Fairs produce a lot of noise. Showmen praise their attractions. Sound systems pumps out one hit after the other. Visitors talk and scream. All this razzle-dazzle stirs our ears.
At the fair the variety of sound sources is unbelievable. There’s music everywhere. When you stroll through the fairground one hit blends and mixes into another. All showmen have their own specific way of catching the people’s attention, but none of them mumble! The fairgoers themselves produce a lot of noise. They discuss what ride to take. They scream when they’re enjoying an attraction. You can hear dodgems colliding with one another. Shots are fired at the rifle gallery. Children roar with pleasure as they ride on a merry-go-round. Youngsters play and sing. The sense of hearing has to work hard to make sense of all these sounds.
Street singers Felice and Celina in a so-called Cantastorie. Photo taken at an Italian fair in the 1980s.
The entrance of a Ferris wheel and lightly dressed passers-by.
Laughing bravely with a steep dive ahead.
Having a good time in a haunted house.
Sigfrido Mantovani (1908-1987), street musician and pedlar from Bergantino.
Street musician and pedlar Sigfrido Mantovani (1908-1987) from Bergantino is having a good time at a fair somewhere in Italy in 1927.
Jack Nicholson learning a part? Close up of artwork on David Taylor’s repainted Miami Ride in 2002. It was built by Nottingham UK.
Throng at the fair in Blackburn in 1952.
A whirligig at a Dutch fair.
A spectacular attraction.
Awaiting the looping.
Mattie and Doug Taylor’s Terminator Top Spin at Nottingham Goose Fair. The photograph was taken in October 1993. The attraction was built by Soriani and Moser. It was named the Terminator as it was painted in the style of James Cameron’s 1984 Terminator-film. When the ride rotated the operator would quote Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous line “Hasta La Vista, Baby!”