My first North American Midway Entertainment/NAME fair in years.... and it was pretty awful.
So in early 2013 I found out about a fair called the Space Coast State Fair taking place in the fall and that it was gonna be their 25th anniversary, Jeff had never heard of it and looking at their website it seemed like it should be pretty major. After some research and finding out NAME was the midway provider we were both pretty excited for this fair.... Well, uh, that quickly ended once showing up at the fair grounds........
Ok, to be fair... what we got wasn't that bad of a midway... but far from what we were promised.
Add on top of that more than half the rides being closed when we got there... Some were still being setup in fact! (oh, and almost every major ride had a sign saying no singles... how odd) Oh... and we can add the massive letdown of Vortex being a no-show due to the indecent that happened in North Carolina, that could have been the fairs saving grace.
So here we go, Space Coast State Fair ((never again :P))
Hey look, tickets booths not open on time.. or even at all!
Once in the fair... the first SIX rides we walked up to, were closed / broken / not fully setup yet
the Afterburn, Ferris Wheel, Himalaya. Spider, Power Surge, and Speed. In fact, the Himalaya never managed to open (I don't think the Tilt did either)
off to a fantastic start.....
The (nice looking) KMG Speed was the first to open and even with just the two of us riding... and no line, the cycle was embarrassingly short and worse yet, we were forced to walk around the massive empty queue for a reride... they wouldn't let use just stay on... or give a cycle worth riding (maybe 3 times around and no direction change)
After our two pointless rides on Speed we took a ride on the now open Spider.
<3 Spider
Power Surge eventually opened as well.. but ran pretty craptastic.
But it was nice see one of my favorite Zamp rides again.
ZzZzz, after checking like four different times, the Chance Wheel opened as well.. but only went around twice before our ride was over. I'd understand short cycles if there was a line.. But the entire fair couldn't have had more than 20 people attending!
(This photo proves that 20 people wasn't an exaggeration :P)
Overview of most of the midway.... Like I said, not really a bad lineup but definitely a poor lineup for something claiming to be a "STATE FAIR" and rather on the small side based on photos of years past.
China Dragon, NAME's Wisdom Orient Express.
I tend to skip kiddie coasters at fairs..... but
I was pretty annoyed... And the operator on it made me laugh.. So I took a spin
(and I guess it's a +1 for me?... Credit!)
In the back we found a Chance Yo-Yo and took it for a spin as well... But its a far cry from the Wave Swinger shown online and therefore somewhat expected....
The pretty sunset in Viera might have been better than the fair itself :P
((never again...))
Yup... Not worth a reride.
Although we did ride the Cliff Hanger, a ride I tend to skip elsewhere.
Woo, but there was a Re-Mix and it was run pretty fast <3
Uh, Starship?
Yeah... So that's it. We left after less than maybe two hours and felt pretty stupid for picking Space Coast over a trip to the Volusia County Fair also happening at the same time... In fact, the day was so poor we ended up going to Volusia later that week having agreed to just do one or the other!
I don't know... Had we gone to the fair knowing what the lineup was gonna be we would have been less pissy about it.. but when you show yourself as being this massive big fair with lots of big pieces and you show up to find Speed and not much else its kind of a big letdown.
So next time, you might not wanna show a Zipper, Log Flume, Wave Swinger, Spin Mouse, Kamikaze, Tornado, Zyklon, Drop Tower, or Flying Bob's if you aren't gonna have them....
ZzZzz
