA*&^rd, I am going to kill him. I decided discretion was the better part of valour and stayed where I was.

Redcar Gala

I had booked a shooting gallery into a gala in the North East town of Redcar. This particular gallery was built into a 6 wheeled Foden lorry. At the time it would average about 12mpg, so was fairly thirsty. Anyway, I arrived at Redcar, drove onto the allocated pitch, and it promptly conked out of fuel. Oh well, I would operate, get the day over then worry about refuelling.

As it turned out it was a bit of a poor day, and everything was finished by about 5pm.

My at the time mate Arthur, owned a transit van, I asked to borrow it so I could go and fill a 5 gallon drum up with diesel. This would allow me to then return with the lorry to the fuel station and fill it up.

6 Wheeled Foden Funfair Transport
6 Wheeled Foden Funfair Transport

The Fuel Station

I arrived at the fuel station, and in truth pulled up to the pump a little faster than I should have, I was in a hurry. As I braked, again a bit sharp, I heard an almighty explosion, and my world instantly turned white.

Now, I had read in the past about people arriving at the afterlife and seeing a bright white light. This white light was more of a murky grey, but hey, I couldn’t see brimstone and fire so I figured I had gone up, not down.

I was wondering what had killed me, brain aneurysm, heart attack, stroke? Now at this juncture, I became aware that I couldn’t actually breath, and my respiratory tract appeared to be full of gritty, awful tasting stuff. I have to admit, I wasn’t impressed with this afterlife, I mean, whats the point of life after death, if you couldn’t breath and you had a bloody awful taste in your mouth.

I wondered if I was going to spend eternity in the bloody van, or if there was more, so scrabbling around I managed to open the door. As I exited I tripped, landing on my knees and that bloody hurt. So the afterlife where I couldn’t breath I could feel pain? I was wondering about a transfer to the other realm, on the basis of I wasn’t feeling the love in this one. I vaguely remember Sunday school lessons, and I couldn’t recall this being mentioned.

In The Back

As I lay there I became aware that my breathing was returning, I also noticed that a lady at the next pump was looking at me quizzically. I asked her if I was in the afterlife, and she replied “No love, Redcar”

Being a bit non compis mentis at the time it took a while to process this. I wondered if she was an idiot, and why did they let idiots into heaven, but gradually realised I might not be dead. “Am I then, not dead?” I enquired, she looked at me funny, obviously wondering why an idiot was knelt in front of her asking funny questions. “Eeerm you look kind of weird, but I don’t think you are dead, I mean I can still see you”

I must admit, not being a student of the afterlife, I am not sure whether her being able to see me counted for anything. As realisation dawned that my demise was, as Mark Twain once noted, ‘greatly exaggerated’. I climbed to my feet and decided I needed to investigate. Best place to start was, I thought the back of the van.

Opening it I spotted the culprit. It turns out that Arthur was the proud owner of one of the worlds largest dry powder fire extinguishers. A fire extinguisher which has it happens was missing its safety pin to prevent accidental discharge. Seems that my enthusiastic braking had tipped the bloody thing over, whereupon said fire extinguisher had gleefully and molevalantly discharged what seems like half a tonne of dry powder in a matter of seconds.

The Aftermath

Now, as I took stock, I realised just how much mess I had caused. The entire van front and rear had a thick coating of powder. The cars at the side of me had received an instantaneous colour change. And you could no longer see through the window of the fuel station.

I still needed fuel, so filled the drum, secured it in the van and went in to pay. Cue howls of laughter from the occupants of the garage. Turns out I also was covered in powder. As one helpful prat, sorry person remarked, I resembled an anaemic ghost.

I got in the van to set off back and discovered I had a problem. The window was obscured, like, totally, I had to wipe peep holes in to see. I pulled over and decided I needed to ring Arthur and prepare him for what I had done to his van. He answered the call. I managed to croak “Arthur, your van”, That’s as far as I got, as I erupted into slightly hysterical laughter, Arthur screaming down the phone “What have you done to my van” didn’t help, I blame the contents of the powder, gotta have some effect right.

Catering, Event Planning, funfair events

6 Top Gourmet Hot Dogs

27 December 2020

We upgraded our hot dog service from regular (boring) ole weiners, to rip roaring gourmet hot dogs. With a range of fun, quirky and delicious toppings. Settling on our final ‘Standard’ menu, we went through a number of trial dogs. Some of our favourites are listed here. Some made the cut some didn’t but all are available on request for your event.

Tex-Mex Dog

Tex-Mex gourmet hot dog
Tex-Mex Gourmet Dog

Start with a standard frankfurter. Add a layer of nacho cheese sauce, red jalapeno peppers, sliced of course, and garnished with onions and nachos. Big enough to fill a Texican, well some of them.

Chilli Dog

Chilli Dog
Chilli Dog

An old favourite this one, a broiled frank, slathered in quality beef chilli, topped with red peppers and garnished with grated cheese.

The John Wayne

The John Wayne, Gourmet cowboy hot dog
The John Wayne

Named after our favourite cowboy, well, there are one or two in the fairground industry we like, but you probably won’t know them. A broiled weiner chopped into sections, slathered in baked beans, garnished with peppers, then finished with your choice of condiments.

Dutch Dog

Dutch Dog, Gourmet Hot Dog
Dutch Dog

From the land of windmills, clogs, very tall people and erm, slightly dodgy brownies. Ie Holland, or the Netherlands home of the Dutch. Gee it must be awfully cramped over there with 3 lots all living in the same place. This one is a regular frankfurter. Dressed with a mixture of peppers and chopped onions, marinated in mayonnaise. Garnished with poffertjes, those little tiny Dutch pancakes to finish.

The Samurai

The Samurai

From the land of the rising sun, samurais and cooking that can kill you like the puffer fish. Take a frankfurter, place it on a bed of sushi, which contrary to popular belief, isn’t raw fish, its actually vinegar pickled rice. Add a few slices of fish, and garnish with wasabi and soy sauce.

The Floss Dog

The Floss Dog
The floss dog

Personally I wanted to call this the vomit dog, but I was voted down as it turns out some people actually like it, weirdo’s! One of our finest frankfurters, placed on a bed of bloody candy floss, drizzled with chocolate sauce, I mean chocolate on a hot dog. Then topped with sugar sprinkles. Makes you wanna throw up.

Anyway we have loads of new ideas, so gourmet hot dogs is definitely something we will be expanding in the future.

If you fancy hot dog cart hire without the floss version get in touch.

Fun Story

Bloody Kids, A Lockdown And The Darkest Hour

22 December 2020

Into week 3 of the lockdown and we are making full use of Netflix. A friend had suggested the film Darkest Hour. The award winning biopic of Sir Winston Churchills earliest days as prime minister.

So one night when I had become sick of sitting at a computer doing promotional work, I powered Netflix up, found the movie and away we went.

Darkest Hour

Not the usual war film, I thought it started a little slow, but then became totally engrossing. Gary Oldman I thought was near perfect. A little worrying, because I am old enough to remember when he was too young to play that part lol. It captured the deeply flawed personality that was Churchill, but also just how strong the appeasement movement was at that time. I genuinely think had anyone else taken the role, we would have capitulated.

Gary Oldman As Winston Churchill
Gary Oldman As Winston Churchill

Bloody Kids

At one point my daughter wandered in. Enquiring what the film was about she sat a while as she waited for her kettle to boil.

At one point a scene with Churchill sitting at his desk appeared.

“Oh I have sat at that desk” she mentioned nonchelantly.

Really, when?

“Oh I didn’t tell you did I, a few years ago you had sent me on a corporate job at this old house, serving spiced wine I think. Anyway half way through the job, the guests had all gone into a conference. So I went and got myself a cup of coffee, well, there was this big old desk and a chair, so I plonked my coffee on the desk, and sat down to read my book”

Really I enquired?

“Oh yes, but I wasn’t there long”, this lady came into the room, seen me sat there and I thought she was having a seizure, when she managed to get her words out she screamed you can’t sit there that’s Churchills desk., “Well”, I said, “he isn’t using it now is he?”

Bloody kids. One of life’s great mysteries, is why my blood pressure is still the same as when I was a teenager!

Fun Story, Funfair Rides

Fiery Dodgems, Tales Of Misadventures

17 December 2020

Just a short one this time about a fiery dodgems ride. For a number of years we provided attractions to a college near Nottingham. The guy in charge Michael was really laid back and grew to be a good friend.

Anyway over time they kept expanding the campus at this college, so we went from attending with 5 or 6 large rides to eventually there was only room for the dodgems.

At last even that space was cut down, Michael told me he had lost about a third of the empty space and could I find him a dodgems to fit what was left. None of ours was suitable, but I managed to find another operator with a specially cut down version.

The Joys Of Using Someone New

Now I had never used this ride before, but to be honest it was all I could find to fit so I explained this to Michael and he was happy to go ahead.

The ride wasn’t the best visually when it turned up, but the safety checks were all present and correct, and it had received its annual inspection not long before.

The first half of the day went off without a hitch. We had games units there and catering so everyone was having a good time.

Riding A Dodgem When Your Are Blindfolded

Michael came up to me after lunch with a hand full of facemasks. He explained that the dodgems had actually been sponsored by a school for the visually impaired and that a number of students from the school had came to take a ride on them. He went on to say that would it be ok for the sighted riders to wear face masks to give them an idea of the struggles the other students faced.

No probs, I thought that was quite poignant, and a really good idea.

Blazing Inferno

I kept thinking it was a good idea right up until the point where one of the dodgem cars burst into flames. Well, that’s a bit dramatic so I will explain. The power to the dodgem car motor is transmitted through the metal floor, and through the pole that is sticking up from the back of the dodgem car.

The whole body, being in contact with the floor is usually negative polarity, and the pole is attached to the positive, as it is a D.C. power system, not the same as your usual household supply.

The section of the car where the pole enters is insulated to prevent the pole shorting to the body. Sometimes because of the continual movement of the pole, the insulation degrades. Normally you get a few sparks and you repair the insulation. Occasionally you do get an actual fire, again no big deal, you stop the ride extinguish it and either replace the insulation or remove the car.

Not this day. This day the insulation decides to burst into flame. But here’s the thing. Everyone on the ride was either blind, or wearing a facemask. So the cars were still running around the track with no one any the wiser.

Frank Spencer With An Extinguisher

The guy in charge came running out with a big fire extinguisher, which was good. In his panic he hadn’t thought to hit the emergency stop on the ride, which was not good.

He then proceeded to chase the burning car around the track to extinguish it. Thing is, the guy in the car was happily trying to drive around in circles. Seeing as he was blindfolded and didn’t know what was happening.

More to the point, the rest of the cars were still going at full tilt. The guy with the extinguisher was knocked down three times before he managed to catch the car on fire.

Of course once he set the extinguisher off there was an almighty ruckus. Imagine being blindfolded driving around in a dodgem car. Next thing you have a jet of compressed dry powder shooting down the back of your shirt.

Fire Extinguisher
Fire Extinguisher

The true star was Michael. Whilst this had been occurring, he and I had been leaning on the safety rails watching the drama unfold. Michael didn’t bat an eyelid, he just looked at me and said “Is it supposed to do that?”

“Hmmmn, not sure” I said, “Don’t think it is”

Now if you would like to hire dodgems that don’t spontaneously combust, get in touch.

Catering

National Cotton Candy Day

7 December 2020
Candy Floss Carts For Hire

Another of our classic lines, cotton candy. Or as we call it in the UK, candy floss, our Aussie cousins fairy floss, and in various parts of the world papas beard, spider sugar and even Ghosts breath. Well today is national cotton candy day.

Invented in 1897 by Dr. William Morrison an American dentist. Who perhaps was taking the long term view of drumming up more customers for his main profession.

Its made by spinning a drum at high speed full of sugar. Around the perimeter of the drum is a mesh heating element. The sugar is heated to 186C where it melts and begin to ooze through the holes in the mesh. It instantly solidifies into long thin strands thinner than a human hair.

The only real ingredient is sugar, with a tiny amount of powdered food colouring to change its colour and flavour.

Sugar Cubes
Sugar Cubes CostaPPPR https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

New Adult Flavoured Candy Floss

Traditionally candy floss has had flavours such as strawberry, apple and so on. New for 2020 we are launching a range of adult orientated flavours. The initial batches will be Gin and Tonic, Sherry and Prosecco. We hope to add brandy and rum in the near future.

World Record

In June 2009 a candy floss 1400 metres long was made, entering the Guinness Book of Records. This culinary delight took over 6 hours to make.

There are even vending machines available now that make a candy floss for you.

In China, the street vendors make stunning flowers and other shapes using just candy floss.

Candy Floss Carts were the very first offering we had when we launched the company. It is still one of our most popular lines, and is quite often hired with popcorn as an extra. You can choose from a range of carts and bars to serve candy floss from, with our original Victorian style carts the most popular.

Victorian Catering Cart
Victorian Catering Cart
Event Planning, Fun Story, funfair events, Funfair Rides

Nutcases, Organising Funfair Events & Killer Swans

2 December 2020

Originally we were traditional funfair operators. We then started to make the move into organising funfair events. Eventually we reached the point where we decided to specialise purely in corporate and private events. The sort where we don’t charge the guests, the person booking us pays a fixed rate.

But in between the two extremes, we had a period, where we were taking on paid work and traditional festivals, fetes, galas, in fact we would try anything.

Over time we found that only a small percentage of events ended up financially viable, but it was a steep learning curve. Two events in particular stand out from this period.

Peterborough Showground

We were contacted by a gentleman who was putting together a huge event (his words) at Peterborough Showground. This was to raise money for charity, he was expecting in excess of 50,000 people to attend, and the night would be highlighted by a set played by One Direction, fresh from winning whatever reality show they had won.

Arthur and I travelled to meet him. He had the spiel, and he ticked the boxes showing us the contract already signed for One Direction, so it looked pretty good. In hindsight, (that most wonderfully useless of skills) we should have been a teeny bit suspicious of his qualifications to run an event of this scale, when we had to help him jump start his 30 year old clapped out Fiat Panda, because it wouldn’t start. But hey, he might have been one of those eccentric promoters. We have in fairness dealt with multi millionaires before, who looked like a close relation to Greengrass of Heartbeat fame.

We sorted a deal out, and agreed to organise a funfair event on a grand scale, thrill rides, family rides, games stalls, catering, the kitchen sink and all.

The Big Day

I was at another event on the big day. So Arthur, my part time partner in crime was going to be in charge. We had attracted a number of other operators with our enthusiastic selling of the event, so we did have a big selection of equipment set up.

On the morning I received two phone calls. The first was from a mate Graham. He wanted to thank me for letting him attend the festival. As he had this theory you see, that the more portable toilets at an event, the bigger the crowd was going to be. He told me that the toilets were lined up as far as the eye could see, he was already planning his retirement to a Caribbean island based on what he was going to earn.

The Second Call

The second call came from Arthur and was rather more panicked. When I had calmed him down enough to talk rationally he came out with a classic line. “Do you know how many tickets he has sold for this event?”

In fairness I had no idea, I was hoping for something like 40,000 but I thought that really anything over 20,000 would be a major event.

“427”, was Arthur’s now icily calm statement.

“Shit, 427 thousand, the venue won’t take that many people, health and safety will shut us down.” Now I was starting to panic.

“No”, said Arthur, “Not 427 FU***NG thousand, FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN, as in three digits, as in we are in trouble. He thinks that lots of people will just turn up on the day and pay at the gate”

Well, at least I wasn’t there, so Arthur would have to deal with everyone. Graham didn’t talk to me for quite a while after that. I think they ended up with an attendance of about 800.

The moral of the story is never trust a guy in a broken down Fiat Panda.

Living in a ghost town
This Is How Peterborough Felt

Ripon Racecourse

The second, followed a similar pattern. A guy called Simon was putting an event on at Ripon racecourse. Rennie, another part time collaborator, and I went to meet him. He laid out the plans, the army was coming, the navy, airforce, a massive classic car show, giant car boot. Not as impressive as Peterborough, but a nice sized localish event. We agreed terms and shook hands.

Now the night before we were due to set up, I attended an event in Glossop with a couple of children’s rides. One of them which was trailer mounted, had a wheel bearing collapse, and being a Saturday afternoon in a small town, I couldn’t source a replacement.

After the event, the AA refused to recover the trailer and instead got me a quote of £700 to take it the 40 miles back home. Bugger that, I ended up adjusting the towbar to take the weight off the back of the ride, and came home on three wheels. The last leg coming through the centre of Barnsley, I passed more bloody Police cars than I have ever seen, but thankfully whatever was going off kept them too preoccupied to notice my DIY three wheeler.

I arrive At Ripon

Because of the hassles at Glossop, I ended up getting home in the early hours of the morning. Because both Arthur and Rennie were going to be at Ripon, I decided to let them sort the layout of the event out and I would turn up later to set my equipment up.

By the time I arrived at Ripon, it was raining lightly. I rounded the corner and pulled into a field, containing a fair bit of funfair equipment and nothing else. No Army, Navy or Air Force, no car show or giant car boot. WTF

As I jumped out of my lorry, that nutcase Simon ran up, with no shirt on singing ‘Three wheels on my wagon’. I looked at Arthur who smiled, he felt he still owed me for Peterborough. “You’ll have to explain to everyone why there is nothing here and no bloody people this time.” says he.

Oh Lord, “Where is everything Simon, I enquired politely though gritted teeth.”

“Not sure he beamed, thought it would be here by now, but don’t worry.”

“why don’t worry what have you got up your sleeve?” I hopefully asked.

“Well nothing really, but it’s great to be alive. God loves us”, he was still beaming.

It was at that point I decided to move him nearer to God. Thankfully, for him, Rennie and Arthur grabbed an arm each and kept me rooted to the spot, Simon, oblivious to his rapidly shortening life expectancy trotted off to his refrain of singing in the rain.

Killer Swans

When I had calmed down enough for them to let me loose. I looked at them and asked what we were going to do. “Your in charge” said Arthur, “Up to you this time”. He had a matching grin to Simons.

Just at that precise moment, karma decided to intervene. Ripon has a population of swans in its lake. Now most of them stayed away from us all in the lake. But one swan, a bit more adventurous than the rest had decided to come check us out. We were stood there, a bit like the three stooges, when the said swan decided to attack. Well, to be more precise, he left Rennie and I alone, and set about Arthur.

Ha, he wasn’t laughing now, and I hadn’t realised just how big and aggressive swans could be. Arthur ended up running away. But for the rest of the day, whenever he stopped in one place too long, the swan would swoop in and attack. Funny, it never bothered anyone else, well except for the young lady who had just bought a chocolate bun from the coffee stall, she had unwrapped it and was staring at it longingly, when a head on a long white neck, came from over her shoulder and snatched it.

Arthur's Mate. An angry swan
Arthur’s Mate

At Ripon we had only taken smaller attractions, so we just about covered our expenses.

We had a far more serious problem at another event Called The Great Yorkshire Carnival, but I am saving that for a future post.

If you would like to hire dodgems, games or any other attractions we can do that.

Photo Booths

The 4 Top Christmas Photo Booths

28 November 2020
Christmas Snow Globe Hire

With the Christmas party season approaching, its time to start thinking of what you need to add some wow factor. Why not add a Christmas photo booths. Everyone loves their photo taking, well except for the bosses wife she hates it.

We have a selection of festive themed photo booths that will fit in with your party a treat.

Giant Snow Globe

This has been on the scene for a number of years now. But still proves popular at events over the December period. Basically it is a giant version of the little globes you used to shake up as a kid. Filled with artificial snow and a decorative backdrop. They come in various sizes from 3 people mini globes to our larger globes capable of taking group shots.

Snow Globe Photo Booth Hire
Snow Globe Photo Booth Hire

Giant Christmas Bauble

A variation on the original snow globe, this one is designed to look like one of those luxury baubles you see hanging on high end Christmas trees. This can take groups of 5-7 people, and the attached tag can be customised with your logo or lettering.

Giant Christmas Bauble Snow Globe Hire Weddings Parties Events
Giant Christmas Bauble Snow Globe Hire Weddings Parties Events

Charlie Xmas, Our London Taxi Cab

One of our popular London taxi cab photo booths, gets a makeover for Christmas, to become Charlie Christmas. With fake snow, Christmas tree, tinsel, wreaths and other decoration. This is great for those outdoor events, or indeed indoors if you have suitable access.

Christmas Themed Taxi Booth Hire Parties Weddings
Christmas Themed Taxi Booth Hire Parties Weddings

Santa’s Sleigh Green Screen

This was brand new for the 2019 Christmas season. Specially built for one of our major corporate clients it proved a major hit. Capable of taking decent sized groups. With the green screen you have a selection of backdrops for any style of event.

Whichever Christmas photo booths you choose we can prepare a custom set up for you. With branding and extras to really give you party the wow factor

Event Planning, Fun Story, funfair events, Funfair Rides

Educated Idiots. Health And Safety Fails

24 November 2020

As any responsible operator, we pay great attention to health and safety requirements. With regular testing required for funfair attractions and daily inspections whenever they are operated, our industry has one of the best safety records in the country. We also throw in additional testing beyond what is required by the H&SE.

Many people regard the HSE as an extension of the nanny state, a sort of legitimised semi Gestapo type organisation tasked with interfering. Having seen the shortcuts some of the cowboys take. I don’t think you can argue against needing a formalised organisation to make sure the rules are applied.

Unfortunately, like many times in life, the inspectors demonstrate that no matter how highly educated or trained they are, some of them are what can charitably be described as idiots.

Newcastle Hoppings

In the days when we still used to operate at public events. We used to attend the ‘Hoppings’, Europe’s largest travelling funfair at Newcastle Upon Tyne. We were there one year and I was controlling a flying chairs ride. You know the type, the kids sit in a suspended chair, and as the ride rotates, the chairs fly out.

Now, the safety guidelines required a lap belt. Which is what we had, but I was always worried that smaller kids could slip under this belt. So we fitted additional straps that came between their legs and attached to the lap belt to make a 3 point harness. This wasn’t a legal requirement, it was an extra we added.

Now, we only used this extra strap on smaller kids, as obviously it took extra time to fit when you were busy. One day a strap had worked loose. So I removed it, and only used that seat for bigger kids. We had 20 in all so this wasn’t hard to arrange.

An Inspector Calls

Anyway an inspector from HSE, pulled me to one side and told me she wasn’t happy with that strap missing. I explained to her that it was an extra, and that if she looked most kids weren’t using them. And I would only put large kids on etc etc etc, well you get the idea.

Her rather snotty reply was that she would shut the ride down if it was not reattached, as if they were fitted then all of the seats should have them. I thought for a moment and then asked, “If I remove the other 19 so none of them have them would that be OK?”

“Yes” was the reply. Hmmn so rather than have 19 seats with additional safety, she was now telling me she preferred none of them to have it. In the end I went and found a screwdriver and reattached it.

Flying Chairs Ride For Hire
Flying Chairs Ride For Hire

An Inspector Calls Again

Not 2 days later the same bloody woman was back. Now, there is a large book full of guidance for funfair ride design. One of the recommendations (note the word recommended), is that rides have a maximum of 3 entrances. On our chairs ride, we had 4 small gates, 2 to allow entry, 2 to allow exit. When not in use they were closed, so technically we only had 2 open at any time.

This genius came up and kicked off about there being 4. For some reason her grasp of the English language wasn’t good enough for her to understand that 3 was recommended, but not a legal requirement. I found that trying to reason with this idiot wasn’t working. In a fit of temper I grasped a large section of the safety rail surrounding the ride. Then threw it up the fair. Technically this left me with 2 small gates, and a large 20ft gap in the fence.

“1,2,3” I counted, “3 entrances, does that satisfy you?”

“Yes” was the FU***NG idiots reply. SO instead of 4 safe controlled gates, we now had a gap a whole herd of kids could run through into a fast moving ride.

After bringing my blood pressure under control, I calmly retrieved my section of fence, refitted it. Told the woman to go forth and multiply, and either fetch the Police to me. Or someone from her organisation who was in charge of the communal brain cells that day.

PC Plod

To give her, her due, she did what I asked and fetched the Police. I explained all that had transpired. To give him his due, he told her to go forth and multiply as well.

Columbo
Not The Actual Officer But You Get The Idea

The moral of the story is, give someone a smattering of power and they will look very hard for reasons to abuse it. Power corrupts, and absolute power is even more fun. They are indeed what a friend of mine refers to as educated idiots, in that they possess a degree or two, but no actual sense.