Very small carnivals or parks you have been to.....

One of the smallest carnival I have even been to was the "downtown" carnival during the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia. This was back in the 80's.

They had...

*scambler

*tribant

*ferris wheel

* one kiddie ride

Thats it !!!

But the award for the smallest carnival ever has to be the Morgan County, West Virginia Fair. Two years ago they offered...

*paratroopers

*merry-go-round

THATS IT !!! TWO RIDES !!!

can anyone top that?

Whats the smallest amusement park you ever been to? For some reason I remember reading someplace years ago about some defunct park in North Dakota that only had 3 maybe 4 rides tops.

I cant. The smallest park I've been to would have to be Virginia Beach Amusement Park. There is no coaster, but some flat rides, games, and food. The star attraction there is the Skyscraper ride. It sits 4 people at a time. Two people load one side, while the other two are sitting in the about 200ft in the air waiting to be brought back down. I regret not riding it when I was there last April, but it costed $20 and it was starting to rain.

Oh yeah, they also have a portable log flume.

Well, we have a place around here called "Kidstar" park. It's just a small little thing with about 6 or 7 rides. One of those rides is the dragon wagon, a kiddie coaster.

One of the fairs I've been to though is the Italian fair. It comes to our area annually, and they have 5 or 6 rides. Ring of Fire will always be a favorite with me though!

Trust me. Here in Europe we have the smallest you could imagine. Each little town sometimes hosts a small fair. Some of them only have petting zoo's.

The smallest one I've been to had only bumper cars. They did have very good food stands though.

I love the "Kerwe Strasse" food.

--James

I cant. The smallest park I've been to would have to be Virginia Beach Amusement Park. There is no coaster, but some flat rides, games, and food. The star attraction there is the Skyscraper ride. It sits 4 people at a time. Two people load one side, while the other two are sitting in the about 200ft in the air waiting to be brought back down. I regret not riding it when I was there last April, but it costed $20 and it was starting to rain.

 

Oh yeah, they also have a portable log flume.

Speaking of Virginia Beach...I had totally forgot about the old and defunct Seaside Park !!!!

Before 1984, Seaside wasn't all that bad. Huge arcade, kiddieland, whip, indoor scrambler, tilt-a-whirl, bumper cars ( which shared the same building as the arcade ), huge ferris wheel, a classic fun house, huge merry-go-round, trabant, round-up...no coaster though but they had just about everything else.

Then sometime in late 1983/early 1984..90% of Seaside was torn down to make way for a new seafood restaurant ( which BTW that too now is defunct and torn down ) but oddly the arcade building was spared but those bumper cars were not...Seaside for some odd unknown reason had moved the tilt-a-whirl into the room that housed the bumper cars.

So for the 1984 Seaside..had one ride....that tilt-a-whirl !!!

By 1985 however that building ( arcade & tilt ) was torn down as well to make way for a new Holiday Inn.

I would have to say Celebration Centre in Logan, Utah. It features a number of S&S rides and prototypes, such as a Sky Coaster, Sky Sling, Screamin'Swing, and of course a 367 foot drop tower called Sonic Boom.

I been to a few small fairs, but none that had less that 4 rides.

I know this thread is super old and been dead for several years but at least I looked for it this time instead of making a whole new one like did the last few times(sorry about that by the way). Out of curiosity I wanted to know what the smallest parks are this was the closest one I can get to that. Anyways:

Smallest amusement park I been to is Adventuredome at the Circus Circus hotel in Las Vegas. But then again its indoors so of course it will be smaller then most. I guess the smallest outdoor one,if you want to consider it an actual amusement park is on top of the Stratosphere Hotel also in Vegas.

Smallest carnival I been to is actually here Ill post it. Its me filming it and me rambling on a little. This video is also a few years old. The mini carnival is at a campground resort I go to every summer as my aunt owns a camp lot there. Its a Jellystone Park in Plymouth Indiana. I guess you can say Jellystone Parks are to campgrounds as Six Flags is to amusement parks. Anyways enough rambling on here is the video:

I know its not the best video as i should of got closer and you know actually go INTO said carnival but I didnt want to come off as odd,as people might thinking im talking to myself. I honestly I never felt comfortable talking to a camera in public for some reason. Even though people know recording and making videos for social media sites is a thing people still tend to give you odd looks. However the main thrill rides you see there are pretty much it. Others were just kiddie rides. There was more carnival games then rides. Also thats pretty much the outline of the carnival so you arnt missing much. Both of the rides were a lot of fun by the way of course the rock-o-plane being more fun and sure packs a punch.

Does Magic Springs count??

Aside from the waterpark, the park pretty much sucks, and really only has 1 decent coaster... and that coaster is usually down half the time. And their flat ride collection is just laughable.

The smallest and cheesiest event/carnival/town wide thing I have been to is the Ada, Ohio farmers and merchants picnic where I sorta grew up. It was always held on a wednesday and the entire town shut down for it. Population 2500 in the summer. There were only 2 rides, or 3 if you count pony rides. One was a trailer mounted swing ride. It was so small it was pulled by a beat up pick up truck. The other adult ride was a 1950's octopus that looked like it would fall apart at any minute. Eventually they added a kiddie boat swing ride. It was always the BIG happening in town . The pic is representative of the type of octopus they had, just in much better shape the the one at the Ada F & M Picnic.

^ I woundnt know how old you are but i highly doubt its 101....unless there is some tech saavy 100 and something year olds out there.lol But i doubt you would hear about such thing nowadays. Whole towns shutting down because of some sort or event or carnival. Especially one with so little rides....I wonder what it had to attract so many people that the town shut down so everyone can attend.

. . . I wonder what it had to attract so many people that the town shut down so everyone can attend.

. . . Small town, with nothing else to do.

Believe it or not, the picnic just celebrated it's 103rd year. It still goes on although they have now moved it to friday and saturday. (and the town still shuts down) Features include the Kids Pedal Tractor pull, Ring toss competition, Bessie Bingo (Moo!) featured foods such as chicken and noodles, and the big headliner band of the event, Mustang Sally. I kid you not. Here's a pic of the Headliner and a link to the web site. http://www.blufftonicon.com/news/2016/08/10/103rd-annual-farmers-merchants-picnic-weekend-ada

. . . I wonder what it had to attract so many people that the town shut down so everyone can attend.

 

. . . Small town, with nothing else to do.

Yea I guess you are right. I been in small towns before not lived but visited and i agree they are pretty boring for the most part. I prefer big cities or places with a lot of attractions. Unless its like a beach town or something I don't care much for standard small towns. You can only handle so much corn.....

^ and chicken n noodles.

Carnival in the parking lot of a church.

A couple unstable looking flat rides, some games, that was about it.

Try to avoid all carnivals and fairs, personally. Even the State Fair, which might have one roller coaster (usually a wild mouse) but a ton of spinning flat rides. I'll whore myself to any coaster, but put me on a spinning flat ride and it will NOT end well for me.

I've seen events listed as carnivals that were literally like 3 food trucks and one tiny carousel. But hey, people still got drunk and seemed to enjoy themselves.

^Heck it seems anything could be called a carnival then! Imagine the same for amusement parks?? Like you know how some malls have a little section that has those coin operated kiddie rides all neatly placed by each other? Imagine those be considered the worlds smallest amusement parks! lol. Add some arcade games to the rides and place it all near a food court and there you have a full fledged "amusement park"! If you are lucky one of the parks might even have a coaster!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HAzTOEABWyg/UeR2mF1yTMI/AAAAAAAABgc/D4XrPwnrpFg/s1600/DSC_4630.JPG

But not really I seriously wouldnt consider that an amusement park in a million years but I wouldnt be surprised if someone did...

There was a parking lot carnival near my house probably about 15 years ago. They had a Kamikaze, a carousel, and this funky Scat 2 ride. That was it, definitely the smallest "carnival" I've ever seen!

Reading the examples on this thread make the redneck carnivals that come to my neck of the woods each summer seem big. The carnivals that come near me have a few spinning flat rides (tilt-a-whirl, paratrooper, scrambler, zipper, etc.), a few fun houses, a rickety Ferris wheel, and a super slide, along with some little kid rides.

We went to the now defunct Route 66 Carousel in Joplin back in 2014. I wrote a trip report about it here:

www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68248&p=1461388